Webinar Overview

ITS Workforce Development Efforts & Identifying the Gaps

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022
Time: 1:00 P.M. - 2:00 P.M. ET

The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) is committed to providing equal access to this meeting for all participants. If you need alternative formats or services for the webinar because of a disability, please contact Neeka Mahdavi at (617) 494-2544 or via email at Neeka.Mahdavi@dot.gov with your request by close of business Friday, July 8, 2022.

The webinar is brought to you by the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Professional Capacity Building (PCB) Program of the USDOT ITS Joint Program Office (JPO). References in this webinar to any specific commercial products, processes, or services, or the use of any trade, firm, or corporation name is for the information and convenience of the public, and does not constitute endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the USDOT.

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Background

The USDOT ITS PCB Academic Program will host a virtual seminar on ITS-related workforce development activities, with a focus on the current efforts of the National Operations Center of Excellence (NOCoE).

The ITS PCB Academic Program has provided the transportation workforce with flexible, accessible ITS learning and support through live and on-demand training, technical assistance, and educational resources for more than two decades. The program assists current and future transportation professionals in developing their knowledge, skills, and abilities to build technical proficiency while furthering their career paths. Through its educational and workforce products and programs, found here, the PCB Program offers a variety of ITS and transportation resources.

NOCoE is designed to offer a suite of resources to serve the transportation systems management and operations (TSMO) community. The Center offers an array of technical services such as peer exchange workshops and webinars, ongoing assessments of best practices in the field, and on-call assistance.

This seminar will feature a presentation from NOCoE on outcomes from its Workforce Summit in November 2021 and its Workforce Peer Exchange in May 2022. The session will include discussion of specific examples of relevant actions state and local agencies are taking and finding successful, as well as discussion on existing gaps that would benefit from additional investigation and/or resources.

Target Audience

The target audience includes Federal, State, and local agency professionals, consultants, transportation educators, students, and employers.

Learning Objectives

The objectives of the panel are for participants to:

• Gain an understanding of NOCoE’s mission and current ITS-related workforce development efforts.
• Understand the challenges of developing and supporting the ITS-related workforce.
• Expand knowledge of strategies that can be used to address ITS-related workforce needs.
• Examine topics areas that warrant additional study to support ITS-related workforce development activities.

Host

Emily Lawless, Technology Policy Analyst, USDOT Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
Emily Lawless works at the USDOT Volpe National Transportation Systems Center as a Technology Policy Analyst in the Program Development and Capacity Building Division. Ms. Lawless joined Volpe in 2015 and since then has supported a range of Federal agencies, including the Federal Highway Administration, Federal Transit Administration, and USDOT Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology, to promote activities and approaches that advance the work of their agencies and support efforts that encourage peer learning, effective stakeholder engagement, and strategic resource development.

Ms. Lawless’ experience includes development and coordination of professional capacity building initiatives and programs, evaluation of transportation programs, and support of transportation-related educational and training efforts.

Prior to joining the Volpe Center, Ms. Lawless worked for many years in the field of education, as both a teacher and an academic administrator in Madrid, Spain and Boston, MA.

Presenter

Adam Hopps, National Operations Center of Excellence (NOCoE)
Adam Hopps leads technical services and communications activities for the National Operations Center of Excellence, or NOCoE, which focuses on providing resources and sharing knowledge to advance the practice of transportation systems management and operations (TSMO). During his five years at NOCoE, across the several roles, Mr. Hopps has led initiatives to expand access to resources and information for current and future TSMO practitioners, including building the NOCoE Case Study library, developing workforce development resources, and leading the Transportation Technology Tournament.

Previously, Mr. Hopps spent 7 years at ITS America where he led projects for the USDOT ITS Joint Program Office’s connected vehicle program, emergency management initiatives, and multimodal program.

Before working in transportation, Mr. Hopps managed several bookstores in both San Francisco and Washington, DC. Adam has an educational background in American and European Literature.

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