2022 Texas Vision Zero Summit Speakers

As a key member of the FHWA leadership team, Al exercises executive direction over the $5+B annual Federal-aid apportionment to the state of Texas, one of the largest and most complex programs in the Nation. He leads a multidisciplinary staff that provide stewardship, oversight and guidance to state and local funding recipients to continuously and equitably improve mobility in Texas.

Al received a BS in Civil Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and is a graduate of the AASHTO National Transportation Leadership Institute. He and his wife Susan have 3 children and spend most of their free time watching them in action on the soccer fields.

James M. Bass was named Executive Director of the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority on January 27, 2021. Mr. Bass began his new duties upon the conclusion of Texas’ 87th Legislative session (June 2021). As Executive Director, Mr. Bass will manage, direct and implement the Agency’s policies, projects, programs, budgets and operating strategies. Previously, Mr. Bass served as Executive Director of the Texas Department of Transportation (appointed in 2016). Prior to his appointment as Executive Director, Mr. Bass served as the Department‘s Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Bass began his career with the Department in 1985 in the Fort Worth District where he maintained records and audited field measurements. He also worked part-time as an engineering aide for the Austin District while earning his bachelor’s degree in accounting from The University of Texas at Austin. After graduation in 1991, Mr. Bass served as an accounting clerk in the Department’s Finance Division. In 1997, Mr. Bass became a manager in the Budget and Forecasting Branch, and in that position was responsible for preparation of the Department’s Legislative Appropriations Request and Operating Budget, and working with the Texas Legislative Budget Board, State Auditor’s Office, and the Comptroller of Public Accounts of the State. He also worked on the Department’s Cash Forecasting System for the State Highway Fund. Mr. Bass was named Finance Division Director in 1999 and his title was changed to Chief Financial Officer in 2005. Mr. Bass also served as Interim Executive Director of the Department from January 17, 2014 to April 23, 2014.

Anthony Boutros is a Truman-Albright Fellow with the Federal Highway Administration’s Office of Safety focusing on equity in safety and complete streets.

Jonathan Brooks comes to LINK Houston from the Texas A&M Transportation Institute where he worked as an Assistant Research Scientist in the Transit Mobility Program, focusing on policies and issues affecting public transportation and travel management. Through his research, Brooks surveyed people in Texas and across the country to understand the connection between transit and quality of life; investigated how to improve pedestrian safety near light rail; engaged Texas transit agencies across to understand their long-term vision and capital funding needs; authored reports on the societal value of supporting transit services; and provided technical support to assist agencies in providing more effective and efficient services for individuals with a disability. Brooks served as the principal investigator for the Federal Transit Administration-sponsored “Gulf Coast Climate Change Adaptation Pilot Study” and recently briefed METRO on improving pedestrian safety through Bluetooth-activated announcements. Brooks holds a Master of Urban Planning from Texas A&M University and a Bachelor in Science from Brigham Young University.

Bryan Brown, TGC

Gabe Cazares currently serves as the Director of the Mayor’s office for People with Disabilities for the City of Houston, Texas. In this capacity, Gabe oversees the accessible and timely delivery of city services, programs, and activities for over 215,000 Houstonians with Disabilities. Additionally, Gabe works collaboratively with the Houston City Council, Houston’s disability community, city agencies, and community partners to build a more accessible and inclusive Houston.

Prior to his appointment, Gabe served as the Manager of Government Affairs at the National Federation of the Blind in Baltimore, Maryland. Gabe holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with a Spanish minor from Texas State University.

Andrew Ceifetz manages WSPs Michigan traffic group, and specializes in transportation safety projects. With 20 years’ experience across the U.S. and Canada, he has helped local, state, tribal, and federal agencies to identify, quantify, understand, prioritize, and counter safety concerns in proposed projects and existing networks, with the consideration – and for the benefit – of all users. A member of TRB’s Standing Committees on Tort Liability and Risk Management (AJL70) and Low-Volume Roads (AKD30), Andrew also sits on multiple NCHRP and BTSCRP Project Panels regarding safety, driver behavior, and collaboration between state, MPO, and local agencies. Andrew serves as co-chair of the Traffic Safety Engineering Action Team for Michigan’s Governor’s Traffic Safety Advisory Commission and regularly trains state and local agency practitioners regarding Road Safety Audits, the Highway Safety Manual, Performance Based Maintenance, and safety reviews.

Misty enables alignment between private sector road initiatives and local government programs and manages local community initiatives like Houston’s Gulfton community road safety project. She also oversees Together for Safer Road’s (TSR) Vision Zero commitments.

Previously, Misty served as VP of Corp Affairs for Silver Eagle Distributors and has a wealth of experience in brand strategy for public, private and nonprofit companies. She holds a BA in Journalism from University of Central Oklahoma, and has served on the boards of various community initiatives and organizations such as: YMCA International Services, Center for Houston’s Future and Anheuser-Busch’s CSR Panel.

Jay Blazek Crossley is the Founder and Executive Director of Farm&City, a nonprofit dedicated to high quality urban & rural human habitat in Texas in perpetuity. Farm&City works with communities and governments across Texas to end traffic deaths, develop equitable, sustainable regional growth strategies, achieve equitable representation in the Texas transportation decision-making system, and improve public transit.

Crossley serves on the board of Directors of the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, Safe Streets Austin and Capital Area Regional Transit Coordinating Committee. He also serves on several Texas Strategic Highway Safety Plan emphasis area teams and the Project Connect Advisory Network.

Cutrufo is the Executive Director for BikeHouston. Joe has 10 years of experience in advocating for safe, sustainable and equitable transportation, and comes to BikeHouston from New York City-based non-profit Transportation Alternatives where he served as communications director for the last three years. During his tenure, the organization won the legalization of ebikes, the expansion of New York City’s school zone speed camera program, numerous street redesigns including a busway on Manhattan’s 14th Street and more than 60 miles of protected bike lanes, as well as the passage of congestion pricing and a comprehensive master plan for city streets.

Previously, he was director of communications and Connecticut policy at the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, where he watchdogged highway widening projects and won statewide bicycle law reform, and program coordinator at WalkBoston, where he led the organization’s pedestrian safety initiatives in suburban communities across Massachusetts.

Cutrufo, who has a masters in urban and environmental policy and planning from Tufts University and a bachelors from Bridgewater State University.

Boya Dai, AICP, is a Senior Associate at The Goodman Corporation (TGC). She brings nearly a decade of experience in transportation research and is responsible for project development, cost-benefit analyses, travel demand modeling and forecasting, and statistical analysis and reporting. She enjoys supporting stakeholders with actionable insights and data-driven solutions.

Veronica O. Davis, PE is a self-described transportation nerd. She believes all people should have access to safe, reliable, and affordable transportation. She has experience in civil engineering and planning. She is currently the Director of Transportation & Drainage Operations for the City of Houston. She is also the co-founder and former Managing Partner at Nspiregreen LLC. She is one of the co-founders of Black Women Bike (BWB). She is the Vice President and City of Houston representative on the National Association of City Transportation Officials. She earned her dual Masters Degrees (Engineering Management and Regional Planning) from Cornell University. She has a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering from the University of Maryland. She lives in the Houston with her husband, daughter, and dog.

Nancy De La Fuente is the Project Coordinator for the Safe Routes to School program in Acres Homes on the Built Environment Unit at Harris County Public Health. Safe Routes to School (SRTS) programs aim to make it safer for students to walk and bike to school and encourage more walking and biking where safety is not a barrier.

Nancy holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Texas A&M International University, a Master of Science in Industrial Hygiene from Montana Tech, and a Master in Public Health in Epidemiology from Texas A&M School of Public Health. She is also a proud first-time mom of a adventurous toddler.

Nancy’s diverse background in the private and public sector has allowed her to obtain practical knowledge in occupational health, community engagement, incident investigation, project development/evaluation , and health promotion/prevention.

Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis was born and raised in Houston’s Sunnyside neighborhood.
The proud son of a yardman and a maid, Ellis attended Texas public schools from grade school through law school. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Texas Southern University, a master’s degree from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, and a law degree from the University Of Texas School Of Law.

As Commissioner of Harris County Precinct One, Ellis has played a critical role on the Court by securing misdemeanor bail reform, flood equity guidelines, stronger worker protections and economic opportunity provisions, funding for indigent defense and COVID-19 recovery funding, including direct relief for residents, small businesses, emergency rental assistance, shelters for those experiencing homelessness, as well as other innovative programs, including providing computers to low-income students, among other achievements.

Before serving as a County Commissioner, Ellis was elected to Houston City Council and served three terms before being elected to the Texas Senate in 1990. For 26 years, he represented Texas’ 13th state senate district and he passed over 700 pieces of legislation. On November 8, 2016, Ellis was elected county commissioner and sworn into office on January 1, 2017.

As County Commissioner, Ellis prioritizes inclusive economic growth that uplifts all communities, ensures access to parks and green space in under-served neighborhoods, advances criminal justice reform that protects the rights of all people, and provides safe, affordable transportation options. Following Hurricane Harvey, Ellis successfully advocated for equitable investment in flood control infrastructure and disaster recovery in vulnerable communities through a $2.5B bond approved by voters in 2018.

He is an avid art collector and cycling enthusiast. Commissioner Ellis is married to Licia Green-Ellis and has four children.

As the Chief Transportation Planner for Houston, Fields works in the City’s Planning & Development Department and coordinates closely with transportation partners such as Houston Public Works, METRO, TxDOT, and the Houston-Galveston Area Council (HGAC).

Fields offers more than 20 years of professional planning experience, most recently as a Principal Planner with Nelson\Nygaard Associates, an innovative planning firm that emphasizes connecting people to jobs, education, and all components of daily life. He led the firm’s multimodal practice, in which he developed implementable mobility solutions that improve access by all modes, specifically based on local values and aspirations. Key clients have included the cities and transit agencies in New York, New Orleans, and San Francisco, with notable award-winning plans in Washington, D.C., Cleveland, Ohio, and Abu Dhabi, UAE.

“Houston needs a Chief Transportation Planner who can create safe and efficient transportation options for all Houstonians. I am confident that David Fields will break down the silos and fully integrate the city’s mobility solutions with all our partners,” Mayor Sylvester Turner said. “He will also be instrumental in making Vision Zero a reality, allowing the city to eliminate — or significantly reduce — deaths and serious injuries caused by automobile crashes by the year 2030.”

Fields earned a BA from Binghamton University and a master’s in urban planning from New York University.

Sofia Font, serve as Vision Zero Coordinator at The City of Houston since November of 2021. She is originally from Caracas, Venezuela and she has a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from the Universidad Central de Venezuela and she has a Specialization in International Business. She is also a former diplomat who served in Paris, France for 4 years. She speaks four languages: Spanish, English, French, and Portuguese, and lives in Houston with her mom, her husband, and her two little cowgirls daughters.
She came to the City of Houston to bring her energy, professionalism, enthusiasm, and her passion to serve others and empower the community and make it safer. Her work experience for more than 15 years within the public and private sector, nonprofit organizations, and multilateral organizations developing, implementing, and overseeing projects, programs, and plans to improve the quality of life of people in social, cultural, safety, and education fields, she hopes to cultivate and build strong and productive relationships in Houston and across Texas, with key community members and leaders, civic clubs, non-profit organizations, other government entities, elected officials, and business stakeholders to achieve the ambitious goals of the Vision Zero Action Plan in the City of Houston.

Amelia (Millie) Hayes is a Safety & Traffic Operations Specialist with the Federal Highway Administration. She currently serves in the Texas Division in Austin. Her previous positions include Major Projects Engineer for Michigan Division and Area Engineer for Texas Division.

Lewis Leff is the Austin Transportation Department’s Transportation Safety Officer, charged with leading Austin’s efforts to achieve the ambitious goal of zero traffic-related fatalities and serious injuries. He has more than 15 years of experience working in the City of Austin, both developing policy solutions in a City Council Office and implementing policy within multiple City departments. Lewis brings a systems approach to his work, understanding the complex interplay of transportation policy with socio-economic issues, strategic planning, and how to leverage City processes to get things done. In this role, he has worked with partners to create an internal crash database with highly accurate crash data to drive investment decisions, to develop a new equitable city-wide approach to speed management, and to implement rapid, low-cost, proven traffic safety treatments with a systemic approach.

Fort Bend County DA Brian Middleton was born in Houston, Texas. He is married to Coretta Middleton and has three children. He is a 1990 graduate of Lamar High School in Houston, Texas. Mr. Middleton received a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from the University of Houston in 1994. Mr. Middleton graduated from Thurgood Marshall School of Law with honors in 1997 and was licensed to practice law the same year.

Brian Middleton is the son of Bernard and Carolyn Middleton of Houston, Texas. His father is also an attorney. His father has practiced labor law for over 47 years. Brian M. Middleton has two siblings, Joseph Middleton and Tracy Middleton. Tracy Middleton is a lawyer and previously practiced with Brian.

While in law school, Mr. Middleton was employed as a legal intern at the First Court of Appeals, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, and the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas under the supervision of Judge Calvin Botley.

Upon graduation from law school, Mr. Middleton began his legal career at the Office of the Attorney General of Texas, Habeas Corpus Division where he represented the Director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Federal Court regarding lawsuits filed by Texas inmates. Thereafter, Mr. Middleton was employed as a briefing attorney for Judge Morris Overstreet at the Texas Court of Criminal of Appeals, as an assistant district attorney at the Fort Bend County District Attorney’s Office, and as an associate attorney for the Barrett, Burke, Wilson, Castle, Daffin, & Frappier Law Firm.

Mr. Middleton established the Middleton Law Firm in 2003 and practiced in the areas of criminal law, civil litigation, bankruptcy, and appeals.

Mr. Middleton was also employed as a municipal prosecutor for the City of Meadows Place, City of Wallis, and the City of Jersey Village. Mr. Middleton was also employed as a judge for the City of Jacinto City and an adjunct professor at Thurgood Marshall School of Law.

Kristi Miller, AICP is a Senior Associate at The Goodman Corporation (TGC). Kristi assists in the development, planning, and implementation of various community and regional planning, transportation, and infrastructure projects.

Ms. Miller holds a Master of Urban Planning degree from Texas A&M University. She is a Certified Planner with the American Planning Association. Kristi’s experience spans transit planning and operations studies for a range of public agencies, including transit agencies of all sizes, cities, metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), state departments of transportation (DOTs), and national and federal cooperative research programs (TRB, TCRP, NCHRP); research and guidebook development; conceptual design of transit infrastructure; and on-call service provision. Kristi has extensive experience facilitating focus groups, workshops, and leadership training courses, as well as administering online, mail-in, and on-board surveys used to investigate emerging trends in transportation.

Prior to joining TGC, Kristi worked as a transportation researcher where she served as a project manager, task lead, and planner for a variety of public transportation-focused research studies. Ms. Miller has conducted assessments of public perception and acceptance of autonomous vehicles as a potential mode of public transportation; developed regional coordinated transportation plans; coordinated the collection of statewide performance metrics data; created a guidebook to facilitate package delivery in rural areas; completed a zero emissions electric bus deployment study; and published resources to help guide the identification and delineation of the most efficient and cost-effective methods for implementing shared mobility programs.

Eleni is a lifelong Houstonian who is passionate about improving the city she loves dearly. Eleni can often be found spouting off fun facts about Houston and trying to improve any negative opinions of her city. She has seen the city change and grow and the related growing pains the city has suffered as a result. There is always a problem to solve and Eleni believes attentive, thoughtful, contextual planning and design are critical to help any city become a better place to be.

Eleni graduated Cum Laude from Vanderbilt University, earning her Bachelor of Engineering degree in Civil Engineering. She went on to earn an MS in Civil Engineering (Transportation) from University of Texas at Austin.

As a Principal at TEI, Eleni’s traffic engineering experience includes traffic studies, safety studies, traffic calming, sidewalk design, GIS, transit operations, and transportation planning. She specializes in communicating transportation information to a broad set of stakeholders using advanced mapping techniques. Prior to joining TEI, Eleni was a Graduate Research Assistant at the University of Texas at Austin.

Eleni’s life goal is to make Houston a truly walkable city. Nothing makes her happier than walking down the street to the grocery store or around the block for lunch.

Eliza Paul, P.E., is the district engineer for TxDOT’s Houston District.

She is responsible for overseeing the planning, designing, building, operation and maintenance of the state transportation system for the six counties in the district.
Paul earned her Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering from Imperial College of Science and Technology in London in 1984 and a Master of Science degree in civil engineering from University of Houston in 1988. She began her career as an engineering assistant in Houston District Laboratory in January, 1989 where she worked on different geotechnical designs for numerous projects throughout the Houston District. She became a registered professional engineer in 1994.

In 1995, she transferred to South Harris Area Office to be a project engineer on IH 45 south at BW 8 interchange project where she gained valuable construction experience with design and maintenance projects while working in the area office. Three years later, Paul became the assistant area engineer for the Central Houston Area Office. In this capacity, she managed employees engaged in design, construction, and maintenance in one of the busiest area offices in the State. She assisted in administering construction and maintenance contracts in the area office and played a key role in the oversight of over $750 million in reconstruction of 10 miles of I-10 Katy Freeway.

In 2010, Paul became the assistant area engineer for the combined Waller/West-Central Harris area office, which is the largest area office in Houston. She assisted in overseeing the combined West Harris and Central Houston area offices and also three maintenance offices: Waller, West Harris and Central Houston. Paul was promoted to director of construction for the Houston District in May, 2013, where she oversaw all construction work for all six Counties around Houston. She was promoted again in July, 2015, to deputy district engineer for the Houston District.

Josh Peterman, PE, RSP1 is a Principal and Dallas Office Leader at Fehr & Peers. For over 20 years he has involved himself with the planning and design of multimodal transportation infrastructure, working to integrate it with the context of the local environment. He manages a variety of work at Fehr & Peers, from layered network planning to traffic signal design. His technical research lives within Fehr & Peers’ Multimodal Safety and Smart City groups.

US Congressman Peter G. Olson was a member of the U.S. House, representing Texas’ 22nd Congressional District. He assumed office on January 3, 2009. He left office on January 3, 2021.

After earning his bachelor’s degree from Rice University and his J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law, Olson joined the U.S. Navy. He served in the Navy from 1988-1997, when he went into the Naval Reserves. Olson was deployed on missions in Iraq, Japan and elsewhere. He then served on the Naval Joint Chiefs of Staff and was a Senate liaison for the Navy.

During his early political career, Olson served as a staff member to Senator Phil Gramm until Gramm’s retirement in 2002. He then served as chief of staff to Gramm’s successor, U.S. Senator and former Texas Attorney General John Cornyn. Olson held that position from 2002 until 2007.

As transportation director, Raborn will lead transportation planning efforts for the eight-county Houston-Galveston metropolitan planning area, which includes the counties of Brazoria, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Liberty, Montgomery, and Waller, and is home to 6.7 million residents. He will also help guide the Transportation Policy Council, the region’s transportation policymaking body, to establish future investment priorities and projects that support sustainable growth, increased safety and mobility, enhanced economic vitality, and superior quality of life.

Raborn comes to H-GAC from the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada, where he served as director of the metropolitan planning organization (MPO) for the Las Vegas region and its more than 2 million residents. There, he played a critical role in developing the region’s MPO strategy, which incorporated emerging transportation technologies like autonomous vehicles, shared vehicle services, transportation network companies, high-capacity and bus transit improvements, and improved safety protocols. He also managed the region’s first comprehensive mobility plan.

Also prior to joining H-GAC, Raborn served as transportation program manager at the Western Arizona Council of Governments, a senior policy analyst at Duke University’s Nicholas Institute, and as program manager of the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center. He brings more than 20 years of experience in regional transportation planning, land-use planning, and climate and sustainability-related planning. He holds a master’s degree in community and regional planning from the University of Texas at Austin and a bachelor’s degree in geography from Kansas State University. 

Steve recently joined the Federal Highway Administration Resource Center – Safety and Design technical service team as a Senior Safety and Geometric Design Engineer. His primary duties with the resource center include safety analysis in project development, advancement of the safe system approach, and vision zero plans for MPOs, counties, and cities. His 18 years with the FHWA includes time in various offices with work in highway design, general project delivery, operations and ITS, and primarily in highway safety. He has been supporting zero fatalities/vision zero programs since 2009, and been involved in activities to adopt the safe system approach in the United States for the last five years. Steve is originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin and received a BSCE from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, a MSCE from the University of Texas at Austin, is a Professional Engineer in Nevada, and is a Road Safety Professional level 2 infrastructure certificate holder.

Sandra Rodriguez, President of the Gulfton Super Neighborhood Council

Laura Ryan is a member of the Texas Transportation Commission, which oversees statewide activities of the Texas Department of Transportation. She was appointed by Governor Greg Abbott on July 11, 2016, to fill a vacancy; reappointed March 2, 2017; and confirmed by the Senate on April 19, 2017, for a six-year term.

Ryan is President & Founder of GX2 Partners, a leadership and strategy consulting firm.

Ryan has spent most of her 25+ year corporate career in executive level and c-suite positions for a broad range of professional industries providing leadership experience in both B2B and B2C businesses. Her diverse experience comes from working with OEMs, such as Nissan and Toyota, retail dealer groups with international ownership, financial services companies, and innovative start-ups looking to enter new industries. Her business experience has focused on all size companies, domestic and international, and a wide breath of responsibilities.

In her previous public service role, Ryan was chair of the Board of the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles, where she represented the vehicle manufacturing and distribution industry.

Additionally, she sits on the Board of Child Advocates – Houston. Child Advocates recruits, trains, and supports volunteers who provide a voice for children in foster care by providing lifesaving advocacy that helps abused and neglected children exit foster care to a safe, permanent home.

Ryan is an avid learner and student of both business and leadership. She attended Penn State University and executive education programs at University of Texas – McCombs Business School and Columbia University Business School. She is married with two children and lives in Cypress, TX.

Aimee Schultze is the Community Health and Design Coordinator on the Built Environment Unit at Harris County Public Health. Aimee holds a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Science with a Minor in Psychology from Texas A&M University and a Master in Public Health in Behavioral Science and Health Education from Emory University. She is also a Certified Health Education Specialist. Aimee has experience in non-profit management, community engagement, public health research, program development, and evaluation.  

The Built Environment (BE) Unit is tasked with assessing and examining the potential health impacts of development policies and plans in the county. The BE Unit aims to improve community health by promoting more physical activity and active transportation through safer and more accessible pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure. Aimee has contributed much of her work in the BE Unit on pedestrian and bicyclist safety,  including Safe Routes to School programs in Pasadena, Baytown, and Acres Homes, as well as Safe Routes to Parks in Baytown.

Lance W. Simmons, P.E., serves as TxDOT’s Director of Engineering and Safety Operations, effective Aug. 1, 2021.

Under the direction of the Chief Engineer, Simmons oversees and coordinates TxDOT’s engineering operations.
A 27-year TxDOT veteran, Simmons officially began his career with TxDOT in 1994 in the Atlanta District’s Design Office (after working three summers in the Atlanta Area Office). Through the Young Engineers’ Rotation Program, Lance also worked in the Advance Planning, Traffic and Atlanta Area Offices. From 2001 to 2009, Lance served as the Atlanta District’s Bridge/Special Projects Engineer before being selected as its Director of Operations in 2010. He was named district engineer in the Bryan District in March 2015.

In 2014, Simmons was honored with the 2014 Luther DeBerry Award at the Transportation Short Course.
As a Terry Scholar at Texas A&M University, he earned his bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering in 1994.

Kathy Sokolic, Co-founder, Central Texas Families for Safe Streets

Sokolic’s nephew, Ben, was hit by a pickup truck on the street in front of his home which led her to become involved in safe streets advocacy.

Robin Stallings has been the Executive Director of BikeTexas since 2003. He is the former co-owner of a successful Washington, DC bike shop. Robin was a founding board member of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) and the Safe Routes to School National Partnership. Robin served as Chair of the TxDOT Bicycle Advisory Committee.

On behalf of BikeTexas, Robin has participated in successful local, state and federal efforts to pass safety and funding legislation. Under Robin’s direction, BikeTexas produces the Texas Trails and Active Transportation Conference (TTAT) and reached over 2 million Texas children through the SafeCyclist education program.

Robin was recognized by the League of American Bicyclists (LAB) as the 2018 National Bike Advocate of the Year. He is married to Gayle Cummins Stallings, LAB’s 2002 Advocate of the Year.

Yige “Eagle” Tang is a Senior Associate at The Goodman Corporation (TGC). She supports the TGC team to complete short- and long-range transportation and infrastructure plans for clients. She is a skilled analyst, using ArcMap to gather and analyze data and then communicate conclusions in a visually intuitive way. Eagle is also a visual designer, experienced in illustrating urban forms through plan view and 3D imagery or videos for public facilities, roads, hike-and-bike trails, and sidewalks. She has a passion for analyzing and visualizing data, combining analysis with storytelling.

Gina Torry became an advocate for safer streets after her sister – Lisa Torry Smith – was hit and killed while walking her then six year old son to school. Gina’s efforts led to the passage of the Lisa Torry Smith Act which was signed into law on September 1, 2021, and made it a crime for drivers to harm or kill people using a crosswalk.

Scott White was born in Austin, and grew up in El Paso. Scott earned both his Bachelors and Masters degrees from the University of Texas at El Paso, is a League of American Bicyclists certified instructor, and has been accredited by the Congress of New Urbanism. Scott focuses on grant writing and fundraising, statewide advocacy, outreach and education, and building our capacity. Scott is based in El Paso, where he continues to serve on the Velo Paso Bicycle-Pedestrian Coalition board, and as a member of the local Safe Routes to School and Complete Streets coalitions.

Marc D. Williams serves as executive director of the Texas Department of Transportation and is honored to work with the women and men of TxDOT to enhance the quality of life for Texans by delivering on our Mission.

Williams’ career experience in transportation planning and program efforts includes public- and private-sector organizations involving state, county and local jurisdictions. He has served in leadership positions with two state departments of transportation and has worked with national, private-sector transportation engineering organizations. His professional assignments have included directing statewide transportation planning and programming efforts as well as managing project-specific highway and multimodal transportation plans and programs.

He has worked extensively with public and agency outreach, transportation plans of various modes, regional and corridor-level plans and programs, environmental planning and approval, economics and finance, project design and development, along with work in the areas of construction management, operations and maintenance.

Mr. Wunderlich is a Senior Research Engineer and the Director of the Center for Transportation Safety at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute. In that role, he is responsible for leading the Center’s efforts in traffic safety research, policy analysis, education, and outreach. Over the past few years, much of Mr. Wunderlich’s work has focused on understanding the factors associated with traffic fatalities and injuries at the state and national levels and finding ways to lower them and developing tools that allow practitioners to perform effective safety analyses.

In 2019, Mr. Wunderlich received the Burton W. Marsh award for distinguished service to the Institute of Transportation Engineers and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Public Service Award for his dedication to saving lives on U.S highways by championing data-driven traffic safety initiatives. Mr. Wunderlich is a past president of ITE and was elected as an Honorary Member, ITE’s highest honor, in 2021. He is a licensed professional engineer in Texas, a member of Transportation Research Board Transportation Safety Management Committee and helps edit the AASHTO Green Book as a member of the Technical Committee on Geometric Design.

Shondra Wygal, AARP Texas

Josh Zuber, AAA Texas & New Mexico