Mark Dowd is currently the Executive Director of The Smart Cities Lab, a creation of the team behind the USDOT Smart City Challenge which is committed to helping cities and communities realize the promise of new mobility as a solution to some of our most stubborn urban problems and a Visiting Scholar at UC Berkeley where he is helping cities accelerate to tomorrow's solutions, applying technology to stubborn urban problems. opening doors to innovation, and using data to show the path forward in the new mobility. Previously, Dowd served as the Chief Innovation Officer at...
Randy Iwasaki is the Leader of State and Local Transportation for Amazon Web Services (AWS). In that position he leads AWS’s data support and analysis services for state and local transportation agencies, including; artificial intelligence support; use of AWS services in development of new technology in transportation; data analysis methods for policy and planning analyses; traffic operational support; and other uses of AWS services by state and local transportation agencies. Prior to joining AWS Randy served for over 10 years as Executive Director of the Contra Costa Transportation...
Jeff Morales is a Managing Principal at InfraStrategies, LLC. He has led some of the country’s largest and most complex transportation agencies and programs, employing innovative approaches to produce unprecedented results. He has successfully navigated challenges at the federal, state, and local levels, as well as in the private sector. Throughout his career, Jeff has promoted and implemented programs to promote workforce diversity, community engagement and sustainability through groundbreaking programs. He is recognized for developing innovative...
Dr. Banavar Sridhar is Principal Engineer, Universities Space Research Association (USRA), Moffett Field, CA. Banavar retired in 2016 as NASA Senior Scientist for Air Transportation Systems. His research interests are in the application of modeling and optimization techniques to aerospace systems. Dr. Sridhar successfully demonstrated vision sensor-based real-time obstacle detection and ranging system on a NASA/Army UH-60helicopter. He has authored more than 200 publications in the areas of Air Transportation, Optimization, Data Analytics, Neural Networks, Automated Helicopter Guidance and...
The multifaceted sports and entertainment executive Taj Tashombe, is the Vice President of Government and External Affairs for the Oakland A’s. Tashombe oversees political, business and community engagement for the A’s groundbreaking pursuit of a $12 Billion waterfront ballpark and community development project in Oakland.
Tashombe has also amassed over 18 years of experience as a brand marketing executive, producer, artist and co-founder of ‘All Black Excellence’ a new production company focused on storytelling of the black diaspora. His career has included producing strategic...
Shari Tavaf, PE, President / CEO of STRADA EC, LLC. has over three decades of experience managing the implementation of major infrastructure project including twenty years in the transportation industry.
Ms. Tavaf specializes in planning and delivery of transportation, transit and rail Infrastructure programs throughout the US. She is an experienced project manager and is highly adept at utilizing innovative problem solving and motivational leadership techniques to deliver unique solutions to infrastructure challenges.
She has served as senior management at public and...
Egon Terplan is the Robert S. Cornish Endowed Chair of Regional Planning and Lecturer in City & Regional Planning at UC Berkeley. He is a specialist in regional economic development, land use, transportation, government reform and regional policy and currently writes about and advises on infrastructure, urban revitalization, economic development, region policy, and other topics.
From 2019 to 2022, he was a Governor appointee serving as the Senior Advisor for Economic Development and Transportation within the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research and the California Strategic...
Johanna Zmud is an internationally recognized expert in transportation technology and emerging mobility and a Principal at RSG, a research, analytics, and strategic insights firm. For decades, she has led the application of survey science to travel behavior data collection to understand important phenomena, such as transportation mode choice, and to ascertain developing trends, such as the propensity to use automated vehicles. In 2016, she was named as a...