TZD Traffic Safety Hotdish: Research in Action—Perspectives from Minnesota's Traffic Safety Research Ecosystem

Jackie is the Minnesota Local Road Research Board program manager and research engineer for MnDOT's Office of Research and Innovation. She has managed research projects and programs in both Minnesota and Wisconsin. Her early career experience includes road design and construction management for municipal clients and project development for Michigan DOT. She was a substitute teacher for seven years in Eastern Carver County Schools and currently serves as a MnDOT STEM Ambassador.

Max is the traffic safety crash data engineer for MnDOT's office of Traffic Engineering. In that role he works with speed data, crash data, and safety evaluations. Prior to that he worked in the private sector doing traffic engineering and data work.

Nichole Morris is the director of the HumanFIRST Laboratory and research associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, a research scholar at the Center for Transportation Studies, and a graduate faculty member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics program at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Morris has expertise in human-systems interactions, driver safety and performance, law enforcement and crash reporting, and pedestrian safety. She conducts research for a range of sponsors including MnDOT, the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, National Science Foundation, and Minnesota Department of Public Safety. Her recent publications include findings of increased risk-taking by drivers of manual vehicles near a low-speed autonomous shuttle, navigational errors at J-turn intersections, and augmented reality for work zone safety.

Mark Wagner is the assistant state traffic safety engineer in MnDOT’s Office of Traffic Engineering. Mark joined the office in 2020 after realizing that everything else is too boring. His passion for traffic safety means he will stop at nothing to improve safety even if that means letting you know he thinks your ideas are dumb. As the resident bad boy of the Office of Traffic Engineering, Mark not only works to bring down The Man but also develops safety plans and evaluations and has a hand in all things traffic safety.

Kyle Shelton is the director of the University of Minnesota Center for Transportation Studies. In this role, he oversees all Center operations, research, education, and partnerships. Shelton has led research and policy work in transportation, urban development, and housing. He is the author of Power Moves: Transportation, Politics, and Development in Houston (2017). His own research interests orbit around the intersections of the human, built, and natural environments. His work has appeared in the Houston Chronicle, Bloomberg’s CityLab, the Los Angeles Times, The Avenue (Brookings Institution), and the Eno Transportation Weekly.