Mr. Arch brings 35 years of engineering experience in various transportation operations and technology projects that include ITS, Operations Centers, Connected Vehicle and Automated Vehicles. He has held a variety of positions with consulting engineering firms and vendors with technology platforms that enable him to provide unique perspectives on complex projects and the use of emerging technologies.
Currently, Mr. Arch leads and/or manages HNTBs efforts to:
Previously, Mr. Arch played a significant role in the development and management of the New York City Connected Vehicle Pilot Demonstration project as well as the connected vehicle bus pilots for the Federal Transit Administration.
Sean L. Conner is a strategic communications and public affairs professional with experience in the private, public and political sectors. Today, at Lime, the leading dockless smart shared mobility company with operations in more than 100 cities in 25 countries, he leads the company’s policy approach to trust and safety, accessibility and economic growth. Additionally, he manages the company’s Global Public Policy and Safety Advisory Board, along with industry organizations and third-party stakeholders. Sean also co-leads Black Excellence at Lime (BEALe), Lime’s employee resource group dedicated to its Black staff.
He has also held communication roles at Apple, focused on supplier responsibility programs, and led government relations at ridesharing company Uber in New Jersey and Connecticut. Prior to joining the technology sector, he served as a spokesperson for some of America’s top officials at pivotal public moments, including U.S. Senator Tim Scott, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and Department of Community Affairs Commissioner Richard E. Constable III in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy.Originally from Oakland, CA, Sean received his undergraduate degree in Business Administration with a Minor in Education from Sheldon Jackson College. Follow Sean on Twitter at @SeanLConner.
Maria Irshad, CAPP, MPA is the Assistant Director of ParkHouston, a division of the City of Houston Administration & Regulatory Affairs Department. ParkHouston is responsible for the management of 9,500 metered parking spaces and 19 off-street surface lots; the enforcement of all parking codes and the administration of various permits. Maria is a Certified Administrator of Public Parking and holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration. She is a member of the Accredited Parking Organization board, president of the Texas Parking & Transportation Association, serves as on multiple committees with the International Parking & Mobility Institute and is a past president of the Houston chapter of Women Professionals in Government.
Greg is leading the charge for the deployment of smart cities and connected and automated vehicle technologies at the local, state and federal levels as the director of emerging technology programs and vice president at HNTB.
Greg spent eight years at the Michigan Department of Transportation, (MDOT) where he led the statewide Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) program and managed the traffic and safety program for the Metro Detroit Region. While at MDOT, Greg led the connected vehicle (CV) and emerging technology program, working with automakers, communications solutions providers, universities, local agencies and others to develop a program to integrate CV into the mainstream program at MDOT and advance the overall state of the program from a research initiative to a deployment program.
Greg spent a year at the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) Joint Programs Office, serving as a liaison between the USDOT, and state and local governments focusing on CV programs. While at USDOT, Greg hosted a workshop between government, industry, and academia on the integration of traffic signal controllers and systems in a CV environment. Greg also chaired a TRB workshop to identify the research needs associated with connected vehicles with respect to infrastructure owners and operators.
Greg then spent five years at Leidos where he led the Leidos CV program. This included managing the operations, maintenance, upgrades, and enhancements to the USDOT Connected Vehicle Proof of Concept (CV PoC) pilot site in southeast Michigan, which was the precursor to the Safety Pilot Model Deployment (SPMD) and CV Pilot programs and was the first fully operational Infrastructure-based digital short - range communications (DSRC) deployment in the United States. Greg supported the SPMD by developing the first operational Security Credential Management System (SCMS) and by leading the interoperability testing. Greg also developed, as part of the CV PoC, the initial data management system for a connected vehicle environment.
Greg is presently working on a variety of projects that aim to integrate technology with transportation and the surrounding infrastructure to improve the safety and mobility on our nation’s roadways, including the Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority (THEA) CV Pilot and the City of Columbus Smart City and Northeast Florida Smart Region programs. With these smart city initiatives, Greg is developing concepts, requirements and technical components working with private sector partners to develop Public Private Partnership (P3) opportunities that support deployment of Smart City technologies. Greg is supporting automated vehicle (AV) and AV shuttle and transit projects in Pennsylvania, Florida, Michigan and California, and has worked to develop CAV strategic plans for Michigan, Virginia, Florida, Tennessee and Kansas. Greg is currently the program management for the technical development of the Jacksonville Transportation Authority (JTA) Ultimate Urban Connector (U2C) program which is the largest planned deployment of automated buses and shuttles in the United States, with initial plans for a fleet of between 60-100 vehicles operating in downtown Jacksonville.
Greg is working closely with the emerging technology industry leaders as part of his work leading HNTB’s Innovation Council. Greg is coordinating efforts with companies including Cisco, Qualcomm, SAS, Econolite, Traffic Technology Services and Toyota to bring leading technology expertise in emerging technologies (Smart Cities, IoT, Big Data, and Automated Driving, etc.) to HNTB and HNTB’s clients, helping to make sure infrastructure programs are focused on future technology programs by leaders in throughout the innovative technology industry.
Greg is currently the chair of the TRB ITS committee, and is actively involved in the ITS America CV and Cybersecurity Task Forces. Greg is also a member of the Smart Communities Steering Committee at Institution of Transportation Engineer (ITE) and has been developing Smart Bytes papers to support the ITE mission of moving emerging transportation technologies forward. In 2019, Greg participated in and presented on the value of Smart Cities at the Zonfass Program for Sustainable Infrastructure at the Harvard Business School and Graduate School for Design at Harvard University
Blanca Laborde is Senior Manager for Government Partnerships at Bird Rides, covering the south central US and Mexico. Blanca has been working with Bird since February 2018. Blanca works at the intersection of business and government to find solutions that improve quality of life, get people out of cars, and build thriving communities. Before the invention of shared e-scooter transportation, Blanca represented companies moving goods and people using every traditional mode of transportation, including planes, trains, automobiles, and ocean vessels before the Texas Legislature, state agencies and local governments. Blanca lives in Austin. She received a B.A. from Tulane University in political science/international relations and French, and a J.D. cum laude from Tulane Law School.
Amar Mohite, as the Director of Planning & Infrastructure for Harris County Precinct One, leads the development and coordination of multi-modal transportation and infrastructure projects. Recent projects include development of 17 miles of high-comfort bikeway network within City of Houston and 21 miles of trails and bikeways in Precinct One Park. Other projects include leading the development of complete streets vision for Precinct One street improvement projects like Cullen Blvd, Cleburne Street and Tidwell Road. Mr. Mohite previously led the Transportation Planning Division at the City of Houston’s Planning Department. Mr. Mohite has managed and coordinated on a range of planning and transportation projects, studies and development of ordinances inclusive of the Transit Corridor Ordinance, Complete Streets Policy, and the Houston Bike Plan.
Ms. Kimberly Williams, Chief Innovation Officer, METRO Kimberly J. Williams heads up the Office of Innovation (OOI) for the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas (METRO). The Office of Innovation seeks to provide an integrated multi-modal system of efficient, accessible public transportation services in the 4th largest city in the U.S.
In this role, she has implemented Houston’s first Autonomous Vehicle (AV) shuttle service and deployed public private partnerships to begin Wi-Fi and micro transit service. She Chairs Team Houston of the Texas Innovation Alliance, a collaborative of the region’s and state’s mobility stakeholders. She is also a member of the City of Houston’s Mobility Working Group, Smart City Advisory Council and Resiliency Council. On the business side, she is a member of the Transportation Committee of Houston Exponential, Houston’s innovation non-profit and the Greater Houston Partnership’s Houston Innovation Corridor Committee.
Kimberly is active in the industry as a member of the American Public Transit Association’s (APTA) Board of Directors, its Strategic Planning Steering Committee, Automated & Connected Vehicles Committee and Procurement & Materials Committee. Kimberly recently completed Transportation 4 America’s Smart City Program. She is also a member of Eno’s Transit Innovators Group and is a graduate of Leadership APTA, the premier leadership program in the transit industry.
She was previously Deputy Chief Procurement Officer where she was responsible for Procurement and METRO’s award winning Small & Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program. Prior to that, she was Chief Administration Officer (CAO) with responsibility for Finance/ Administration, Small Business, Community Outreach, Media/Marketing and Real Estate functions for the agency’s light rail expansion program. Williams began her career as a legislative aide to then U.S. Representative Barbara Rose Collins (ret.), member of the House Public Works and Transportation Committee. Formerly a City Attorney for the City of Houston, she has also worked for the California State legislature and for the International Labour Office (ILO) in Beijing, People’s Republic of China.
Kimberly is a graduate of Leadership Houston, Past President Emeritus of the Houston Chapter of the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials (COMTO) and serves on its National Legislative Affairs and HUB Committees. Active in her community, she is a member of Jack and Jill, Inc. and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated. A graduate of Howard University and Wayne State Law School, where she served as Survey Editor of the Wayne Law Review, she is also a mediator specializing in labor, employment and business matters. She is a proud volleyball mom to daughter, MacKenzie.
Kristin Buchholz has been a Project Engineer for EasyMile in North America for a year and handles most of the major North America Projects. While getting her Mechanical Engineering Degree from the Pennsylvania State University, she obtained a National Science Foundation Fellowship to do research on Hybrid and Fully-Electric Vehicles in partnerships with Ford and General Motors. After graduation, she worked as an engineer and a supervisor in manufacturing for Harley-Davidson and obtained her Masters in Business Administration from the Pennsylvania State University. She then spent 11 years in the utility industry working in transmission distribution and nuclear power generation with Talen Energy.
Sola Lawal is a Product Operations Manager at Nuro. He works closely with Nuro’s local partners, including national grocer Kroger, to manage delivery operations in Houston. Based in Houston, Texas, Sola oversees local community outreach and engagement to help educate residents about Nuro, its service, and fleet of autonomous vehicles. Prior to joining Nuro, Sola spent four years at Uber building and managing operations in West Africa and the United States, and held a number of engineering roles at Dow Chemical. Sola earned his PhD in Entrepreneurship and Strategy from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Carol Abel Lewis, Ph.D. is a Professor in Transportation Studies and Emeritus Director of the Center for Transportation Training and Research at Texas Southern University (TSU). She educates students in fundamentals of transportation and urban transportation issues, as well as conducts operational and policy related transportation research. Among the areas of current research are improving demand estimation for intercity rail systems and policy and operational implications of automated vehicles. Lewis is also engaged in defining need and planning parameters for multi-jurisdictional (megaregions) transportation planning. Since joining TSU in 1992, Lewis has conducted research for the US Departments of Transportation (DOT) and Homeland Security (DHS), Texas Department of Transportation, Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County and with private transportation consultants. Lewis spent 15 years as manager and director of planning at the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County.
Lewis was honored to be named as the Transportation Research Board’s recipient of the 2016 Sharon D. Banks Humanitarian award at the annual meeting. She is a member of USDOT’s Transit Research Advisory Committee and Chairs the Transportation Research Board’s Inclusion and Diversity Committee. She is a member of the local Transportation Advisory Council at the Houston Galveston Area Council, a board member of the Gulf Coast Rail District and co-chair of the Transportation Advocacy Group (TAG). Lewis also chairs the Houston Exponential Connectivity Committee that promotes excellent transportation proximate to the city’s proposed Innovation District. She is honored to have served Board appointments under four City of Houston mayors and Governor Rick Perry. Lewis holds a Ph.D. from the University of Houston and M.A. and B.A. degrees from the University of Iowa.
Mr. Jeff Peterson has more than 20 years of sales experience, including nearly a decade of experience in technology-focused roles. He joined First Transit in 2016 and leads the company’s pursuit and development of shared autonomous vehicle opportunities. Throughout his career, Jeff has fostered relationships with potential clients to fully understand their needs and develop strategies to achieve their goals. To this end, he works with operations teams and senior leadership to identify the best solutions for its clients’ mobility needs. Jeff has been instrumental in First Transit’s growth and leadership in the automated vehicle space, and plays a vital role in the company’s strategic direction in this emerging market.
Tom Lambert joined METRO in 1979, the first full year of operation. He started as a security investigator because the transit authority was so new, it didn’t even have a police department. Once the METRO Department of Public Safety was established, Lambert became METRO’s first chief of police and served in that position for many years before moving on to other leadership roles. These included chief administrative officer, executive vice president, and acting president and CEO. He became the permanent CEO in 2014.It is an impressive career trajectory, and Lambert’s kindly, straightforward, listen-to-all-sides approach to management and problem solving has served him well throughout his entire career.Today, Lambert leads a team of 4,000 people. Since becoming president and CEO, Lambert has made taking care of his customers and “delivering a quality product every day” his personal priority, as well as the priority of every single department and employee. With that in mind, Lambert often rides a METRO bus or rail car to chat with riders and find out how the Agency is doing.Lambert has been a proactive executive, presiding over the region’s expansion of light rail, commuter and local bus service, high-occupancy vehicle lanes, Park & Ride service, and a variety of neighborhood pilot and shuttle programs. He oversaw the overhaul and redesign of the local fixed route bus system in 2015 and demonstrated the importance of METRO in the Houston TranStar partnership during Hurricane Harvey.But the challenges for METRO and Lambert now extend far beyond daily service and emergency response. Area population and traffic density has Houston on track to surpass Chicago as the nation’s third largest city by 2025. By 2040, our population is expected to reach 10 million, a 50 percent increase - equivalent to adding the combined populations of San Antonio, Dallas, Austin, Corpus Christi, and Arlington.
“It’s going to take everything we can do to manage mobility in the region,” says Lambert. “That means complete streets, better sidewalks, better access, cycling, walking, and more toll roads. Transit’s going to play an extremely important role in that.”In 2017, Lambert established the METRO Office of Innovation to actively search out and pilot innovative transit solutions. Also in 2017, he convened 25 community meetings, during which METRO executives, employees, and board members solicited input for METRONext, the new transit plan that will take METRO, and its riders, safely and rapidly into the future.
Beth Kigel serves as national practice leader, intelligent transportation systems and vice president. She is based in HNTB’s Miami office. Kigel is a national thought-leader in new mobility and smart city ecosystems and is responsible for assisting transportation agencies, cities and regions in developing smart and connected infrastructure solutions. Kigel joins HNTB colleagues who represent the firm in industry and business organizations, including ITS America, ITS World Congress, Florida Chamber of Commerce and U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Previously, Kigel served as president and CEO of the Palm Beach North Chamber of Commerce covering a 10-municipality region with 850 member organizations. Under her leadership, the Chamber took on key strategic initiatives and programs contributing to improved economic prosperity in the region. As a thought-leader in smart city solutions, Kigel delivers frequent public presentations to a variety of audiences ranging from the ITS World Congress, automated vehicle symposiums and Chambers of Commerce, to real estate and insurance organizations. Kigel is active on numerous industry associations, including ITS World Congress Board of Directors; Freight Mobility Research Institute Advisory Board for Florida Atlantic University; chair of the Mobility Committee for the Florida Chamber of Commerce; Leadership Florida where she served as Chair, Board of Directors 2017-2018; the Florida Transportation Commission, appointed by Gov. Rick Scott, from 2012-2019; and more. She received the 2018 Leadership and Innovation Award, presented at the Florida Automated Vehicle Summit. Kigel also is a published author in the Florida Engineering Society Journal, contributing an article, “Florida’s Global Competitiveness: Where do Autonomous Vehicles Fit In?” in 2017.
Bill Burton is the Lead Program Coordinator for the Bid & Specification Group at HGACBuy. A graduate of Texas A &M University, Bill has been involved in procurement for over 36 years. For 20 years he worked in Transportation at CenterPoint Energy where he was responsible for the solicitation process for the procurement of transportation vehicles, machinery and equipment. For the past 16 years, Bill has been with HGACBuy where he has worked to establish competitively priced contracts for goods and services, and to provide the customer service necessary to help its members achieve their procurement goals.
Lyndsay is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners, the American Planning Association (APA), the Texas Chapter of the APA, and the Midwest Texas section. She is former founding member of the Board of Directors for the North Texas Chapter of the Congress for the New Urbanism. Lyndsay received her Bachelor’s Degree in Art History with a concentration in Architectural Studies from Rice University, and her Master’s Degree in City and Regional Planning from the University of Texas at Arlington. Contact
Kerin Smith is a Senior Traffic Engineer with the City of Frisco where she manages the City's transit programs and facilitates implementation of emerging transportation technology and mobility services. Her responsibilities also include development review, and addressing neighborhood and school-related traffic issues. Before joining Frisco, Kerin was an independent traffic engineering consultant and filled project management roles with several engineering and land development firms in the Boston and Los Angeles metro areas. She received her BS from the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. Outside of work she is an avid reader, a hobbyist photographer and all-around sports-mom of four boys.
Dr. Katie Turnbull is an Executive Associate Director at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI). She is also an Executive Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning in the College of Architecture at Texas A&M University. She maintains a diverse research portfolio, with current projects focusing on automated and connected vehicle applications supporting transit, bicyclists, and pedestrians, and developing a transformational mobility plan for the Texas A&M University Campus. Active in the Transportation Research Board (TRB) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, she served as the Chair of the TRB Executive Committee in 2018 and is currently Chair of the Executive Committee’s Subcommittee on Planning and Policy Review. Dr. Turnbull is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences. Recent awards include the Regents Fellow Award from Texas A&M University System in 2015, the W.N. Carey, Jr. Distinguished Service Award from TRB in 2014, and the Ethel S. Birchland Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) in 2013. In 2012, she was named a lifetime national associate of the National Research Council.
Todd Plesko brings more than three decades of experience in transportation planning and development to his position directing a broad range of program development functions for DART. He is also responsible for the Planning and Development Department which includes the direction of two Divisions: Service Planning and Scheduling, and Mobility Programs Development.
Specific functions of the department include:
- Service planning and Service development
- Bus/rail service performance monitoring
- Rail and Bus SchedulingTransit research and service evaluation
- Special Event planning for rail and bus services
- Innovative Mobility Services including:
Experience
- VP, Planning and Development, DART, Dallas Texas: 2009 through present
- Chief, Planning and System Development, Metro, St. Louis, Missouri: 2001-2009
- Director of Operations, Agency for Community Transit, Madison County, Illinois: 1989-2001
- Director, Planning and Scheduling, Metro, St. Louis, Missouri: 1986-1989
- Director of Service Development, CNYRTA, Syracuse, New York: 1976-1986
- Planner, Syracuse Metropolitan Transportation Council: 1975-1976
Education
- National Urban Mass Transit Seminar, Northwestern University
- Master of Regional Planning; Syracuse University; Maxwell School of Public Administration. Emphasis in quantitative methods
- Bachelor of Arts, Political Science, University of Illinois (Champaign-Urbana)
Trevor Theunissen currently serves as Director of Public Policy and Communications at Uber. He leads the company's government affairs and communications team for the South, an 18-state region including Florida, Texas, and Washington, D.C. Trevor also serves as Uber's policy lead for state Attorneys General.Trevor holds a Bachelor's of Business Administration degree from The George Washington University and a Juris Doctorate from Louisiana State University. He resides in Austin with his wife and two children.
Joe Willhite is a management consultant with WSP USA who has 15 years of transit, transportation, and government consulting experience. Joe has worked on multimodal planning projects in cities throughout Texas and the southern United States He has been involved in local transit projects; corridor redevelopment and access management plans; city and region wide mobility studies; multimodal transit facility planning studies; and traffic, transit, and pedestrian operational studies in dense urban environments, transit-oriented developments, and regional transit system concept development. Joe is currently working with the Texas Innovation Alliance and the Smart Cities Lab to advance the dialogue around what it means to be a Smart City focused on Transportation Innovation. Joe also manages the Central US Region of WSP USA and is focused on holistic, data driven solutions for his clients. Joe holds a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Minnesota and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners.
EDUCATION
University of Minnesota – Master of Arts, Planning (Policy Emphasis), 2006 Carthage College – Bachelor of Arts, Geography, 2003
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
American Institute of Certified Planners, Since 2007 American Planning Association, Since 2004
Darran Anderson is the Director of Strategy and Innovation for TxDOT. His responsibilities include leadership and strategic direction for the innovation and continuous improvement of people, processes and technology of the agency. He oversees the Strategic Planning, Information Management, and Research and Technology Implementation divisions. He directs technology and business process improvements, and strategic research and innovation initiatives across TxDOT. He is also responsible for coordinating TxDOT's strategies and performance analytics. His experience extends across the areas of leadership, strategic planning, operations, portfolio and project management, technology programs, training, tests, experimentation, and modeling and simulation.
Kristie Chin is the Director of Civic Innovation at the University of Texas at Austin Center for Transportation Research (CTR). She leads the Texas Innovation Alliance - a network of cities, transportation agencies, and research institutions who are developing shared solutions to the state's most pressing mobility challenges. Chin is also the CTR lead for the Texas Connected Freight Corridors effort, managing the stakeholder engagement efforts; and supports the Texas Technology Task Force, a strategic advisory group that makes recommendations to TxDOT on emerging technologies and their role in future transportation systems. She holds degrees in Civil Engineering and Architecture and previously worked for the City of South Bend where she had the opportunity to apply her design and engineering skills to orient the city's open data efforts towards community engagement.
