Dr Jessica Anderson leads the Tyne and Wear Local Transport Plan Core Team (of 3 Policy Officers and an Analytical Officer) in Newcastle City Council. She is currently Programme Manager for the Local Sustainable Transport Fund Key Component activity based on tackling the ‘school run’.

After leaving Aberdeen University in 1983 with a PhD ‘Determination of the closing force on a surgical wound’ she joined Newcastle University as Research Associate on a variety of bio-engineering projects. In 1989 following the birth of her second child she joined Newcastle University’s Transport Operations Research Group as Senior Research Associate on a variety of transport projects.

She left academic life in 1999 and joined JMP Consultants Ltd (joining as Senior Transport Planner and leaving as Associate in 2009).