Chris Mitchell is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Fehr & Peers, a national consulting firm specializing in transportation planning and engineering. Much of his work has focused on the relationship between land use and transportation. He has helped to develop new methodologies to quantify the benefits of high-density, transit-oriented, mixed-use development projects at reducing vehicle-miles-traveled (VMT) in Northern California. He has also delivered a number of presentations throughout the country regarding the need for new transportation performance metrics to better achieve community goals around safety, mobility, and climate change. Chris has been a champion of the University of California system since earning a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering and a Masters of Transportation from the University of California, Berkeley, where he also served as the Student Director of the University of California Marching Band.

Caroline Alméras is a senior European public affairs specialist with 25+ years’ experience in EU public relations, legal advising and advocacy in the transport research field. After working several years as a lawyer at the European Commission then at the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME), she joined the European Conference of Transport Research Institutes (ECTRI) in 2003 in charge of developing the activities of the association. In 2009, she was recruited as Deputy Director for European and International affairs at the French Institute for Transport Research (INRETS, now University Gustave Eiffel). The year after she was appointed Secretary General of ECTRI. Since then, she is responsible for the strategic development, representation and overall management of the ECTRI Association. In this capacity, she has also been actively engaged and coordinated some activities in several strategic European projects such as SETRIS (European Strategic Research Agendas in the field of transport), SKILLFUL (Skills and competences development of future transportation professionals), BE OPEN (Open Science in Transport), TRA/TRAVISIONS (support to the organization of the TRA conference and related researchers young and senior competitions) and SYMPEUS (Support to the organization of four EU-US Symposia 2024-2028). In April 2018, she was appointed member of the TRB International Cooperation Committee (A0010) and a year later co-chair of that Committee. In April 2020, she became co-chair of the newly created TRB International Coordinating Council – ICC (A0020C) that she leads since then. In 2024, she is appointed to the Board of Advisors of the Institute of Transportation Studies, at University of California, Davis.

Patricia (Trish) Hendren is the Executive Director of The Eastern Transportation Coalition, a partnership of 18 states and D.C. focused on connecting for solutions that keep people and goods moving throughout one of the world’s busiest transportation corridors.

Under Dr. Hendren’s leadership, the Coalition has embarked on, and enhanced initiatives related to incident management, traveler information, supply chain performance, truck parking, toll reciprocity, autonomous vehicles, and funding alternatives. Trish’s focus at the Coalition is developing innovative and implementable ideas for a diverse group of agencies.

Mr. Simon is the Director of the Transportation and Climate Division of the Office of Transportation and Air Quality at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. His portfolio currently includes implementing the multi-billion dollar clean and zero-emission funding programs under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, voluntary initiatives like SmartWay and Ports, and forecasting of mobile source emissions trends and future scenarios. He represents EPA on the Transportation Research Board’s Executive Committee and the federal Committee on the Marine Transportation System as well as being a key member of the leadership group developing and implementing the U.S. National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization. He previously served as Director of the Compliance and Innovative Strategies Division and other roles in EPA’s transportation office as well as an engineer at Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company.

Mr. Simon holds an Aerospace Engineering degree from the University of Notre Dame and law degrees from George Mason and George Washington Universities.

Nathaniel P. Ford Sr., Chief Executive Officer of the Jacksonville Transportation Authority (JTA), is an award-winning transportation expert and a leading advocate for how autonomous vehicles (AV) and other technological advances can be used to improve travelers’ quality of life for travelers throughout the nation. His proven track record as a change agent and visionary who embraces state-of-the-art technology, and innovations makes him a highly sought-after advisor, consultant, and executive coach.

Ford led two of the ten largest transportation authorities in the US – the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) and the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) before coming to Jacksonville.

He currently serves on the International Association of Public Transport (UITP) Policy Board representing North America, the Intelligent Transportation Society (ITS) of America Board of Directors, and the Institute of Transportation Studies-Davis Board of Advisors. He previously served as the 2022 Chair of the prestigious Transportation Research Board (TRB), the 2017-2018 Chairman of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), and the 2015-2016 Chairman of the Transportation & Expressway Authority Membership of Florida (TEAMFL).

Ford’s awards include the TRB’s 2024 Sharon D. Banks Award for Humanitarian Leadership in Transportation, the “Ray LaHood Award” from the Women’s Transportation Seminar of Northeast Florida in 2022, and the “2020 Outstanding Public Transportation Manager” award from APTA. Additionally, Ford received the “Thought Leader” award from the Eno Center for Transportation in 2019, was inducted into the First Coast Business Hall of Fame in 2018, and earned the 2017 Thomas G. Neusom Founders Award from the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials. In 2016, he was honored as a “White House Champion of Change in Transportation” for his commitment to innovation and enhancement of all transit modes.

Ford is actively involved in the communities he serves and is currently on the Executive Advisory Board of Jacksonville University’s Davis College of Business, the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce, and the Sulzbacher Village board, which he chairs.

Ford has an MBA from Jacksonville University’s Davis School of Business, a bachelor’s degree in applied science in organizational leadership from Mercer University, and a certified Master Executive Coach.

Dr. Katie Turnbull is a Senior Research Fellow and Regents Fellow at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI). She served as an Executive Associate Director/Associate Director at TTI for 22 years. Dr. Turnbull is also an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning in the College of Architecture at Texas A&M University.

Dr. Turnbull maintains a diverse research portfolio, conducting numerous innovative research projects for local, state, national, and international sponsors. Her research has addressed travel demand management, microtransit, intelligent transportation systems, and strategic planning. Dr. Turnbull’s current projects focus on connected and automated vehicle (CAV) technologies to enhance mobility and access for all roadway users. Prior to joining TTI, Dr. Turnbull held leadership roles in regional and metropolitan planning agencies in Minnesota. Active in the Transportation Research Board (TRB) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Dr. Turnbull has served as chair at the task force, standing committee, section, and group levels, and as chair of the Technical Activities Council and the Executive Committee. She received the W.N. Carey, Jr. Distinguished Service Award from TRB in 2014, and the Ethel S. Birchfield Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Road and Transportation Builders Association in 2013. In 2012, she was named a lifetime National Associate of the National Research Council.

Dr. Sonia Yeh is a Professor of Transport and Energy Systems at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, and also Co-Director of the Area of Advance Energy. Her academic interests encompass energy economics, system modeling, and sustainable transportation. She serves as a Senior Editor for the Energy Policy Journal and has a track record of advising state and national governments on policies and regulations aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions in the transport and energy sectors. Dr. Yeh’s scholarly contributions include her work on the Transport Chapter of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report. She is a member of the Swedish Government’s Transport Analysis Scientific Council since 2024.

Heather Thompson has been with ITDP for more than a dozen years, first serving on its Board of Directors and now as Chief Executive Officer. She has two decades of experience in the environmental non-profit sector, designing and carrying out strategies with large-scale impact. Before her time as CEO, she co-founded and served as Vice President of Programs at ClimateWorks Foundation, a network of foundations and expert teams which promote sectoral policies to mitigate climate change. Prior to that, Ms. Thompson was a Principal at California Environmental Associates where she led the firm’s work in philanthropic strategy, covering energy and climate change, marine resource management, biodiversity protection, and land conservation. She holds a Master of Science in environmental economics from the University of York, UK, and has worked abroad in China, Denmark, and the UK.

Stephen Ritchie serves as Director of the Institute of Transportation Studies and as a Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Irvine. He has over 40 year’s experience in engineering education and research, and interdisciplinary research management. His research interests focus on intelligent and sustainable transportation systems planning and engineering, emphasizing emerging technology research, development and field deployment in support of decarbonization policies for the nation’s freight transportation system. He currently leads the ITS-Irvine Freight Mobility Living Laboratory initiative, with the support of multiple state and federal agencies.

He received his Ph.D. degree in civil engineering-transportation from Cornell University, and is a recipient of the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award, the Pyke Johnson Outstanding Paper Award from the Transportation Research Board, “Best of ITS” Research Award from ITS America, the Frank M. Masters Transportation Engineering Award from ASCE, and several Best Paper Awards from TRB Freight and Logistics Committees. Professor Ritchie has co-authored over 200 peer-reviewed articles in transportation journals and conference proceedings, and his extensive professional service includes Founding Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technology.

Alice Lee is vice president of the Product Regulatory Office (PRO) at American Honda Motor Co., Inc. (AHM) in Torrance, CA. In this position, she oversees U.S. regulatory compliance activities for automobile, powersports and power equipment products and represents Honda on product regulatory matters to U.S. government agencies. Lee joined Honda in 2002 and has held various roles within Honda Product Planning, Quality, Research, and Product Regulatory business units, and was appointed to her current role in March 2023. Her team actively supports key strategic initiatives within Honda focused on achieving shared societal goals.

Lee holds a B.A. in Economics and a B.A. degree in Psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She earned her JD/MBA at Arizona State University (ASU). She has previously served on the Advisory Council for the Women in Leadership Executive Program at UCR Extension.