Joseph P. Ruddy is the chief innovation officer (CINO) for the Virginia Port Authority (VPA) and in this role he oversees the port's strategic planning, process excellence, commercial pricing and marketing and communications teams.
Joe's work experience help him to understand the business and the value of various functions within the port. He finds that in understanding how The Port of Virginia operates at its core, he along with his department, can better relate to the mission of the company.
“In order to better link our tasks to the goals of the port, I work to understand my team members and embed them within the operations we serve - so that they are learning and working with others outside the department — where appropriate. This helps to drive accountability so we can responsibly support the various functions of the port. By learning how other departments operate, we can better conduct analyses in order to make comprehensive business decisions.”
Joe ensures that his team takes the innovation seriously. He wants his department to deliver core innovation that works to improve daily processes for safer, economical, and more efficient productivity as well as administer growth innovation.
Joe believes that the only way to achieve clarity on how to run a successful port is to apply the reality to the numbers that they examine. He works to create reliability in data production by consistently having data readily accessible.
“We don't just deliver data, but work to show how and why it matters.”
Before stepping into the CIO's role, Joe was chief operations officer and helped Virginia International Terminals, LLC, (VIT), which is the port's private terminal operating subsidiary, earn its reputation as an honest and reliable terminal operations organization. Before that, he served as the director of operations and labor at VIT and also held a senior position at Virginia Intermodal Management, a subsidiary company responsible for managing and administering all aspects of a port-wide chassis pool.
Joe also held several positions with international ship-line companies including France's CMA-CGM and National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia.
Joe serves on various boards, including We Are VB and Beach FC. In 2013, he was the recipient of the Global Excellence Award, presented by the Virginia International Business Council, based in Richmond.
Joe has a bachelor's degree from Virginia Wesleyan University and a master's degree from the College of New Jersey.

Robert H. Cary, P.E., L.S, who started his career with the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) in 1992, was named chief deputy commissioner of the agency in January, 2018.

Cary was named VDOT's Chief of Innovation in March of 2017. In this position he served as VDOT's executive leader responsible for bringing innovation to every aspect of VDOT's business.

As chief of innovation, he managed VDOT's Transportation Research Council, Office of Private-Public Partnerships, and Strategic Technology Initiatives Office.

Prior to taking on his current role within VDOT, he was the Richmond District engineer, where he was responsible for a $450 million annual budget in delivering the construction, maintenance and operations programs across nearly 19,000 lane miles of state roadways and almost 2,600 National Bridge Inventory (NBI) structures.

Cary has more than 29 years of experience in transportation design, project development and strategic leadership.

He is a registered professional engineer and licensed surveyor and has a bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering from Virginia Tech. He began his career with the agency ias a transportation engineer and rose through the roles of district Location and Design engineer, Preliminary Engineering manager and served as the district engineer in three of VDOT's districts across Virginia.

Cary has served as a member of the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHTO) Technical Committee on Project Management (chairman), AASHTO's Subcommittee on Design, and AASHTO's Council on Highways and Streets.

He received AASHTO's Pathfinder Award, the AASHTO Subcommittee on Design's Award, three VDOT Commissioner's Awards for Excellence, as well as a Governor's Award for his work with VDOT.

Paul Szatkowski, P.E., is an Assistant Division Administrator for the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) Traffic Operations Division. He leads the Operations Delivery area which is responsible for advancing many Operations programs and projects originating from the Innovation and Technology Transportation Fund, Interstate Operations and Enhancement Program, Parking Management Programs, etc. The unit strives to advance the program with project management support, fiscal planning, evaluations, and streamlining delivery activities. Paul has been worked in the Traffic Operations program for 14 years. He has previously worked in the VDOT's transportation security program and special facility maintenance program. Paul holds a B.S. and M.S. degree in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from Virginia Tech.

Rakesh Nune has an extensive emerging technologyimplementation experience. He has 11 years of extensive experience in ITS andsystems engineering projects. He has participated in PA 2040 implementation, DSRC demonstrations, ATMS implementation, Freeway and Roadway Fiber implementation, Vehicle DetectionStations, permanent count stations, Virginiastrategic CAV plan development and the creation of HOT lanes on I-495 and I-395. Mr. Nune was a speaker at TRB 2016, TRB 2014, ITS World Congress 2014, ITSAmerica 2016 and has authored an article in TME magazine about LiDar implementation.

Andy Alden serves as the Executive Director of the Interstate 81 Corridor Coalition and leads the Eco-Transportation and Alternative Systems Research Group at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. He is a registered professional engineer who has worked in the environmental and information technology fields, as well as the development and deployment of vehicle data acquisition systems. His current focus is advancing safe and sustainable transportation through the application of emerging and alternative technologies. Recent research has focused on automated ``"last mile" shuttles, road weather safety, bus transit efficiency, animal-vehicle conflict, applied road salt impacts, and the use of unmanned aerial systems in support of surface transportation.

Terry Austin is a lifelong resident of Botetourt County. After graduating from James River High School and attending Virginia Western Community College, Terry started his business, Austin Electrical Construction, Inc. Over the past 39 years, the business has experienced success by narrowing its focus to specialize in Air Carrier Airports, Military design build projects, and General Aviation Airports. They have developed a network that spans the East Coast, and maintain navigation instruments for the Virginia Department of Aviation, as well as weather stations at nearly every airport in the Commonwealth.

While Terry's company grew, he never forgot how important it was to remain involved in the community. After serving a four year term on the Botetourt County Planning Commission, Terry won a seat on the Botetourt County Board of Supervisors in 1997 and was then re-elected three more times. During his time on the Board, Terry served as Chairman for five years. He also served on the County's Budget Committee for 15 years, during which the County's bond rating improved to “AA” making Botetourt the only county of its size to achieve that rating. The community recognized Terry's efforts on the Board when readers of the Botetourt View voted him “Best Local Politician” in 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2013.

Terry is also a member of the Rotary Club of Buchanan and serves on the Advisory Board of the Bank of Botetourt. Terry and his wife, Kathy, live in the Buchanan section of Botetourt and attend Valley View Baptist Church.

Tim has 21+ years engineering experience in the public and private sectors. With a BS from Michigan State University and a MS from University of Wisconsin, Tim has a broad background that includes surveying, construction inspection, site development, public utility design, and stormwater system design. However, for the last 17 years, Tim has been dedicated to transportation and traffic engineering, performing, leading, and being Engineer of Record (EOR) on a wide variety of projects, including transportation planning and analysis, traffic impact analysis, transportation and traffic design, work zone analysis and design, ITS design, lighting design, and construction services support. Tim's project experience also spans a wide range of sizes and complexity, from small intersection improvements to large design-build projects such as Midtown Tunnel. Tim is currently serving as a board member of ITSVA.

Dan Papiernik is an Associate Vice President at HNTB and leads their Mid-Atlantic toll consulting services practice. Dan has more than 30 years of experience and in his 6-year tenure at HTNB has worked closely with VDOT on several critical projects including Express Lanes on I-66 Inside-the-Beltway, I-66 Outside-the-Beltway, I-395 Express Lanes, the Fredericksburg Extension of the 95 Express Lanes and the Hampton Roads Express Lanes network studies, including the HOV to HOT conversion of the reversible segment of I-64. His tolling experience goes back to 1988 when he worked on a survey for the alignment for an extension to the Dulles Toll Road (now called the Dulles Greenway). His work has covered all toll projects in the Commonwealth over the past 30 years and includes efforts such as the merger of SmartTag with E-ZPass, the expansion of violations processing services statewide, relocation of the E-ZPass customer service center from Reston to Clifton Forge, implementation of the Toll Relief program for the Downtown and Midtown Tunnels. and numerous toll system installations/upgrades statewide. He is active within industry associations including the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association and Transportation Research Board and has served on advisory committees for the Joint Commission on Technology and Science for the Virginia General Assembly.

Alesia Cain is the Chief Information Officer and Chief Technology Officer (CIO & CTO) at Hampton Roads Transit (HRT). In this role, she oversees all aspects of enterprise information technology (IT), IT security, data management, intelligent transportation systems (ITS), infrastructure, networking, and communications.
Cain joined HRT in 2001. Prior to her role as CIO & CTO, she held several positions within the agency transitioning from Manager of Database Services to Applications Department Manager to Information Technology Officer. Under Cain's leadership, the Technology Department has achieved multiple successes in driving several major innovative infrastructure and enterprise technology system projects, such as implementation of the agency's first mobile payment application, replacement of the agency's Light Rail video surveillance system, implementation of the agency CAD/AVL system, creation of the agency's enterprise data warehouse, as well as multiple ERP implementations, and light rail system implementations that have helped to improve the agencies efficiencies by introducing automation and better management of business processes. Cain was recently appointed HRT Staff Lead Representative for the newly created Smart Cities and Innovation Committee.
Prior to joining HRT, Cain held roles of increasing responsibility in the areas of program management, application development, portfolio management and business process reengineering. She was integral in driving to success major technology and software development projects as a consultant for the Department of Defense, the Pentagon, U. S. Naval Academy, and at an Internet startup.
Cain received her Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of Maryland at College Park. She is a member of the Transit CIO Consortium, Virginia Transit Technology Roundtable, Industrial Control Systems Joint Working Group (ICSJWG), and several of American Public Transportation Association's (APTA)'s Technical Committees and Working Groups including: Control and Communications Security Working Group (CCSWG), Enterprise Cybersecurity Working Group (ECSWG), APTATech Committee, and the Emerging and Innovative Technologies Committee. Cain has also been certified by the Department of Homeland Security in ICS Cybersecurity (Red Team/Blue Team) Training through ICS-CERT.

As a development manager and professional engineer with 25 years of work experience, Mr. Kerns has a wide range of skills in the transportation industry including project management, transportation planning, traffic engineering, dynamic pricing for toll roads, traffic control room operations, and routine roadway maintenance for toll roads. Mr. Kerns has a Civil Engineering degree with a focus on Transportation, and a Masters of Business Administration with a focus on Finance, which provided him a good foundation to effectively manage across engineering and business functions that are so critical for success in the transportation industry. With over 12 years at Transurban, Mr. Kerns was part of the delivery and operations of the 495 and 95 Express Lanes in Northern Virginia, and is currently working on completing the 395 Express Lanes and 95 Express Lanes Fredericksburg Extension project.

Brian Moore is a Senior Manager for Public Policy at Amazon. He joined Amazon in 2016, and is currently the head of policy engagement for Virginia leading up efforts around Amazon's HQ2. He also leads efforts around state and local transportation policy, engaging on issues around drones, Amazon Scout (personal delivery devices), and other emerging technologies. Prior to Amazon, Brian worked at the Council of the District of Columbia in a variety of roles related to public safety before becoming Chief of Staff to Council Chairman Phil Mendelson. Brian holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from The State University of New York at Albany, and earned his JD from Emory University School of Law.

Monica Backmon, has served as the Executive Director of the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority (NVTA) since May 2014, bringing more than 20 years of public and private sector transportation planning experience. Responsible for the region's long-range transportation planning, prioritization and funding for transportation projects, the NVTA brings transportation solutions to Northern Virginia through an annual revenue stream mostly provided via HB 2313, of $283 million per year. In October 2017, as Executive Director, Ms. Backmon lead the Authority in the adoption of TransAction, the first update to the region's long-range, multimodal transportation plan, since HB 2313 was passed. Because of the adoption of TransAction update, in June of 2018, under Ms. Backmon's leadership, the Authority adopted its first Six Year Program (FY 2018 - 2023) with 44 projects totaling $1.3 billion. Through the implementation of the Six Year Program, NVTA is bringing 122 projects worth $1.975 billion to Northern Virginia for regional multimodal congestion relief. In addition, the NVTA oversees the distribution of $83 million per year to the four counties and five cities in Northern Virginia for their local transportation priorities.
Ms. Backmon served as Prince William County's Regional Transportation Planner for a decade. She has established herself as a leader in the region through her collaborative work with the Virginia Department of Transportation, the Department of Rail and Public Transportation, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission, and transit agencies such as the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, the Virginia Railway Express and the Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission. Prior to coming to Virginia, Ms. Backmon worked for the Atlanta Regional Commission working with the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority and local bus systems facilitating the programming of federal funds.
Ms. Backmon holds a B.S. in Psychology and a Master's Degree in Urban Planning from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Champaign, IL. She lives in Northern Virginia with her husband and daughter.

Christian Dorsey was elected to the Arlington County Board in 2015 and is serving as Chair in 2019. Christian represents Northern Virginia jurisdictions as a principal member on the board of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) where he serves as Chair of the Finance and Budget committee. Mr. Dorsey also serves as one of three Arlington commissioners on The Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC).

Christian has represented Arlington on the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) since 2016 and is currently serving as Vice Chair. In 2018, Mr. Dorsey served as Arlington's Member on the Transportation Planning Board (TPB).

hristian Dorsey was elected to the Arlington County Board in 2015 and is serving as Chair in 2019. Christian represents Northern Virginia jurisdictions as a principal member on the board of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) where he serves as Chair of the Finance and Budget committee. Mr. Dorsey also serves as one of three Arlington commissioners on The Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC).

Christian has represented Arlington on the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) since 2016 and is currently serving as Vice Chair. In 2018, Mr. Dorsey served as Arlington's Member on the Transportation Planning Board (TPB).

Outside of public service, Mr. Dorsey engages as a policy and communications consultant supporting progressive organizations in realizing their missions. Prior to joining the Board, Christian was a senior leader at the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank that promotes economic policies that foster broadly shared prosperity.

Throughout his career, Mr. Dorsey has been committed to improving the Arlington community. He had the privilege of serving as executive director of The Reading Connection, promoting literacy development for children facing housing insecurity. He also led the Bonder and Amanda Johnson Community Development Corporation, which provided essential community services and jump-started a moderate-income housing development in the Nauck neighborhood.

Equally rewarding have been the many opportunities that Christian has had to serve our Arlington community as a volunteer, which have included serving on the boards of directors of the Arlington Free Clinic, A-SPAN, Leadership Center for Excellence, and Arlington Independent Media, and serving on County Board advisory commissions (Tenant-Landlord, chairman; Planning, member).

Christian has been a proud Arlingtonian for twenty-five years. He and his wife, Rachael, live in the Columbia Forest neighborhood and have two children in Arlington Public Schools.

Carrie is an Emmy-award-winning communicator with a decade of broadcast journalism experience. After ten years on camera as a meteorologist, she joined the Greater Richmond Transit Company (GRTC Transit System) in 2015. Representing GRTC as spokesperson, Carrie engages the community and media about what's new and next in transit. Carrie also freelances as a broadcast meteorologist (American Meteorological Society - Certified Broadcast Meteorologist #404), most recently in the series “World's Wildest Weather” (Seasons 1 and 2), airing on BBC and The Weather Channel.

Robert W. Alexander (Robb) has served as Operations Director for VDOT's Central Region for over 6 years. In this position, Robb leads a large team which delivers safe, reliable travel on all VDOT-maintained roadways within 28 counties. Prior to that, he served in various Traffic Engineering and Traffic Operations roles since joining VDOT in 1992. Robb grew up and currently resides in Mechanicsville, VA. He received both B.S. and M.S. degrees in Civil Engineering from Virginia Tech. Away from work, Robb enjoys many outdoor activities including golf, gardening, and summer weekends at the river.

Mr. Sawyer has over 25 years of experience in transportation engineering work in the private sector as well as the local, state, regional, tribal, and federal levels of government. He currently serves as the City Transportation Engineer for the City of Richmond, VA and was recently designated as the City's Vision Zero Coordinator. Previously, he served as the State Highway Safety Engineer with the Virginia Department of Transportation. He emphasizes that transportation should serve all users within the City and in particular serve transportation disadvantaged communities who are disabled, elderly, or low income.

Virginia Reeder has worked in the field of transportation for over 15 years. She is currently the Program Associate for Innovations in Transportation for the I-95 Corridor Coalition, where she leads the connected and autonomous vehicle effort for the organization. In this role, she supports the Coalition's member agencies from Maine to Florida in their efforts to prepare for and embrace new vehicle technology as individual states and a coordinated region.
Prior to joining the Coalition staff, she was the Director of Performance Management Coordination in MassDOT's Office of Performance Management and Innovation. In this role she worked collaboratively with departments and divisions throughout the agency to support and advance data collection, performance management reporting and monitoring, congestion initiatives, customer experience, and other projects related to new. She holds a Masters of City and Regional Planning from Rutgers University in New Brunswick New Jersey.

Jennifer DeBruhl, AICP serves as the Chief of Public Transportation for the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT), providing leadership in the evaluation, development, and execution of a $3.9 billion portfolio of public transportation, commuter assistance, and congestion management programs throughout the Commonwealth.

Ms. DeBruhl joined DRPT in 2016 following over 20 years of distinguished public service to the transportation community, at the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).

Ms. DeBruhl has an undergraduate degree in Urban Studies, a Master's Degree in Urban and Regional Planning, and a Certificate in Public Management, all from Virginia Commonwealth University. She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners, Leadership APTA Class of 2018, AASHTO Multi-state Transit Technical Assistance Program Steering Committee, and is a certified Project Management Professional.

Ken Earnest is an Assistant Division Administrator with VDOT's Operations Division where he oversees the development of advanced technologies to support VDOT's Statewide Operations program. This includes oversight of ITS specifications and standards development, communications master planning, fiber optic resource sharing deployments, Advanced Transportation Management Systems (ATMS) and Connected Vehicle initiatives. Mr. Earnest received his bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from George Mason University and is a licensed Professional Engineer in Virginia.

Michael is the Signal & Arterial Systems Program Manager in the Traffic Engineering Division at the Virginia Department of Transportation in Richmond, VA. He is a registered PE and has over 23 years of experience leading transportation engineering and planning projects, including 17 years in State and Regional Government and 6 years in the private sector as an engineering consultant. Michael has a Bachelors and Master of Science Degrees in Civil Engineering from Georgia Tech.

Wayne Davis, Deputy Director of Motor Carrier Size and Weight Services at the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles. In this capacity, he oversees the NOMAD mobile screening unit, the Citation Tracking Program, the Virginia Escort Certification Program, and the Hauling Permit program. Wayne chairs the Southeastern Association of State Highway Officials (SASHTO), sits on the board of directors for ITS Virginia, and is a member of the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) Motor Carrier Working Group. During his decades in the motor carrier field; Wayne has become known as a national expert on truck related issues and assisted with the crafting and implementation of motor carrier legislation. Wayne's diverse motor carrier background has enabled the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles to continue its ongoing outreach to the trucking community.