Session Moderator & Panelists

Jeff Purdy
FHWA

Jeff has worked on a wide variety of transportation, land use and environmental planning projects at the Federal, state, and local level. He currently works in the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Office of Freight Management and Operations in Washington, DC. Prior to moving to FHWA Headquarters, Jeff served as the Technical Services Team Leader and Transportation Planner for the FHWA Wyoming Division. Before joining FHWA, Jeff worked for a community and transportation planning consulting firm in Michigan. He began his career as a community planner for the Air Force. Jeff has a Masters of Urban Planning from Michigan State University. 

Austin Yates
Iowa DOT

Originally from the Omaha suburb of Bellevue, Nebraska, Austin graduated from the University of Nebraska with a B.S. in Civil Engineering in 2007. He joined the Iowa DOT in January 2019 as their new TSMO (pronounced TIZZ-moe) Engineer for District 4, Southwest Iowa, based in Council Bluffs. Previously, he spent 3.5 years at the Nebraska DOT as the TSMO Engineer at Central Headquarters in Lincoln. Before that, he was a traffic engineer in private practice for 8 years. He has been a licensed Professional Engineer since 2012 and earned his Professional Traffic Operations Engineer certification in 2019. He is also an adjunct professor at the University of Nebraska where he teaches traffic engineering. His wife, Cassi, is a 5th grade teacher, and he has two sons: twelve-year-old Cole and nine-year-old Jack. His passions include useless trivia and inserting movie quotes into everyday conversation. 

Jacob Nicholson
Iowa Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management

Jacob began working for the Iowa Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management in December 2008. At that time he worked as the Radiological Emergency Preparedness (REP) site specialist for the Duane Arnold Energy Center. In 2014, he became the REP Program Manager, responsible for ensuring all state and local planning, training, and exercise activities associated with the nuclear power plants affecting the state of Iowa are accomplished in accordance with state and federal regulations and guidance.

Since his time with the department, Jacob has served as an Operations Officer in the State Emergency Operations Center, as a 24/7 on-call Duty Officer, as the Special Security Officer for the department, and has lead the department’s emergency response resource management efforts.

Jacob was named Response Division Administrator in April 2019 and is responsible for overseeing the department’s Preparedness, Communications and Technology, and Non-Disaster Grants and Finance Bureau’s.

Prior to joining the Iowa Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, Jacob served as a Research Analyst with the U.S. Department of Defense for three years.

Jacob graduated with honors from Iowa State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science and a minor in Russian. 

Bryan Tuma
Nebraska Emergency Management Agency

Bryan Tuma serves as the Assistant Director for the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency having been appointed to this position by Major General Daryl Bohac effective June 23, 2014. Mr. Tuma previously served with the Nebraska State Patrol for nearly 32 years and was appointed as the Superintendent of Law Enforcement and Public Safety by Governor Dave Heineman on June 4, 2005. Mr. Tuma served as the agency director for the Nebraska State Patrol until his retirement on March 1, 2011. Following his law enforcement career he accepted a position with DuPont Pioneer and his work focused primarily on issues related to worker safety and risk management in the agricultural and crop production sector.

Mr. Tuma was appointed to numerous boards and commissions throughout his public safety career on issues ranging from law enforcement training and certification requirements, homeland security, transportation, communications, emergency response, and criminal justice.

Mr. Tuma is a graduate of the Federal Bureau of Investigation National Academy and held several leadership positions with the State and Provincial Division of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Mr. Tuma is a member of the National Emergency Management Association and serves as a representative to the Homeland Security Committee and the National Homeland Security Consortium. Currently, he serves as the Region VII representative on the NEMA Board of Directors. Mr. Tuma is a graduate of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. 

Ted Sussmann
Volpe Center and University of Hartford

Ted Sussmann is a Civil Engineer with the U.S. DOT/Volpe Center focused on geotechnical infrastructure engineering and an Associate Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Hartford. Early in his career, Ted worked on the formation of an infrastructure asset management software company. Ted’s primary focus is geotechnical aspects of infrastructure including asset management, inspection, materials, and construction. Ted has a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and is coauthor of the book Railway Geotechnics. 

Peter Skosey
BNSF Railway

Peter Skosey is the Executive Director of Public & Government Affairs for BNSF Railway, he covers Illinois and Iowa as well as the City of Chicago. Peter is responsible for all interactions with legislators and state departments within his territory. He also handles charitable giving and represents BNSF on several boards including as chair of the Chicago Area Public Affairs Group’s program committee, Vice Chair for the Center for Illinois Politics, Chair of University of Illinois at Chicago Alumni Advocacy Committee and Co-Chair of Hunting Works for Illinois. 

Matthew Baker
Nebraska DOT

Matt grew up in Lincoln NE and attended Iowa State University earning a degree in Electrical Engineering. After 15 years of field inspection, traffic engineering, and ITS design, Matt is currently the Nebraska DOT’s TSMO Engineer. Leading groups like the Statewide Operations Center, Overweight/Over dimensional Permitting office, and Weigh in Motion Systems, his role is focused on mobility. He is a licensed Professional Engineer, Professional Traffic Operations Engineer, and notes his first day as TSMO Engineer was spent at NEMA’s Statewide Emergency Operations Center for flood response in 2019.