Capitol Hill Briefing
Increasing the Efficiency and Economic Competiveness of the Nation’s Freight System
Speaker Profiles
Congresswoman Doris Matsui – U.S. Representative for California’s 6th Congressional
District
Congresswoman Doris Matsui serves as the U.S. Representative for California’s 6th Congressional
District, which consists of the city of Sacramento and surrounding area. Congresswoman Matsui
was appointed to the House Energy and Commerce Committee in 2008, which holds jurisdiction
over issues impacting the daily lives of every American. As a member, she crafts legislation to
address critical issues facing the nation, including health care, energy policy, technology,
consumer protection, food safety, environmental quality, and American manufacturing.
Congresswoman Matsui has been a leader in Congress on tackling climate change, and she
serves as a co-chair of the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition (SEEC). She supported
the 2010 climate change proposal, and has since authored a number of legislative proposals
aimed at boosting clean energy manufacturing and financing to help smaller clean energy
companies grow and create jobs.
Laura Podolsky – Policy Director, National Center for Sustainable Transportation
As the Policy Director for the National Center for Sustainable Transportation (NCST), Ms.
Podolsky provides support to local, state, and federal policymakers in making bold advances in
cutting greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector by connecting them to cuttingedge research, information, and university expertise. Prior to joining NCST, Ms. Podolsky served
as the Healthy Communities Program Director at the Local Government Commission where she
focused on connecting, empowering, and supporting California policymakers as well as their staff
in advancing policies, programs and projects that create healthier places for people to live, work,
and play. Ms. Podolsky has a B.S. in Landscape Architecture from the University of California,
Davis.
Susan Handy – Professor and Director of the National Center for Sustainable Transportation,
UC Davis
Dr. Susan Handy teaches in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy at the
University of California, Davis, in addition to serving as the Director of the National Center for
Sustainable Transportation. Dr. Handy’s research interests are on the relationship between
transportation and land use and on strategies for reducing automobile dependence. Her recent
work includes a series of studies on bicycling in the City of Davis, developing a method for
estimating vehicle trip generation for “smart growth” development projects, and an assessment
of the available evidence on the effects of land use and transportation strategies on reducing
vehicle travel and greenhouse gas emissions. Dr. Handy serves on the Committee on Women’s
Transportation Issues and is an associate editor of the recently launched Journal of Transport
and Health. Dr. Handy received her B.S.E. in Civil Engineering from Princeton University (1984),
her M.S. in Civil Engineering from Stanford University (1987), and her Ph.D. in City and Regional
Planning from the University of California at Berkeley (1992).
Matt Barth – Professor and Director of the Center for Environmental Research and Technology,
UC Riverside
Dr. Matt Barth is the Yeager Families Professor at the Bourns College of Engineering at the
University of California, Riverside, and also serves as the Director for the Center for
Environmental Research and Technology (CE-CERT). Dr. Barth’s research focuses on applying
engineering system concepts and automation technology to transportation systems, and in
particular how it relates to energy and air quality issues. His current research interests include
intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and transportation/emissions modeling, vehicle activity
analysis, advanced navigation techniques, electric vehicle technology, and advanced sensing and
control. Dr. Barth is active with the Transportation Research Board serving in a variety of roles,
including on the ITS Committee and the Transportation Air Quality Committee. Dr. Barth has also
been active in Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Intelligent Transportation
System Society (ITSS) for many years as well as currently serving as the IEEE ITSS President for
2014-2015. Dr. Barth received his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering/Computer Science from
the University of Colorado in 1984, and M.S. (1985) and Ph.D. (1990) degrees in Electrical and
Computer Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Miguel Jaller – Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, UC Davis
Dr. Miguel Jaller is an Assistant Professor of Transportation Engineering at the University of
California, Davis. Before coming to UC Davis, Dr. Jaller worked as a Research Associate at the
Center for Infrastructure, Transportation, and the Environment (CITE), and at the Volvo Research
and Educational Foundations’ Center of Excellence for Sustainable Urban Freight Systems (CoESUFS) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). His research interests are in the areas of freight
transportation, sustainable transportation systems, humanitarian logistics, supply chain
management, and operations research. Dr. Jaller has been part of a projects funded by the U.S.
Department of Transportation (USDOT), the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council, the
National Cooperative Freight Research Program (NCFRP), the National Science Foundation (NSF),
the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Inter-American
Development Bank (IDB). Dr. Jaller received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Industrial Engineering from
Universidad del Norte, Colombia. He received his M.E. in Transportation Engineering, M.Sc. in
Applied Mathematics, and Ph.D. in Transportation Engineering from RPI.
Lew Fulton – Co-director, STEPS Program, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis
Lew Fulton has worked internationally in the field of transport/energy/environment analysis and
policy development for over 20 years. He is Co-Director of the STEPS Program within the
Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis, where he leads a range
of research activities around new vehicle and fuel technologies, and how these technologies can
gain rapid acceptance in the market. From 2007-2012 Dr. Fulton served as a Senior Transport
Specialist with the International Energy Agency (IEA), Paris, as well as Division Head for Energy
Technology Policy during 2011-2012. During 2006-2007 Dr. Fulton worked in Kenya with the
United Nations Environment Program, developing and implementing Global Environment Facility
(GEF)-funded sustainable transport projects around the world. During the 1990s he also worked
at the U.S. Department of Energy for 4 years, and taught at the Independent University of
Bangladesh and the University of Maryland.