Montco's Val Arkoosh Appointed Head Of Delaware Valley Planning Commission

Montgomery County's own Commissioner Dr. Val Arkoosh is the new head of the board of the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission.

Arkoosh has been secretary of the board of DVRPC since July, 2015, the county said.

“I am honored to serve as Chair of the DVRPC because I am committed to DVRPC’s mission of making
a great region even greater,” Arkoosh said in a statement. “DVRPC is a model for how regional collaboration can work to prioritize resources that result in better transportation, protect the environment, and enhance the
economy.”

A longtime resident of Montgomery County, Arkoosh has been engaged in public health policy
development across all levels of government during her career, according to the county's news release.

Before becoming a county commissioner, Arkoosh served for five years as Chair of Anesthesiology at the Drexel University College of Medicine where she successfully drew upon her undergraduate training in economics to restore her department to fiscal solvency following the Allegheny University bankruptcy, the county said.

Arkoosh graduated from the University Of Nebraska College Of Medicine and has a Master’s in Public Health from Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health. She has an undergraduate degree in economics from Northwestern University.

Arkoosh is a native of Springfield Township, where she resides with her husband, Jeff Harbison, and their three children.

DVRPC's responsibilities include establishing regional transportation policies, determines allocation of available transportation funds, and prioritizes transportation projects for the region.

In addition to transportation planning for highways, transit, airports, and freight, the agency also creates policies for other regional planning, such as land use, air quality, housing, water supply, and water quality, the release notes.