Education

Norman Y. Mineta National Transportation Policy Summit : The Crisis in Transit Workforce Development

October 6, 2007 at the Westin Hotel, Charlotte, NC

Presented at no fee by the Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) and the Rahall Appalachian Transportation Institute, and co-sponsored by AASHTO, Amtrak, APTA, NCSL, NGC and others.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta (Ret.) hosts this one-day session for transportation policymakers and senior managers to explore the workforce development crisis. Following the morning expert panel, Secretary Mineta and Congressmember Rahall will keynote the luncheon after which they will engage the morning panel in an open, roundtable discussion with the audience.

Presiding:

David L. Turney, chair MTI Board of Trustees; Chairman, President & CEO, DRI; and President, RTI, Inc.

Welcome:

William Millar, APTA president; Vice Chair MTI Board of Trustees

Rod Diridon, national Council of University Transportation Centers president and MTI Executive Director

Expert Panel:

Moderator Dr. John Collura, national Council of University Transportation Centers Workforce Development Task Force Chair, University Transportation Center Director, University of Massachusetts

Ron Hynes, US DOT Federal Transit Administration Deputy Associate Administrator for Research, Demonstration and Innovation

Dr. Diana Long, Workforce Development Director, Rahall Transportation Institute

Janet Oakley, AASHTO Director of Policy

Stephanie Pinson, Gilbert Tweed Associates, Inc. President/CEO and APTA Executive Board and Human Resources Committee Member

Dr. Asha Weinstein, PI “Paving the Way, Workforce Development Crisis in Transportation”, MTI Research Associate

Luncheon Keynote Speakers:

Moderator State Senator Robert Plymale, Rahall Transportation Institute Executive Director and Immediate Past Chair of the Congress of State Legislators; Workforce Development Committee

Secretary Norman Y. Mineta, vice chairman, Hill and Knowlton, and secretary, U.S. Department of Transportation (2001-2006)

Congressmember Nick Joe Rahall, House Surface Transportation Subcommittee Ranking Member.

Note the morning panel will join the keynotes to answer questions from the audience until 3:00 PM

MTI’s 16^th Anniversary

The Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) at San José State University (SJSU) marked 16 years of operation during the annual scholarship awards banquet and graduation held June 30th at the SJSU Student Union.  The evening’s festivities began with a wine-tasting reception generously hosted by Santa Clara Valley wineries.

Our Master of Science in Transportation Management and Certificate in Transportation Management program graduates took a bow, and representatives from Argyle Middle School and Oakland High School, winners of the 7^th Garrett Morgan National Sustainable Transportation contest, were on hand to give a brief description of their project and collect $500.

MTI Founder and former Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta delivered the evening’s keynote address to an audience of 250, including the graduates and their families, transportation professionals, and elected officials.  MTI’s 25-member Board of Trustees, all national transportation leaders, were also in attendance.

The banquet raises scholarship money for students enrolled in MTI’s unique graduate transportation management program.  “The strong support generated by this event indicates just how vital MTI’s program is for the transportation industry,” asserted MTI Executive Director Rod Diridon, Sr.

Fourth National Transportation Security Summit
A symposium in the Norman Y. Mineta National Transportation Policy Series presented
by the National Transportation Security Center at the Mineta Transportation Institute
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Washington, DC

Seventh National Garrett Morgan Symposium on Sustainable Transportation
A videoconference symposium on sustainable transportation conducted by MTI in support of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Garrett A. Morgan Technology and Transportation Futures Program. The symposium is designed to stimulate the minds of young people and encourage them to excel in mathematics and sciences, which could lead to careers in transportation.
Spring 2007
(Registration closed)

Tough Choices Down the Road

On October 12^th, the Mineta Transportation Institute hosted the Norman Y. Mineta National Policy Summit on Transportation Finance, a one-day session for policy makers and senior managers to explore local, state and national options for medium and long-term transportation financing. The event was held in conjunction with the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) annual meeting in San José , California .

Mr. Mineta, MTI founder and secretary of transportation from 2001-2006, presented the luncheon keynote speech and then joined in the afternoon roundtable forum.  Leading the discussion was a select panel of experts drawn from the ranks of the MTI Board of Trustees, including Mort Downey, President of PB Consult, Inc., who moderated the morning and afternoon panel sessions.

Mr. Downey opened the morning panel session, followed by a presentation by MTI Research Associate Dr. Asha Weinstein, an assistant professor of urban and regional planning at San José State University .  She shared research and poll results on public attitudes toward various transportation financing mechanisms.  MTI Trustee Nuria Fernandez, commissioner of aviation for the City of Chicago and acting administrator/deputy administrator of the Federal Transit Administration from 1997-2001, presented intermodal issues from the air transportation sector’s viewpoint.  Caltrans Director Will Kempton described past and present transportation funding approaches used in California . He was followed by MTI Chair David Turney, with a private sector view of the federal funding reauthorization process and with suggestions for future legislation.  Addressing the legislative components was Arthur Guzzetti, the director of policy and advocacy for APTA.

The capacity crowd of transportation executives and planners, along with representatives from business and academia, joined in the give-and-take discussion with Secretary Mineta and the panel. MTI is preparing a summary of the proceedings, which will be published on the TransWeb website.

This no-fee event was co-sponsored by AASHTO, APTA, and the California Business Roundtable.