Detour 2021: Youth Traffic Safety Summit Schedule

Cynthia Watters is a registered profession engineer with over 25 years’ experience in both the public and private engineering sectors. Ms. Watters is currently the Bureau Chief of Safety Programs and Engineering at the Illinois Department of Transportation. The Bureau of Safety Programs and Engineering is comprised of behavioral and engineering staff members that identify and seek solutions through data driven programs, policies, and procedures to provide the motorists, pedestrians, motorcyclist, and bicyclists in Illinois with a safer transportation system.

Nicholas Worrell has served as the Director of the Office of Safety Advocacy for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) since June 2015. Over his 25-year career with the NTSB, he has held positions as a Public Affairs Officer and safety advocate. Prior to joining the NTSB, Mr. Worrell proudly served for eight years in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Recognized as an expert on transportation safety issues and advisory strategies, Mr. Worrell regularly addresses local, state, and international governments; private industry; various organizations; youth safety leaders; and educators instructing on NTSB safety investigations and the adoption of safety regulations throughout the private and government sectors.

In 2019, Mr. Worrell spoke before the Nigerian, South African government on Effective Safety Advocacy, and Creating Positive Change in Transportation Safety in Kenya as part of the Safer Skies Program, and coordinated safety efforts throughout the Caribbean region, including in Jamaica, Guyana, Trinidad and Barbados. In both 2017, 2018 and 2019, he also addressed the International Road Federation’s Caribbean Regional Congress, and offered a U.S. perspective at the U.K.’s National Safer Roads Partnerships Conference.

Among other key accomplishments, Mr. Worrell coordinated the development of the agency’s Most Wanted List, which provides the top safety recommendations for the transportation industry. He also works closely with the Director of Safety Recommendations and Communications and with NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt, with whom he recently collaborated to develop and implement NTSB’s core values throughout the agency. Additionally, he assembled a coalition of transportation safety experts from multiple interagency partners, which has become the premier platform from which transportation communicators can plan and speak with a single, credible voice.

Mr. Worrell was born in Bridgetown, Barbados, where he attended the school formerly known as St. James Secondary School. He graduated from The Master’s University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science. He also has earned two Master’s degrees: one from Howard University in Public Policy/Public Administration, and the other from George Washington University in Strategic Public Relations. He has also attended the John C. Maxwell Leadership Center, and became a certified speaker/coach/trainer in 2018. Mr. Worrell is currently pursuing his Leadership Coaching for Organizational Performance at American University.

Laura Saldivar has been with the National Safety Council since 2018 serving in both communications and advocacy roles. She is currently a program manager for teen safe driving and oversees their parent education program called DriveitHOME™. Her initiative seeks to save lives on the nation’s roadways and offers free resources to parents/caregivers of new teen drivers. Outside of the office, she is working on her doctoral degree in communication from Liberty University, and her research focuses on transportation safety in the media. Before joining NSC full time, Laura was a teaching assistant for public speaking and health communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. There, she obtained both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in communication. During her summer breaks, she interned at the Council’s headquarters. Her passion for advocacy work stems from her teenage years serving with organizations like IL SADD, SADD National, NOYS, NYLC and YSA.

Jennifer Brown has been educating young adults at Gillespie High School in Gillespie Illinois for the past 23 years. Since her educational journey began, she has earned a Master’s in Educational Leadership, Master’s in Historical Studies and is currently working on a Doctorate in Organizational/Educational Leadership. Safe driving and driver training has been a passion of hers for the last 20 plus years through educating our future drivers. Thirteen years ago, she was honored to work with a group of Gillespie High School teens to create MPACT’D (Miners Preparing And Caring for Teen Driving). They have grown over the years and host several functions throughout the year for regional schools.

Michelle Anderson began her journey in the Public Health & Safety field in 1985 as a Home Health Care Manager for Alpha Medical Center in New York. She managed more than 250 caseloads helping families and worked there for ten years. In 1995 the Medical Center closed due to lack of funding and she began temping at The National Road Safety Foundation, which was then called the Manocherian Foundation. She fell in love with its mission and became heavily involved with the issues using her coordinating skills and was soon hired her full-time. Michelle is currently the Director of Operations at The National Road Safety Foundation, where she oversees development of programs that help further instruct adults and empower teens on traffic safety concerns. Michelle also manages the production, administration and distribution of thousands of its free programs on an annual basis. She organizes the foundation’s strategic goals, which include working collaboratively with safety partners such as the Governors Highway Safety Association, the American Driver Traffic Safety Education Association, the National Association of School Resource Officers, and youthbased organizations like SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) and FCCLA (Family, Career and Community Leaders of America). Michelle does not consider what she does as a “job,” but rather a calling to save lives and raise awareness for safer driving and uniformed driver education standards, accompanied with greater Graduated Driver Licensing laws across the country. She believes in promoting driver competence through lifelong education, which is the mission of the foundation and travels to conduct workshops and build strategic partnerships with groups that share the same mission. Michelle’s other passion is to the young people at her church in Brooklyn, NY, where she teaches and mentors through community outreach and fellowship programs.

Ivette Chaidez is an Education Outreach Coordinator with Impact Teen Drivers. Ivette provides programming for communities in both English and Spanish, in addition to training individuals and agencies to implement Impact Teen Drivers’ programs. Ivette honors the memory of her sister Itzy through her work.

Dr. Kelly K. Browning is the Executive Director of Impact Teen Drivers (ITD). For the past 25 years, Dr. Browning has served as a leader for youth and parent programs that prevent risky behaviors and improve positive decision making. Her work with ITD addresses reckless and distracted driving as the preventable public health crisis that it is, and she develops evidence-based education for teens, parents, and community members to support safer decision-making on the roadways. Dr. Browning received her Ph.D. in Criminology from the University of South Florida, her Master of Public Health in Criminology from the University of Central Florida, and her Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from the University of Minnesota, Moorhead State.