Keynote Presentation: Transforming Mobility: The Safety Imperative

Mark R. Rosekind, Ph.D., is a passionate safety professional with more than 30 years of experience promoting innovation through science and leadership in complex environments. 
In April 2017, Dr. Rosekind joined the executive team at Zoox as the Chief Safety Innovation Officer. He leads efforts to safely develop, test, and deploy autonomous vehicles.

Prior to Zoox, Dr. Rosekind was appointed by President Obama to be the 15th Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Serving from 2014 to 2017, Dr. Rosekind led significant transformation, instilling a proactive safety culture while driving both the Agency and automobile industry to be future-oriented. His initiatives included the development and issuance of the first-ever Federal Automated Vehicles Policy, the founding of the Road to Zero coalition to develop a 30-year plan to eliminate traffic fatalities, and aggressive oversight of safety in the automobile industry, including leading the Agency through the nation’s largest product safety recall in U.S history.

Dr. Rosekind earned his B.A. with honors from Stanford University, his M.S., M.Phil., and Ph.D. from Yale University, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Brown University Medical School.

For more than 20 years, Amy Walter has built a reputation as an accurate, objective, and insightful political analyst with unparalleled access to campaign insiders and decision-makers. Known as one of the best political journalists covering Washington, she is national editor of the non-partisan Cook Political Report and a frequent on-air analyst. In addition to her weekly appearance on the popular “Politics Monday” segment on the PBS NewsHour, Amy also hosts WNYC’s nationally-syndicated public radio news program, “Politics with Amy Walter” on The Takeaway. She is also a regular Sunday panelist on NBC’s Meet the Press and CBS’s Face The Nation, and appears frequently on Special Report with Bret Baier on FOX. She is the former political director of ABC News.

In her presentations, Walter expertly breaks down the electoral process, congressional culture, and the Washington political scene. Her astuteness, wit, and range of expertise creates an engaging, compelling presentation, and her reliable and accurate analysis has earned her numerous accolades. Exclusively represented by Leading Authorities speakers bureau, Amy Walter takes audiences on an insider’s tour of Washington through the eyes of the woman with her finger on the pulse of politics.

Sarah Dunham is the Director of EPA's Office of Transportation and Air Quality (OTAQ) whose mission is to establish and implement national standards for transportation fuels, vehicles and engines to reduce air pollution from mobile sources under the Clean Air Act.   The National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory (NVFEL), located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is an integral part of OTAQ.  NVFEL provides state-of-the-art emission testing services for motor vehicle, heavy-duty engine, and nonroad engine programs in support of rulemakings, enforcement actions, and test procedures development.

Prior to becoming Director of OTAQ, Sarah was the Director of EPA’s Office of Atmospheric Programs (OAP) where she and her staff worked to improve regional air quality, address climate change, and protect the ozone layer.  During her tenure with OAP, Sarah worked with the Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards on some of EPA’s most high profile regulatory programs, such as the Cross State Air Pollution Rule, the Mercury and Air Toxics Standard, and the Affordable Clean Energy Rule.  She also was at the center of some of EPA’s most important work on climate change and oversaw the continued success of OAP’s market trading programs and implementation of the Montreal Protocol. 

Before leading OAP, Sarah was the founding Director of the Transportation and Climate Division in OTAQ where she was instrumental in the growth of the SmartWay program, developing an updated fuel economy label, and developing the analytical framework for the original Renewable Fuel Standard program regulations. Prior to her work at EPA, Sarah worked at the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency designing market-based programs to reduce air and water pollution. 

James C. Owens serves as the Acting Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), leading a safety organization with a budget of $1.1 billion and 626 full-time employees across the country.  In this capacity, Owens leads the execution of NHTSA’s mission of setting safety standards for motor vehicles and vehicle equipment, facilitating the testing and deployment of advanced vehicle technologies, rooting out vehicle defects, and educating Americans to help them drive, ride, and walk safely.

Before coming to NHTSA, Owens was Deputy General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Transportation for more than 2 years, and he also served as the Department’s Acting General Counsel in 2017.  In these roles, he helped oversee the activities of the Department’s lawyers, covering every mode of transportation.  Owens also coordinated with senior leaders and career experts on the Department’s efforts to enhance safety for the traveling public while identifying and reducing unnecessary burdens, streamlining the infrastructure permitting process, and ensuring that the Department’s regulations accommodate innovation in a safety-conscious and technology-neutral manner.

Before joining the Department, Owens was an attorney for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for 5 years, where he worked to protect consumers and the integrity of the nation’s energy markets by investigating and bringing enforcement actions for fraud and market manipulation.  Prior to his Federal service, Owens had a broad-based litigation and regulatory practice at law firms in Washington, DC, and he clerked for Judge Danny J. Boggs on the Sixth Circuit.  Before graduating from law school, Owens taught history as a graduate student at the University of Virginia.

Owens received a Ph.D. and M.A. in History, as well as a law degree, from the University of Virginia, and he graduated magna cum laude from James Madison University.  He grew up in the Shenandoah Valley, and lives with his family in Virginia.