POLICYSMART

This episode of POLICYSMART in the last of our Women in ITS Series for the month of May.  We end on a high note with a far-reaching interview with Zeina Nazer, a Senior Transport Advisor with 23 years of experience in Intelligent Infrastructure Systems.  The "Best Business Woman of the Year" at the 8th Middle East Businesswomen and Leaders Achievement Awards, Dubai, UAE, and a member of the WTS Board of Directors, Zeina joins us from Dubai to talk about her journey in transportation and what the world is doing with ITS.  (Oh, and in her spare time she and her sisters founded Jardins D'EDEN a natural skin products line ~ so she is also an entrepreneur!)

It's a first of its kind transportation cybersecurity group formed by a private company.  Called the GRIDSMART Information Security and Threat Intelligence Division, this new effort will help identify issues before they become threats in our increasingly connected and automated transportation world.  In this special edition of POLICYSMART, Regina talks with Tony Rucci who will lead this effort and dives into his counterintelligence past and how that experience will advance this future work.  

This month POLICYSMART is celebrating women in transportation. We kick off the series by talking with Tina Quigley, general manager of the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada.  Tina has helped make the region a leader in autonomous and connected technologies to advance the next generation of transportation. She shares her thoughts about how she became involved in transportation, where she sees the future of mobility headed and how she's trying to put Las Vegas and southern Nevada on the map when it comes to intelligent transportation.

The nation's governors have been at the center of innovation for years and they continue the trend in intelligent transportation and Smart Cities Initiatives. In this episode of POLICYSMART, Regina talks with Sue Gander, Division Director, Environment, Energy and Transportation Division of the National Governors Association (NGA) about the work that is happening there on transportation as well as a new Smart Cities, Smart Communities initiative being launched over the course of the next couple of years. In addition, Sue talks with Regina about her life in public policy.

Jason Goldman, VP for External Affairs and Stakeholder Engagement at Intelligent Transportation Systems of America (ITS America), joins Regina Hopper to talk about the legislative and regulatory landscape of ITS. He explains why ITS is stuck both in terms of legislation and regulation, the issues with funding for President Trump's infrastructure bill, how this year's electoral politics plays into the world of ITS, and more.

Don't forget to tune into next Wednesday's (4/11/2018) webinar at 1:30 PM EDT! Regina and Jason will do a deep-dive into Washington's role in nextgen mobility and how it impacts states and cities/communities in moving intelligent transportation and next generation mobility forward.

Register for the webinar here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_bmhRMwcrSWiUYjHPt-F0rw

We're moving into INTERSECT18 later this year in November. Regina Hopper talks to Bill Malkes, CEO of GRIDSMART, about the future of ITS, including equality in the transportation system and the job skills we will need. In the words of Bill Malkes, "It's time to get our hands dirty and to make things happen."

You have heard from Elaina Farnsworth, CEO of Mobile Comply, before on this POLICYSMART podcast, but in this episode she talks about the need for certification for intelligent transportation training and what that means for the next generation workforce. This is a follow up to the discussion we previous previously had with Elaina on issues around the workforce for the future.

What does the next generation workforce look like? What needs to be done now to be prepared for the future? In this episode of POLICYSMART, Regina Hopper talks with Elaina Farnsworth, CEO of Mobile Comply, to dive into the debate and what working in "transportation" will mean.