Study Committee Biographical Information
Michael D. Meyer, Chair, is Professor of Civil Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. From 1983 to 1988, he was Director of Transportation Planning and Development for Massachusetts. Before that, he was Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Dr. Meyer has written more than 180 technical articles and has authored or coauthored numerous texts on transportation planning and policy, including the only college textbook in the country on transportation planning. Dr. Meyer received the 2009 Carey Award from the Transportation Research Board (TRB), the 2006 Wilbur Smith Distinguished Transportation Educator Award from the Institute of Transportation Engineers, the 2000 Theodore M. Matson Memorial Award in recognition of outstanding contributions in the field of transportation engineering, the 1995 Pyke Johnson Award of TRB for best paper in planning and administration delivered at its Annual Meeting, and the 1988 Harland Bartholomew Award of the American Society of Civil Engineers for contribution to the enhancement of the role of the civil engineer in urban planning and development. In 2006, he was Chair of TRB’s Executive Committee. Dr. Meyer received a BS in civil engineering from the University of Wisconsin, an MS in civil engineering from Northwestern University, and a PhD in civil engineering from MIT.
J. Barry Barker is Executive Director of the Transit Authority of River City in Louisville, Kentucky. He was previously General Manager at Metro in Akron, Ohio, and Assistant General Manager for Marketing and Management for the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority. He is a former Chair of the Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Oversight and Project Selection Committee, has served on several TCRP
panels, and was a member of the TRB Committee for a Study of Contracting Out Transit Services of the National Research Council (NRC). He chairs the National Transit Institute Board and serves on the Easter Seals–Project Action National Steering Committee, the TRB Executive Committee, and the Subcommittee on Planning and Policy Review. Mr. Barker earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Case Western Reserve University and a master’s degree in public administration from Cleveland State University.
Emil H. Frankel is the Director of Transportation Policy for the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, D.C., and an independent consultant on transportation policy and public management issues. He was Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy of the U.S. Department of Transportation from 2002 to 2005, where he played a key role in the coordination and development of the administration’s proposal to reauthorize the federal highway, transit, and highway safety programs and provided policy leadership in such areas as intermodal freight transportation, reform of the nation’s intercity passenger rail system, transportation project financing, and the application of information technologies to transportation systems operations. Mr. Frankel was Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Transportation from 1991 to 1995, responsible for managing an agency with more than 4,000 employees and an annual budget exceeding $1 billion. Previously, Mr. Frankel served as Special Assistant to the Under Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and as a Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senator Jacob K. Javits of New York. Mr. Frankel received his bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University and his LLB from Harvard Law School, and he was a Fulbright Scholar at Manchester University in the United Kingdom. From 1981 to 1997 he was a Trustee of Wesleyan University, where he is now a Trustee Emeritus.
Edward A. “Ned” Helme is President and founder of the Center for Clean Air Policy (CCAP). As an expert on climate and air policy, he advises members of Congress, state governments, the European Commission, and developing countries on these issues. Mr. Helme is the author of more than 50 key studies on climate change, air quality, electricity regulation, and transportation policy. With more than 25 years’ experience in climate
and air policy, he is an expert in cap-and-trade programs and other market and nonmarket approaches to addressing climate change. Mr. Helme played an instrumental role in the development and passage of the Clean Air Act Amendments in 1990, which established the first national emissions trading program in the United States. He also led the expert team that developed the original design of the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme. Before starting CCAP, he directed the Natural Resources Division of the National Governors Association and was a legislative director to a U.S. Congressman. He holds an MPP from the Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California at Berkeley, and a BA in political science and psychology from Haverford College.
Adib K. Kanafani is the Edward G. Cahill and John R. Cahill Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley. His research interests are transportation planning, transportation systems analysis, and air transportation, and he has authored or coauthored numerous papers on these topics, including several papers dealing with the full costing of transportation and analysis of direct and indirect subsidies in various modes. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, is currently Chair of the TRB Executive Committee, and has served on several TRB policy study committees. Dr. Kanafani has won several awards, including the James Laurie Prize, the Robert Horonjeff Award, and the Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize of the American Society of Civil Engineers. He received a PhD and an MS in civil engineering from the University of California at Berkeley and a BE from the American University of Beirut.
Debra L. Miller is the Secretary of Transportation for Kansas. Earlier, she was director of the Division of Planning and Development of the Kansas Department of Transportation. She was a member of the committee that produced the 2006 TRB policy study report The Fuel Tax and Alternatives for Transportation Funding and was a member of the TRB study committee that produced the 1996 report Paying Our Way: Estimating Marginal Social Costs of Freight Transportation. Ms. Miller is a member of the TRB Executive Committee and chairs the Standing Committee on Planning of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. She received a bachelor’s degree from Kansas State University.
Michael R. Morris is Director of Transportation at the North Central Texas Council of Governments, which he joined as a Transportation Analyst in 1979. As Transportation Director for the metropolitan planning organization for Dallas–Fort Worth, he is responsible for analysis of the region’s long-range transportation plan and transportation improvement program to determine travel and air quality emission impacts of proposed capital and operational investments and public policies. Mr. Morris is a registered engineer in the state of Texas. He is a member of the Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations, the Institute of Transportation Engineers, the American Society of Civil Engineers, and the Travel Model Improvement Program Review Panel of the Federal Highway Administration. Mr. Morris has served on the NRC Committee to Review EPA’s Mobile Source Emissions Factor Model, the Committee for the Evaluation of the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program of TRB and the Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology, and the Committee on Air Quality Management in the United States. He is Vice Chair of the TRB Executive Committee. He holds a BA in environmental design and planning and an MS in civil engineering from the State University of New York, Buffalo.
