Session 2U | Get on the OERTransport Bus: Advancing DEI through OER in Transportation Planning

Key to building an innovative and resilient future workforce in transportation planning (TP), a STEM field experiencing significant retirements and a gender gap, are current industry developments in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) (TRB 2020). Texas employment trends project 17% growth in job openings for urban and regional planners relative to 7% average in the United States (O*NET, 2022). We present OERTransport, a three-university-and-US-Department-of-Education-sponsored project, as a model for advancing DEI through the production of TP-OER texts created with industry advisement (Audirac, et al., 2021). The OERTransport project has the potential to promote the 3 RJs, namely redistributive, recognitive, and representational justice (Lambert 2018) in the training of transportation planners.