Study Committee Biographical Information
H. Douglas Robertson, Chair, Director of the Highway Safety Research Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has extensive experience in transportation safety, engineering, and education. He has worked in the public and private sectors as well as academia, and has a broad perspective of past, present, and potential future transportation safety needs and services. He is former Vice President and Regional Operations Manager for Science Applications International Corporation’s Transportation Consulting Group; previous positions also include ITS America, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), BioTechnology, Inc., and the U.S. Army. Professional affiliations include the Transportation Research Board (TRB) (e.g., chaired the TRB Group Council on Operation, Safety, and Maintenance of Transportation Facilities), Institute of Transportation Engineers, Intelligent Transportation Society of America, Reserve Officers’ Association, and Association of the U.S. Army. He was promoted to major general in the U.S. Army Reserve and was selected to command one of the Army’s seven training divisions. Dr. Robertson was senior editor and a principal author of the Manual of Transportation Engineering Studies for IITE and has published more than 60 journal articles and reports. He has a Ph.D. in civil engineering from the University of Maryland (1983), an M.S. in transportation engineering from the University of South Carolina (1971), and a B.S. in civil engineering from Clemson University (1966).
Phyllis F. Agran, M.D., M.P.H, is Professor of Pediatrics and Director, Pediatric Injury Prevention Research Group, Health Policy and Research, University of California, Irvine. She is a Fellow of the American Board of Pediatrics, American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and a fellow and past president of the Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine. Her current professional activities include the AAP Committee on Injury, Violence, and Poison Prevention; Executive Committee of the AAP Section on Injury Control and Poison Prevention; and Chair of AAP Chapter 4 Injury Control and Poison Prevention Committee. She was Chair of the Injury Research Grant Review Committee, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She served on the Blue Ribbon Panel II, Protecting Older Children in Motor Vehicles. Dr. Agran is the Co-Executive Director of the Injury Prevention Program of the California Chapter 4 American Academy of Pediatrics. She is a reviewer for a number of scientific journals including Pediatrics, Accident Analysis and Prevention, American Journal of Public Health, Injury Prevention, and
Archives of Adolescent and Pediatric Medicine. Dr. Agran’s research focus is on the epidemiology and prevention of injuries.
Richard D. Blomberg is President of Dunlap and Associates, Inc. His experience in school bus safety includes developing and evaluating a pedestrian safety program for elementary school bus riders, serving as a consultant in the area of school bus operations and pedestrian safety to several large school districts, and developing a school bus safety plan and a pupil transportation policy manual. He has co-authored a study on School Bus Driver Age and Safety for NHTSA. Other pedestrian safety studies he has been involved in include pedestrian safety zones for elderly pedestrians, pedestrian alcohol countermeasures, pedestrians and alcohol, and pedestrian safety messages. He has completed two pedestrian safety films titled Willy Whistle and Keep on Looking. He is a former member of the Committee for a Strategic Transportation Research Study: Highway Safety of TRB; and he chaired the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Mr. Blomberg received B.S. and M.S. degrees in industrial and management engineering from Columbia University.
Ann M. Dellinger is an epidemiologist for the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She is a former instructor of epidemiology at Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University and reviews articles for many scientific publications including the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, the American Journal of Health Behavior, and the Journal of the Canadian Medical Association. In 1999, she was awarded the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control Research Award for development of new hypotheses about older drivers’ risks for motor vehicle crashes. Dr. Dellinger received a B.A. in biology from the University of San Diego, an M.P.H. from the San Diego State University, and a Ph.D. from the School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Rodney G. Dobey chairs the Department of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Sport Science at St. Cloud State University in St. Cloud, Minnesota. He is also the former chair of the university’s Department of Health and Safety. He has authored more than 20 reports on school bus transportation safety issues and has participated in more than 30 conferences. His professional affiliations include the Minnesota Association for Pupil Transportation, National Committee for Motor Fleet Supervisor Training, School Bus Operators Association, the National Association for Pupil Transportation (NAPT), and the American School Health Association. Dr. Dobey received a B.S. in physical education and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in education (health and safety) from Southern Illinois University.
Ned B. Einstein is the President of Transportation Alternatives, a New York– based transportation and automotive consultancy and forensic accident analysis firm engaged in the transit, paratransit, pupil transportation, and motor coach fields. Mr. Einstein also served as the Chairman and General Manager of
PTS Transportation, a California-based paratransit operating company, and Chairman and President of TAM-USA, the U.S. joint venture partner of European bus and truck manufacturer TAM (Slovenia). During more than 25 years in the industry, Mr. Einstein has published more than 45 technical documents and articles, and writes regularly for National Bus Trader and School Transportation News. He is a member of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), NAPT, ABA, UMA, AIST, and the ongoing National School Transportation Conference’s Non–School Bus Use Committee. Mr. Einstein also served as Director of the U.S. Business Council for Slovenia during that nation’s first 5 years of independence, and as a member of the Board of Directors of the U.S. Business Council for Southeastern Europe. He holds a B.A. from Rutgers University and a master’s of urban and regional planning from George Washington University.
John S. Fabian is Chief of the Motor Carrier Accident Investigation Section of the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) and New York State Public Transportation Safety Board in Albany. He is responsible for supervision of the day-to-day operations and performance of the oversight and reconstruction/investigation and analysis into cause and result of mass transit accidents. Before assuming the position of Supervisor, Mr. Fabian served as a Safety Specialist/Investigator in the Bus Safety Section of NYSDOT. He serves as a lecturer and an instructor for various institutions including the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Bureau of Municipal Police, and the University of North Florida at Jacksonville. He has authored two articles: Gray Line Tours Bus Crash, Schroon Lake N.Y., which appeared in the July/August 1994 issue of Accident Reconstruction Journal, and How to Make System Safety Work in Transit. He is a member of several organizations including APTA and the New York State Association of Transportation Engineers. Mr. Fabian holds a B.A. in criminology from the State University of New York.
James C. Fell is Director of Traffic Safety and Enforcement Programs at Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation. His duties include designing and conducting research in the relationship between alcohol and violent crime, impaired driving, and underage drinking programs. Earlier, he worked at NHTSA for 30 years, including more than 7 years as program manager of the Fatality Analysis Reporting System in the National Center for Statistics and Analysis. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the National Commission Against Drunk Driving. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the Secretary of Transportation’s Silver Medal for Meritorious Achievement, and the A. J. Lauer Award for outstanding contributions to human factors aspects of highway traffic safety from the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. He has been listed in the Marquis Who’s Who in America in Science and Engineering. Mr. Fell received a B.S. in industrial engineering and an M.S. in human factors engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Ted Finlayson-Schueler is the Executive Director of the Pupil Transportation Safety Institute, where he is responsible for program development, creation and
publication of materials, research, organizational support, and financial management. Some of his major projects include school bus crash data analysis for the Governors Traffic Safety Committee at FHWA, transit bus driver instructor train-the-trainer curriculum development, and the New York State School Bus Definition Grant. Prior to this he was a supervisor of the Cayuga-Onondaga Board of Cooperative Education Services School Transportation Safety Program in Auburn, New York. From 1980 to 1985, he was a bus driver for Leon Franklin, Inc., in Syracuse, New York, driving for severely physically and emotionally challenged children. He has co-authored numerous articles and manuals including Seat Belts on School Buses; Bus Safely, Safe Routes—Safe Stops; and School Safety Planning for Vehicles and Pedestrian Traffic. He is the editor of Around the State, a newsletter that provides school transportation safety information to superintendents, transportation directors, driver trainers, and school boards. Mr. Finlayson-Schueler has a B.A. in religion and an M.S. from the School of Education at Syracuse University.
Paul S. Fischbeck is an Associate Professor in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy and the Department of Social and Decision Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His general research involves normative and descriptive risk analysis. Past and current research includes the development of a risk index to prioritize inspections of offshore oil production platforms, an engineering and economic policy analysis of air pollution from international shipping, a large-scale probabilistic risk assessment of the space shuttle’s tile protection system, and a geographic information system designed to evaluate the environmental risk, economic potential, and political factors of abandoned industrial sites. Dr. Fischbeck was a member of the National Research Council (NRC) Marine Board Committee on Risk Assessment and Management of Marine Systems and was a technical advisor to the NRC Ship Structure Committee. Dr. Fischbeck received a B.S. in architecture from the University of Virginia, an M.S. in operations research and systems analysis from the Naval Postgraduate School, and a Ph.D. in industrial engineering and engineering management from Stanford University. He has written extensively on various applications of decision and risk analysis methods and has won several awards from the Institute of Operations Research and Management Sciences. He is a retired Navy Captain.
Lindsay I. Griffin III is a Senior Research Scientist for the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University System. Before this he served as a Research Psychologist/Scientist at the Institute and headed its Safety Division. His committee appointments include serving as chairman of the Subcommittee for the National Accident Reporting Form, 11th National Conference on School Transportation; and serving as a member of TRB’s Committee for a Study of Consumer Automotive Safety Information (1995) and the Committee on Motorcycles and Mopeds (1979). He has written more than 80 transportation safety–related articles and reports. Dr. Griffin has a B.A. in psychology and a Ph.D. in experimental psychology from the University of North Carolina.
Ronald J. Hundenski is a senior statistician at the San Francisco Municipal Railway, where he is currently responsible for research, analysis, and performance monitoring for the public transit agency serving the City and County of San Francisco. Among his duties, he conducts research and analyses of passenger and traffic accident data. He has authored a number of papers related to public transit safety and security published in TRB’s Transportation Research Record and elsewhere and served on the panel of a TRB synthesis study dealing with violence on public transit. He has also presented several papers at TRB’s annual meetings and currently serves on TRB’s Bus Transit Systems Committee. His involvement with school transportation safety first occurred when he served as lieutenant of the safety patrol of Holy Trinity Elementary School in Moon Run, Pennsylvania, and later as a VISTA volunteer when he drove the van transporting developmentally disabled adults to and from a sheltered workshop. Dr. Hundenski received a B.A. from Ohio University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in social sciences from Brown University.
Ronald L. Kinney is the Director of Marketing for Business and Government Relations at Laidlaw Education Services. He is a former manager in the Office of School Transportation at the California Department of Education and served as State Director of School Transportation for California from 1983 to 1997. His professional affiliations include serving as president of the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services, California Association for School Transportation Officials, member of NAPT, and chair of the 13th National Conference on School Transportation for 2000. He has taken numerous extension and specialized courses at Boise State College, the University of California at Berkeley, and the University of California at Davis.
Jeffrey C. Tsai directs the Pupil Transportation Group (PTG) and manages the Operation Research/Education Laboratory of the Institute for Transportation Research and Education at North Carolina State University, whose mission is to apply technological and scientific principles to the operation and management of multimodal school transportation systems in order to provide for the safe and efficient transportation of school children. As director of PTG, he coordinates project activities with school systems and other pupil transportation–related projects. In his position as manager of the Operation Research/Education Laboratory, he oversees the use of mathematical models for improving decision making in educational institutions and state and local governmental agencies. Mr. Tsai is a member of NAPT and the North Carolina Pupil Transportation Association and sits on committees for the NAPT Professional Development Committee and the North Carolina School Safety Conference. He holds a B.Sc. and an M.S. in geophysics from North Carolina State University.
