WASHINGTON — The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine introduced right this moment that Ann Brach has been named the chief director of the Transportation Research Board (TRB).
Brach has been with the National Academies since 1999, most lately as director of TRB’s Technical Activities Division. In this function, she led a big, multidisciplinary program supported by hundreds of volunteers and sponsors throughout the transportation sector and performed a central function in modernizing TRB’s technical actions, strengthening its alignment with mission and rising priorities, and advancing the affect of its applications. She additionally led TRB’s $200 million Second Strategic Highway Research Program, the place she was accountable for total course of interdisciplinary analysis on freeway security, infrastructure, planning, and operations.
“Ann has been a valued colleague for decades, and her deep experience, strategic vision, and strong commitment to our mission make her the ideal new leader of the Transportation Research Board,” stated Gregory Symmes, govt officer of the National Academies’ National Research Council. “I look forward to working with her in this new role.”
Before becoming a member of TRB, Brach was analysis and know-how program supervisor at the Federal Highway Administration and chief of the analysis and know-how division of the Maryland State Highway Administration. She obtained a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering from Northeastern University and a Master of Science and Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A registered skilled engineer in Virginia, Brach additionally earned a grasp’s diploma in philosophy from the Catholic University of America the place she has taught ethics to engineering college students.
Brach succeeds Victoria Sheehan, who has served as TRB’s govt director since late 2022.
TRB is a program unit of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine — non-public, nonprofit establishments that present impartial, goal evaluation and recommendation to the nation to resolve advanced issues and inform public coverage selections associated to science, engineering, and drugs. The National Academies function below an 1863 congressional constitution to the National Academy of Sciences, signed by President Lincoln.
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