Caltrans Director Malcolm Dougherty to Keynote MSTM Graduation, Saturday, June 23

The Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) will host a graduation and awards banquet featuring commencement speaker Malcolm Dougherty, recently confirmed Caltrans director and a member of the MTI board of trustees. Other speakers include Secretary of Transportation (ret) Norman Mineta and former Deputy Secretary of Transportation Mortimer Downey, who also chairs the MTI board. The Master of Science in Transportation Management (MSTM) graduating class of 17 will include valedictorian Robin O’Hara, senior communications executive for the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The event is Saturday, June 23, at the San Jose State University Student Center’s Barrett Ballroom. The reception is at 5:30 p.m., followed by dinner at 6:45 p.m. Reservations are required via Jill Carter (jill.carter@sjsu.edu or 408-924-7561).

Director Dougherty will address the fiscal crisis in transportation infrastructure financing that grips California and the nation.

In addition, the winners of MTI’s national Garrett Morgan Sustainable Transportation Competition will receive a plaque and a check for $1000 to benefit their classroom. This year’s winners are the team from Moraga Middle School, Stockton CA sponsored by Caltrans District 10. Teacher Aaron Saas and students Victor Munoz and Brandon Orr will represent the class.

Representatives of several international consulates will attend.

The MSTM is a fully accredited California State University masters’ degree provided by the Mineta Transportation Institute through San Jose State University College of Business. California’s premier professors and practitioners of sustainable transportation teach the courses to as many as 28 sites statewide four nights a week via the California Department of Transportation videoconference network. In addition to the full MSTM, 12-master unit professional certificates will be conferred. These include Graduate Certificates in Transportation Management, in Transportation Security Management, and in High-Speed Rail Management.

The board of trustees’ gavel will be passed to incoming MTI chair Steve Heminger, executive director of the San Francisco Bay Area’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission. Stephanie Pinson, president of Gilbert Tweed Associates, Washington DC, will become vice-chair. The trustees also govern the Mineta National Transit Research Consortium (MNTRC), a partnership of nine university transportation research centers that MTI was selected to lead as a result of a national competition.

Event sponsors include the US Department of Transportation, Caltrans, AAA, Bombardier Transportation, Parsons Corporation, and many more.

ABOUT THE MINETA TRANSPORTATION INSTITUTE

The Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) conducts research, education, and information and technology transfer, focusing on international transit policy and management issues. It is also the lead institute for the Mineta National Transit Research Consortium (MNTRC), an affiliation of nine university transportation centers. MTI was established by Congress in 1991 as part of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) and was reauthorized under TEA-21 and again under SAFETEA- LU. The Institute has been funded by Congress through the US Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Research and Innovative Technology Administration, by the California Legislature through the Department of Transportation (Caltrans), and by other public and private grants and donations, including grants from the US Department of Homeland Security. US DOT selected MTI as a National Center of Excellence following competitions in 2002 and 2006 and in 2012 designated MTI as the lead institution for the nine-university Mineta National Transportation Research Consortium. The internationally respected members of the MTI Board of Trustees represent all major surface transportation modes. MTI’s focus on policy and management resulted from the Board’s assessment of the transportation industry’s unmet needs.