The 2021 Automated Road Transportation Symposium Planning Committee

Jane Lappin
TRB Committee on Vehicle-Highway Automation

Jane Lappin chairs the National Academies Transportation Research Board Vehicle-Highway Automation Committee, co-chairs the TRB Forum on Automated Vehicles and Shared Mobility, and is co-founder of the annual Automated Road Transportation Symposium, now approaching its 10^th anniversary.  She is recently retired as Director of Public Policy and Government Affairs for Toyota Research Institute where she monitored global regulatory affairs related to highly automated vehicles. Previously, Jane worked for U.S. DOT Volpe Center, where she managed large research projects assessing public response to advanced vehicle technologies and the impact of those technologies on network performance. Jane served as U.S. DOT secretariat to the trilateral US-EU-JPN international research collaboration on intelligent transportation, and as the U.S. co-chair of the US-EU-Japan Automation in Road Transportation Working Group. Before discovering her true calling in transportation, Jane worked for Abt Associates in their business strategy group, for the Canadian International Development Agency evaluating women’s economic development programs in Bangladesh, and co-directing a public health survey in Haiti. She studied sociology as an undergraduate at Boston University and earned an MBA from the Simmons College Graduate School of Management, the world’s only all women’s business school. Ms. Lappin is currently consulting on automated vehicles safety, operations, and policy issues. 

Steven Shladover
University of California at Berkeley PATH

Dr. Steven Shladover has been researching road vehicle automation systems since 1973, beginning with his masters and doctoral theses at MIT. He was the Program Manager, Mobility at the PATH Program of the Institute of Transportation Studies of the University of California at Berkeley, where he worked from 1989 until his retirement in November 2017.  He led PATH’s pioneering research on automated highway systems, including its participation in the National Automated Highway Systems Consortium from 1994‑98, and has continued research on fully and partially automated vehicle systems since then.  Dr. Shladover is an internationally renowned expert on both technological and policy issues associated with road vehicle automation.  He chaired the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Committee on Intelligent Transportation Systems from 2004‑2010, and the TRB Committee on Vehicle-Highway Automation from 2013‑2019.  Dr. Shladover leads the U.S. delegation to ISO/TC204/WG14, which develops international standards for “vehicle-roadway warning and control systems”.  

Valerie Shuman
Shuman Consulting Group, LLC

Valerie Shuman is Principal of SCG, LLC, a DBE-certified ITS consultancy, where she partners with global industry leaders to develop new products, new markets and new ventures. Ms. Shuman has been involved with the intelligent transportation industry for three decades, leading the establishment of new wireless and automotive communities and technologies, national and international standards, and cross-industry liaison efforts to enable safer, more efficient, and more convenient systems. Ms. Shuman currently serves as Chair of the TRB CORVA Joint Subcommittee, which coordinates the breakout session program for the world’s most extensive AV research symposium; VP, Industry Programs & Standards, Teleoperation Consortium, a non-profit business league established to facilitate the interaction, and advance the interests, of the entities involved in the teleoperation ecosystem; Vice President, Industry Programs for the Connected Vehicle Trade Association; and Member of TRB's Standing Committee on Intelligent Transportation Systems. Ms. Shuman is the author of numerous papers and articles on ITS topics, a frequent public speaker, and a patented inventor.

Richard Bishop
Bishop Consulting

Bishop Consulting provides strategy and partnership development in the domain of intelligent, connected, and automated vehicles, advising automotive manufacturers, suppliers, and tech firms.  Current clients span auto-makers, sensors, AI, automated trucking, automated buses, and infrastructure owner-operators.  BC advises government agencies around the world as well. Mr. Bishop serves as 2^nd Vice Chair of the American Trucking Association’s Automated and Electric Truck Study Group.

He is founder and chair of the International Task Force on Vehicle Highway Automation, which recently held its 22^nd Annual Meeting. 

Prior to establishing Bishop Consulting in 1997, Mr. Bishop was Program Manager for Vehicle-Highway Automation at the U.S. DOT Federal Highway Administration, where he was government lead for the National Automated Highway Systems Consortium.

He holds engineering degrees from Auburn University and Johns Hopkins University, plus an M.A. Transformational Leadership and Social Change from Tai-Sophia Institute.

Kevin Dopart
U.S. DOT Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office (ITS JPO)

Kevin is the U.S. DOT’s Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Joint Program Office’s Program Manager for Vehicle Safety and Automation. His research program develops connected vehicle communications technologies and applications to increase the safety and mobility of surface transportation users while reducing their environmental impacts. Previously, Kevin worked for Noblis, Inc. and the (now defunct) Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, and began his career flying P-3 Orion aircraft worldwide for a U.S. Navy oceanographic research squadron. Kevin has B.S. and M.S. degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering.

Cynthia Jones
DriveOhio

Cynthia Jones is a Project Manager for DriveOhio which the state’s center for innovation, incubation and implementation of autonomous and connected vehicle technologies. DriveOhio’s efforts are focused on the future of SMART mobility through the pillars of Safety, Mobility, Access, Reliability and Talent. Cynthia is managing the U.S. DOT Automated Driving Systems grant award for Ohio exploring feasibility of automated vehicles in rural areas, focused on Athens and Vinton counties. She also led deployment of the Columbus SmartCircuit shuttle in December 2018. She joined ODOT in 2009 after 19 years in the private sector with finance and banking.  Cynthia is a PMP, has a B.A. degree in Public Policy from Duke University and an MBA from Loyola College in Maryland. She is Co-Chair of the Transportation Research Board Committee on Research Innovation and Implementation.

Edward Straub
SAE International

Edward Straub coordinates industry, government, and cross-functional activities related to connected and automated vehicles at SAE International. He is the SAE Industry Technologies Consortia (SAE ITC) vice president for land systems and the director of SAE International’s office of automation. He is responsible for providing a systems view of emerging automated vehicle technologies and their impact on the socio-technical landscape, operational considerations, and best practices. Dr. Straub contributes to numerous global standards activities, reports, and research initiatives related to automated vehicle technologies and deployment. 

Molly Behan
U.S. DOT Volpe Center

Molly Behan is a General Engineer in the Technology Innovation and Policy Division at the U.S. DOT’s Volpe Center. At the Volpe Center Molly works on a broad range of projects involving various aspects of automated surface transportation including automated vehicles for personal, transit, and delivery use cases. She also supports the development of data sharing specifications for automated and traditional vehicles. Molly holds a master’s degree in Civil Engineering from McGill University where she studied the emissions impact of stop signs and other traffic control devices on local roads. While in graduate school, she interned for SAE International within their micromobility portfolio. Molly also holds an undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Florida.

Richard Cunard
Transportation Research Board (TRB)

Richard A. Cunard, P.E. has been the Engineer of Traffic and Operations for the Transportation Research Board since 1989. 

In this position, Mr. Cunard is concerned with all aspects of traffic engineering and traffic operations including: Automated and Connected Vehicles, Highway Capacity, Freeway Operations, ITS, Traffic Signals, etc.