Summit Speakers and Moderators
 | Dr. Chris Atkinson is the Deputy Director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Infrastructure (ARPA-I) at the US Department of Transportation. He is Director of Smart Mobility and professor of mechanical engineering at Ohio State University. From 2014 to 2020 he was a program director at the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) in the US Department of Energy. He is a Fellow of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), and of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). He has worked at the intersection of mobility and energy for over 30 years as a consultant, academic and federal government program manager. |
 | Michael Berube is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Sustainable Transportation and Fuels. He oversees EERE’s Vehicle, Bioenergy, and Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies offices, as well as the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation. This portfolio focuses on research and development to decarbonize the transportation sector and increase access to domestic, clean transportation fuels and improve the energy efficiency, convenience, and affordability of transporting people and goods to support U.S. energy security, economic productivity, and competitiveness. |
 | Nat Beuse is the Vice President of Safety at Aurora, a company delivering the benefits of self-driving technology safely, quickly, and broadly. His team leads the development and implementation of Aurora’s approach to safety, oversees operational, organizational and product engineering safety, and works with industry standards groups and regulatory bodies to offer guidance and support the development of best practices and safety standards. Prior to Aurora, Nat led the safety team at Uber Advanced Technologies Group (ATG). Before working in the private sector, Nat oversaw the nation’s motor vehicle safety research program, including automated vehicles for the US Department of Transportation as the Associate Administrator for Vehicle Safety Research at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Nat is on the board of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). |
 | Greg Bowles brings nearly two decades of aviation regulation and policy experience to Joby Aviation as Head of Government Policy. He came to Joby from the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) where he championed modern regulatory reforms, paving the way for a new form of daily air mobility. Greg held several leadership roles at GAMA including VP of Global Innovation and Policy and Director of European Affairs and Engineering. He is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and an accomplished commercial airplane and helicopter pilot. |
 | Prof. Chandra Bhat Dr. Chandra R. Bhat is the Joe J. King Endowed Chair Professor in Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin and the Director of the US DOT National Center for Understanding Future Travel Behavior and Demand (TBD). He has been a pioneer in the formulation and use of statistical and econometric methods to analyze human choice behavior for transportation and urban policy design. Dr. Bhat currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief of Transportation Research – Part B, and is the current President of the Transportation and Development Institute (T&DI) of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). |
 | Shailen Bhatt is the Administrator of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), responsible for overseeing the construction, maintenance, to and preservation of the nation’s highways, bridges, and tunnels. With extensive experience in transportation infrastructure, Bhatt has previously led the Colorado Department of Transportation and the Delaware Department of Transportation. His leadership focuses on enhancing safety, reducing congestion, and ensuring sustainable and resilient transportation systems. |
 | Dr. Alison Black is the Senior Vice President and Chief Economist at the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA). Dr. Black manages ARTBA’s economics staff and is responsible for over 130 studies examining national and state transportation funding and investment patterns. She completed her PhD in Economics at The George Washington University and her master’s work at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). She has been interviewed numerous times as an industry expert for national and local print, television, and radio, including the NBC TODAY show, the Washington Post, NPR, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, the PBS News Hour, NOVA, The Economist and industry publications. She has also testified on transportation funding issues before seven state legislative committees. Her publications include the association’s landmark economic profile, state bridge condition profiles and annual modal forecast. |
 | Secretary Pete Buttigieg serves as the 19th Secretary of Transportation, sworn in on Feb. 3, 2021. In December 2020, he was nominated by President-elect Biden to be Secretary of Transportation, becoming the first openly gay person confirmed to serve in a president’s Cabinet. Before becoming the Secretary of Transportation, Buttigieg served two terms as mayor of his hometown of South Bend, Indiana. During his time, median household income grew, poverty fell, and unemployment was cut in half. Further, the city established new resources to extend opportunity and access to technology for all residents. A graduate of Harvard University and a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, Buttigieg also served for seven years as an officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve, taking a leave of absence from the mayor’s office for a deployment to Afghanistan in 2014. |
 | Kamryn Carter is a graduate of the Highway Construction Workforce Partnership program from the Blinn College in Texas. |
 | Laura Chace is the Chief Executive Officer and the President of ITS America. Her focus is to promote policies that advance the development and safe deployment of intelligent transportation technologies throughout the United States to save lives and reduce crashes on U.S. roadways, reduce congestion, minimize transportation’s carbon footprint, and provide seamless mobility and transportation choices for all Americans. Previously, she served as the association’s Chief Operating Officer. Chace serves on U.S. DOT’s Transforming Transportation Advisory Committee offering advice on how to plan for a transportation future that leverages technology and innovation to solve complex mobility challenges. She also serves as a member of the Electric Vehicle Working Group, formed by the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, to provide recommendations regarding the development, adoption, and integration of EVs into the transportation and energy systems. She is passionate and speaks often about the need to include more female and diverse voices in the transportation workforce to create better outcomes for all who use the transportation system. Chace has founded initiatives and partnerships focused on advancing gender equity in transportation. |
 | Dr. Mung Chiang is the President of Purdue University. He served as the 6th Science and Technology Adviser to the Secretary of State for the US. |
 | Prof. Mashrur “Ronnie” Chowdhury is the Professor of ….. at Clemson University where he serves as the Director of (TraCR), the US DOT National University Transportation Center on Cybersecurity. |
 | Prof. Cinzia Cirillo is a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Interim Director of the Maryland Transportation Institute at the University of Maryland. |
 | Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti is the Chief of Staff to Governor Philip D. Murphy of the State of New Jersey and was the Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Transportation and the Executive Director of the New Jersey Turnpike Authority. She oversaw the consolidation of the New Jersey Turnpike Authority and New Jersey Highway Authority. She has also served as the Executive Director and CEO at Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise,. In her capacity as NJDOT Commissioner, she served as Chair of the Boards of NJ TRANSIT, the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, the South Jersey Transportation Authority, the NJ Transportation Trust Fund Authority, and Vice Chair of the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission. Gutierrez-Scaccetti was a member of the Board of Directors of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and the Northeast Association of State Transportation Officials (NASTO) and served as the Chair of the AASHTO Committee on Transportation Communications (TransComm). She served as the 2022 President of the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA), and the 2023 Chair of the Executive Committee of the Transportation Research Board (TRB), a part of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine. Finally, she served as Chair of The Eastern Transportation Coalition (formerly the I-95 Corridor Coalition). Gutierrez-Scaccetti holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the School of Business, University of Connecticut and a Master of Science degree from the Institute of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers University. |
 | Dr. Robert Hampshire is the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology and Chief Science Officer, US Department of Transportation. |
 | Dr. Susan Handy is a Distinguished Professor of Environmental Science and Policy and Director of the National Center for Sustainable Transportation at the University of California, Davis, where she also chairs the graduate program in Transportation Technology and Policy. Her research focuses on strategies for reducing automobile dependence, including bicycling as a mode of transportation. She is the author of Shifting Gears, published by MIT Press. |
 | Patricia Hu is the Director of the Bureau of Transportation Statistics at the US Department of Transportation. |
 | David Huft manages the South Dakota Department of Transportation’s Intelligent Transportation Systems Program, which focuses largely on rural traffic management, traveler information, and commercial vehicle applications. During his career at SDDOT, he has contributed significantly to several disciplines, including research management, technology transfer, and development of technology for pavement evaluation and management, traffic monitoring, maintenance decision support, and commercial vehicle regulation. He is active in AASHTO’s Committee on Transportation System Operations and co-chairs its Freight Operations Subcommittee. |
 | Dr. Firas Ibrahim is the U.S. DOT’s Director of the Office of Research, Development, and Technology, Chief Scientific Integrity Officer, and Deputy Chief Science Officer. In these roles, he provides oversight to ensure that RD&T programs and activities across the Department and externally funded entities are effective in advancing the Department’s strategic priorities. He also serves as the principal advisor to the Secretary on scientific issues and is responsible for the administration of multimodal RD&T programs including equitable mobility, transportation system of systems, autonomous vehicles, climate change, and resilience. He oversees the administration of 35 University Transportation Centers, and associated research, education, and technology transfer activities across over 159 universities. |
| Jack Kammerer serves as the Associate Administrator for Policy and Plans at the Maritime Administration (MARAD). He brings a wealth of experience in maritime policy, having earned both an MPA and an MMAS. Kammerer’s work focuses on advancing U.S. maritime interests through strategic planning and policy development. | |
 | Dr. Shaun Kildare is the Senior Director of Research at Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. He holds a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University and both a M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from The George Washington University. Dr. Kildare’s responsibilities at Advocates include research on technical issues and safety technology, data analysis, evaluation of safety research studies, and development of policy positions. He has testified before Congress and served on advisory committees and panels at the U.S. Department of Transportation. He also represents Advocates at technical and industry meetings, as well as oversees Advocates’ technical statements and comments filed with federal and state agencies. |
 | Ben Levine serves as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology at the U.S. Department of Transportation. Prior to joining the U.S. DOT in 2021, he served as the founding Executive Director of MetroLab Network, a non-profit focused on leveraging research to address policy priorities in cities. Ben previously worked in infrastructure finance, in roles at the U.S. Department of the Treasury and at Morgan Stanley. Ben holds a Bachelor of Science from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. |
 | Prof. Henry Liu is the Professor of … at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and serves as the Director of the Center for Connected and Autonomous Technologies (CCAT), the US DOT Regional University Transportation Center for Region 10. |
 | Dr. Susan Margulies leads the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Directorate for Engineering, which provides over 40 percent of federal funding for innovative foundational engineering research and educational initiatives at academic institutions to enhance the prosperity, equity and quality of life for all Americans. Dr. Margulies joined the NSF in August 2021 from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University. Internationally recognized for pioneering studies to understand brain and lung injuries, she is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Inventors, the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Medicine. |
 | Dr. Theresa Mayer is the Vice-President of Research at Carnegie Mellon University. |
 | Roger Millar is the Secretary of Transportation for the State of Washington. Mr. Millar is a Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners. He serves on the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials Board of Directors (2022-2023 President), the ASCE Transportation and Development Institute Board of Governors (2022-2023 President), the USDOT Advisory Committee on Transportation Equity, the National Operations Center of Excellence Strategic Advisory Council, the National Complete Streets Coalition Steering Committee, the President’s National Infrastructure Advisory Council Expanding the Workforce Subcommittee and the Surface Transportation Board Passenger Rail Advisory Committee. Mr. Millar served on the ASCE Board of Direction from 2017 to 2020 and on the Board of ITS America from 2018 to 2023. He was ITS America Board Chair from 2021 to 2022. Mr. Millar graduated from the University of Virginia in 1982. |
 | Jennifer Mitchell is the Deputy Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). She brings extensive experience in transportation planning and policy, having led major initiatives to improve rail infrastructure and services. In her role, Mitchell focuses on enhancing rail safety, efficiency, and innovation to support the nation’s economic growth and environmental sustainability. |
 | Prof. Kaan Ozbay is a Professor of Civil and Urban Engineering at New York University. He also serves as the Founding Director of the C2SMART Center, a Tier-1 University Transportation Center at NYU. |
 | Praveen Palanisamy is a Lead Principal AI Engineer and Manager at Microsoft. |
 | Mauricio Peña is the Chief Safety Officer at Waymo, an autonomous driving technology company with a mission to be the world’s most trusted driver. As CSO, Mauricio oversees all of Waymo’s safety efforts and teams, including system safety, field safety, fleet operations safety, and safety research. Mauricio is also responsible for continuing to advance Waymo’s Safety Methodologies and road safety performance data and fostering openness and transparency around these methodologies with industry stakeholders. Prior to Waymo, Mauricio spent over 20 years designing, testing, and deploying complex systems, and most recently served as Vice President of Safety, Quality, and Mission Assurance for Virgin Orbit. Prior to that, Mauricio served as Director of Safety and Mission Assurance for the Boeing Commercial Crew Program. He’s also held various leadership positions within Boeing’s Space Division, designing and launching commercial and government satellites. Mauricio holds a Bachelors of Science in Aerospace Engineering, a Master degree in Systems Architecting and Engineering, and a Ph.D. in Systems Engineering, all from the University of Southern California. |
 | Prof. Judy Perkins is a Professor of ….. Prairie View A&M University in Texas. She serves as the Director of the National Center for Infrastructure Transformation (NCIT), the US DOT National University Transportation Center on Infrastructure. |
 | Dr. Randa Radwan currently serves as Senior Advisor for Safety & Mobility at the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology at US DOT. She has over thirty years performing and directing transportation safety research at DOT, transportation research centers in academia, and consultancies with industry. Dr. Radwan recently served as Director of the UNC Highway Safety Research Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Dr. Radwan has a PhD in transportation safety engineering from George Washington University and a master’s and BS in electrical engineering from Rice University. She loves living in a walkable community in Washington DC. |
 | Prof. Raj Rajkumar is the George Westinghouse Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering and the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. He serves as the Director of Safety21, the National University Transportation Center on Promoting Safety. |
 | Marshall Rich is the Dean of Applied Technology, Workforce and Economic Development for the Blinn College District in Texas. |
 | Kelley C. Severns, P.E., PMP is a Senior Advisor for Special Programs and Projects in the US DOT Office of Research, Development and Technology. |
 | Shari Shapiro is the Head of Global Policy at Lime Inc. |
 | Sophie Shulman is the Deputy Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). She brings a wealth of experience in transportation safety and policy, focusing on reducing traffic fatalities and injuries through innovative safety programs and regulations. Shulman’s leadership is dedicated to enhancing vehicle safety standards and promoting safer roadways for all users. |
 | Jessica Sypniewski serves as an executive leader at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), providing direction and oversight for the modernization of the National Airspace System (NAS). She is responsible for developing and delivering business and strategic plans for FAA programs and operations, analyzing system performance, and engaging in scientific research activities. Additionally, they oversee the William J. Hughes Technical Center services, ensure compliance with FAA standards, and lead resource planning for both short-term and long-term organizational goals. |
 | Dr. Dong Tan is the President (Founding) of the IEEE Transportation Electrification Council and served as the Chair of the IEEE Fellow Committee, 2023-2024. He has served as Distinguished Engineer, Fellow, Chief Engineer-Power Conversion, Program Manager, Department Manager, and Center Director in a US Fortune 500 Corporation. Don earned his PhD from Caltech and is an IEEE Fellow. He has developed hundreds of designs and thousands of hardware units deployed for space propulsion and other applications without a single on-orbit failure. His suite of world-class electronics performed flawlessly on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), located one million miles away, achieving world-record-breaking performances. |
 | Veronica Vanterpool is the Deputy Administrator of the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). With a strong background in transportation advocacy and policy, she plays a crucial role in advancing public transit systems across the nation. Vanterpool’s leadership is focused on promoting sustainable and equitable transit solutions to enhance mobility and access for all communities. |
 | Vinn White serves as the Deputy Administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) within the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT). In this role, he oversees initiatives aimed at reducing crashes, injuries, and fatalities involving large trucks and buses, and also serves as the Acting Administrator. Additionally, Vinn is the USDOT Acting Chief Artificial Intelligence (AI) Officer, where he implements the White House Executive Order 14110 to advance and govern the development and use of AI in alignment with the Biden Administration’s priorities |
 | Greg Winfree is the Director of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) in College Station, Texas. TTI is a state agency and the largest and most comprehensive higher education-affiliated transportation research institute in the United States, with $119 million in research expenditures and about 700 employees. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the Texas A&M School of Law. Greg served for almost seven years at the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), most recently as Assistant Secretary of Transportation overseeing the department’s research and technology agency. He is a member of the Presidential National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Advisory Board sponsored by NASA, the Texas Connected and Automated Vehicle Task Force, the ITS America Board, the TRB AV Forum, and the US DOT’s Advisory Committee on Transportation Equity. A lifelong attorney, Greg previously served in the civil rights division of the U.S. Department of Justice. He received a Juris Doctor degree from Georgetown University and a Bachelor of Science degree from St. John’s University. |
 | Prof. Musharraf Zaman is a Professor of Civil Engineering and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Oklahoma where he also serves as the Director of the Southern Plains Transportation Center, the Regional US DOT University Transportation Center for Region 6. |