LOS ANGELES – The Intelligent Transportation Society of America’s (ITS America) Board of Directors approved the election of four officers and 13 new members at its meeting earlier today. The ITS America Board is made up of leaders in the intelligent transportation industry, who set policy and direct strategies for the association.

The new officers and board members represents a diverse group of senior-level executives from private companies and public agencies in the mobility, technology and ITS spheres.

“Congratulations to our new officers and board members,” said ITS America President & CEO Shailen Bhatt. “As we prepare to host next year’s ITS World Congress here in Los Angeles, their experience and leadership will help put this event over the top.”

New officers
Chair – Jennifer Cohan, Secretary, Delaware Department of Transportation Jennifer’s public service career in Delaware spans 27 years, including heading the Department of Motor Vehicles for the eight years prior to her appointment as Secretary.

Vice Chair – Ramin Massoumi, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Iteris Ramin has more than 20 years of leadership experience and is a key proponent of using a platformbased approach to solve mobility challenges in the ITS industry.

Secretary – Desi Ujkashevic, Global Director, Automotive Safety Engineering, Ford Motor Company Desi brings nearly three decades of experience at Ford Motor Company, including global leadership focusing on safety, sustainability, advanced mobility and new market development.

Treasurer – Ed Bradley, Program Manager Product Regulatory Affairs, Safety, Toyota Ed brings more than 35 years of experience in the automotive industry, including 21 years with Toyota, bringing a focus developing technologies and regulations to support connected and automated vehicle systems.

New board members – private sector
Chris Armstrong, Vice President, CIRRUS/V2X, Panasonic USA Chris leads the V2X business at Panasonic USA and is responsible for the CIRRUS by Panasonic product line. He provides product, program, and technical leadership for Panasonic’s partnerships with leading state DOTs to deploy connected vehicle technology.

Joe Custer, General Manager, Cubic In his role as General Manager of Cubic Trafficware, Joe assumes strategic leadership of Trafficware and will focus on core products and services, smart city expansion, connected vehicle initiatives and bringing the computing power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) to the roadway.

Nakul Duggal, Senior Vice President, Qualcomm Currently, Nakul serves as vice president of product management for Qualcomm Technologies, where he is responsible for the automotive and M2M portfolio. Nakul joined Qualcomm in 1995 as an engineer focused on the company’s commercial base station and infrastructure business. Prior to joining Qualcomm, he was a product engineer at Tata Telecom in India, where he was responsible for product management and systems engineering for the company’s wire-line switching systems.

Michelle Maggiore, PE, Cisco, Global Business Development for Transportation & Smart Cities Michelle is a professional transportation engineer with 20 years of experience in technology deployment, performance management, and strategic planning for transportation agencies and local governments, most recently applying her background to the deployment of technology in the public sector as well as for automobile OEMs.

Lilly Shoup, Senior Director of Transportation Policy, Lyft With a background in multimodal planning, performance management, and infrastructure, Lilly currently focuses on national transportation policy to re-connect communities through sustainable transportation. Prior to joining Lyft, Lilly was a Principal at Nelson\Nygaard Consulting and served in the Office of Transportation Policy at the US Department of Transportation in Washington, DC.

Laurel Straub, Assistant Vice President- Strategic Resources, State Farm Laurel has more than 25 years of experience in the insurance industry, and currently leads a team that provides research insights related to automotive safety and reparability, building technology and loss mitigation, and customer and employee experience.

Sheryl Wilkerson, Vice President, Government Affairs, Michelin Sheryl Wilkerson is vice president of government affairs for Michelin North America, Inc., where she coordinates the company’s government relations activities for Canada, Mexico and the U.S. Prior to joining Michelin, Sheryl led Willow, LLC, served as senior vice president of strategic planning for Ygomi LLC, and served as legal advisor to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell on technology, wireless, enforcement, consumer protection and international issues.

New board members – public sector
Stephen Brich, Commissioner, Virginia DOT Brich possesses 26 years of extensive experience specializing in the areas of traffic engineering, safety, operations, transportation planning and research. Prior to his appointment, Brich served as a vice president with Kimley-Horn and Associates, focusing on transportation matters in Virginia. Tilly Chang, Executive Director, SFCTA Tilly has 25 years of experience, including 15 years with the Transportation Authority where she previously served as Deputy Director for Planning.

David Kim, Secretary, CalSTA David is a longtime transportation leader with experience in the private sector as well as all three levels of government and was appointed Secretary of CalSTA by Governor Newsom in April 2019.

Seleta Reynolds, General Manager, Los Angeles DOT Seleta Reynolds has more than 20 years of transportation experience throughout the United States in the public and private sectors. Prior to her current position, Seleta was a leader in the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s Livable Streets section, coordinating streets projects citywide.

Kevin Thibault, Secretary, Florida DOT For more than 16 years, Kevin has served in various roles within FDOT from project management to executive leadership, and previously spent half of his professional career in the private sector providing transportation engineering to states.

Marc Williams, Deputy Executive Director, Texas DOT Marc’s career experience in transportation planning and program efforts includes public- and privatesector organizations involving state, county and local jurisdictions. He has served in leadership positions with two state departments of transportation and has worked with national, private-sector transportation engineering organizations.

Contact: Cathy St. Denis, cstdenis@itsa.org

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About ITS America: The Intelligent Transportation Society of America advances the research and deployment of intelligent transportation technologies to save lives, improve mobility, promote sustainability, and increase efficiency and productivity. Our vision is a better future transformed by intelligent mobility: safer, greener, smarter. For more information, please visit www.itsa.org