WASHINGTON — Neil Pedersen, executive director of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, announced he will retire in the early fall of 2022. The National Academies will launch a nationwide search for Pedersen’s successor.

During his seven years leading TRB, Pedersen has taken a strategic approach to a wide range of critical issues in transportation through high-impact research and policy studies, a growing portfolio of convening activities, and partnerships with transportation organizations in the United States and internationally. He has been a champion of TRB’s efforts to enhance diversity, equity, and inclusion in its volunteers and program work.

“I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to serve in the role of executive director of an organization that plays such a critical role both nationally and internationally in solving complex transportation-related challenges and advancing the state of transportation professional practice throughout the world,” said Pedersen.

Pedersen was an active volunteer in TRB for over 30 years and served in numerous TRB volunteer leadership roles for more than 15 years prior to joining the TRB staff in 2012 as deputy director of the Strategic Highway Research Program 2.  Prior to joining TRB, he spent 29 years at the Maryland Department of Transportation, where he served the last eight years as State Highway Administrator and the Governor’s Highway Safety Representative.

TRB is a program unit of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine — private, nonprofit institutions that provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions related to science, technology, and medicine. The National Academies operate under an 1863 congressional charter to the National Academy of Sciences, signed by President Lincoln.

Contact:
Paul Mackie
Director of Communications/Media
Transportation Research Board
pmackie@nas.edu