Staff Links

Bethany Stich
Associate Director of Transportation Policy

Phone: 662-325-7859
Fax: 662-325-2716
Email: bstich@pspa.msstate.edu

Dr. Bethany Stich is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Administration and a Research Fellow at the Geosystems Research Institute at Mississippi State University. Stich received her PhD from Virginia Tech’s Center for Public Administration and Policy. She teaches Transportation, Economic Development and Public Policy courses.

Stich has conducted research and published extensively on topics surrounding transportation such as the importance of retaining and revitalizing rail; inland waterway infrastructure; airports as economic drivers; globalization and international trade; freight based economic development; intermodal development and planning; community development; industry recruitment and retention; sprawl; and citizen involvement. Additionally, Stich has published and presented on topics such as refounding Public Administration, new public philosophy of public administration, and defined benefit packages. Her international work includes presentations in England, Korea, China, Panama and Canada. Locally, she has been called to give expert testimony in the Mississippi Legislature, on Mississippi Public Broadcasting, to the Mississippi Department of Transportation, to the Delta Council and multiple Mississippi Rail Authorities.

Stich serves on the Transportation Research Board’s Intermodal Freight Committee and Committee on Transportation and Economic Development, and is the President-Elect of the American Society for Public Administration’s Section on Transportation Planning and Administration. Locally, Stich serves on the boards of the Mississippi Heritage Trust, the University of Southern Mississippi’s Center for Logistics, Trade and Transportation, the Greater Starkville Development Partnership’s Convention and Visitors Bureau, the City of Starkville’s Transportation Committee, Mississippi State University’s Transportation Committee and the Starkville Central Neighborhood Foundation.

Previously, Stich was employed as Assistant Director of the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute’s Center for Transportation Policy. While at VT she worked with the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transit on the Statewide Multimodal Transportation Vision, and with the Virginia Port Authority, the Virginia Department of Transportation, and the Appalachian Regional Commission to improve the state’s international competitiveness through improved mobility. Stich has also worked for the Georgia Department of Transportation as an Environmental Compliance Planner.