Ramón Alvarez, PhD, is Associate Chief Scientist at Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), where he helps shape scientific strategy and leads research to inform energy policy and corporate action, including a global initiative to quantify hydrogen emissions from existing infrastructure. With more than 30 years of experience, his work focuses on methane mitigation, low-carbon fuels, hydrogen emissions, and advanced air pollution monitoring. He helped lead a landmark, multi-institution study quantifying methane emissions from U.S. oil and gas operations and was first author of the 2018 integrative assessment published in Science. He holds a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, with expertise in atmospheric and combustion processes.

Dr. Alberto Ayala is the Executive Director and Air Pollution Control Officer of the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District. With nearly 30 years of experience, he has led research and regulation on air quality and climate change policy in California. He previously served as Deputy Executive Officer at the California Air Resources Board and has authored over 150 technical publications. Dr. Ayala is a mechanical engineer with B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from UC Davis. He has also worked in industry and academia, including roles at Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical and West Virginia University.

Trelynd “Tre” Bradley is the Deputy Director for Innovation and Emerging Technologies at the California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz), where he leads efforts to maintain and advance California’s role as the global leader in cutting-edge sectors such as artificial intelligence, quantum, fusion, space, robotics, and more. Tre advises state leaders on technology trends and opportunities, focusing on commercialization, technology transfer, and talent pipeline development. He additionally provides tailored consultation to corporate executives, industry associations, and entrepreneurs on incentive navigation, site selection, and infrastructure planning. During his tenure in business development, his work has supported some of the largest deals in capital expenditure and job creation in California in sectors such as aerospace and defense, clean energy, critical minerals, biotech, agriculture, and manufacturing.

Prior to GO-Biz Tre was the appointed Policy Analyst and Executive Fellow for the Office of Planning and Research (OPR) under Governor Brown where he managed several projects leading up to the Global Climate Action Summit - including the publishing of the Fourth Edition of the California Solar Guidebook. Before joining the State of California, Trelynd served for two airport CEOs at Ontario International Airport Authority and Los Angeles World Airports while also managing his small business selling fireworks in northern Colorado. Tre also facilitated veterans’ affairs casework for Congressman Raul Ruiz.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in both business economics and political science from UC Riverside, and a Graduate Certificate in Applied Policy and Government CSU Sacramento. Tre is currently an MBA candidate at the Anderson School of Management at UCLA.

Dr. Rasto Brezny is the Executive Director of MECA, a nonprofit trade association representing suppliers of clean mobility technology.  He has worked in the automotive industry for over 30 years.  He joined MECA in 2006 as Deputy Director and has been MECA’s Executive Director since 2016.  Prior to joining MECA, Dr. Brezny was the Global Marketing and Technology Manager for automotive materials at W.R. Grace.  In this position he had world-wide responsibility for automotive catalyst product development and marketing.  Prior to his commercial role, Dr. Brezny spent 11 years at Grace’s Washington Research Center developing automotive catalyst substrates and mixed oxide support materials.   Dr. Brezny holds 16 patents and has authored or co-authored over 40 scientific papers.  He served on U.S. EPA’s Mobile Source Technology Review Subcommittee (MSTRS) from 2016-2021 and is currently a member of the Environmental Technologies Trade Advisory Committee (ETTAC) for the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Dr. Aravind Kailas is the Advanced Technology Policy Director at Volvo Group, where he leads North American public affairs across automation, artificial intelligence, connectivity, and zero-emission transportation. His work focuses on enabling the scalable deployment of autonomous and electric commercial vehicles by aligning vehicle technology, energy and utility infrastructure, and policy. He has helped shape regulatory frameworks at the state and federal levels and led major real-world pilots, including automated truck testing, early truck platooning programs, commercial electric truck and charging deployments, and AI-enabled traffic and infrastructure demonstrations. He also co-founded Powering America’s Commercial Transportation and regularly advises governments, industry, and research institutions on the future of mobility. Dr. Kailas has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications and technical contributions, with recognition from IEEE, SAE, and the Transportation Research Board. He is actively engaged in IEEE technical committees, standards activities, and editorial initiatives, and holds degrees in engineering and mathematics from the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Wisconsin.

Dr. Aaron Katzenstein is the Deputy Executive Officer of the Technology Advancement Office. His office is responsible for overseeing several mobile source incentive programs, technology review, and development and commercialization of clean air technologies.

He began his career at South Coast AQMD in 2003 where he worked in the laboratory prior to his role as the Climate and Energy Supervisor in Planning and Rules.  He later became an Acting Planning Manager for Area Sources and most recently was the Laboratory and Source Test Manager. He has been heavily involved in numerous Multiple Air Toxics Exposure Studies, Air Quality Management Plans, policy development, research projects, air quality studies, and technology/infrastructure projects.

Dr. Katzenstein received his undergraduate degree in Chemistry with a minor in Physics from the University of Redlands.  He graduated with a M.S. and Ph.D. in Chemistry with a focus on Atmospheric Chemistry from the University of California Irvine where he studied regional and global air quality.

Mike Landry is the Director for Global Certification and Program Compliance at Ford Motor Company, where he provides strategic oversight for the company’s regulatory integrity and adherence on a global scale. Since joining Ford in 1995, Mike has built a distinguished 30-year career defined by leadership in vehicle engineering, regulatory affairs, and technical compliance.

Throughout his tenure, Mike has held a diverse range of leadership positions that span the critical intersection of engineering and policy. His extensive background includes expertise in vehicle emissions laboratory compliance and correlation, emissions certification, and vehicle safety compliance. He has also led specialized initiatives in emissions sampling and analytics, vehicle roadloads, and fuel economy, giving him a holistic understanding of the technical challenges inherent in modern vehicle development.

In his current role, Mike is responsible for ensuring the highest standards of program integrity across Ford’s global portfolio. His ability to navigate complex regulatory landscapes is backed by a strong academic foundation; he holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan State University and a Master of Science in Interdisciplinary Engineering from Purdue University.

Andreas Malikopoulos is a professor in the School of Civil & Environmental Engineering and the Director of the Information and Decision Science Lab at Cornell University. Prior to these appointments, he was the Terri Connor Kelly and John Kelly Career Development Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering (2017-2023) and the founding director of the Sociotechnical Systems Center (2019-2023) at the University of Delaware. Before he joined University of Delaware, he was the Alvin M. Weinberg Fellow (2010-2017) in the Energy & Transportation Science Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the Deputy Director of the Urban Dynamics Institute (2014-2017) at ORNL, and a senior researcher in General Motors Global Research & Development (2008-2010). He received a Diploma from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 2004 and 2008, respectively, all in mechanical engineering.

Dr. Malikopoulos is the recipient of several prizes and awards, including the 2007 Dare to Dream Opportunity Grant from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, the 2007 University of Michigan Teaching Fellow, the 2010 Alvin M. Weinberg Fellowship, the 2019 IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Young Researcher Award, and the 2020 University of Delaware’s College of Engineering Outstanding Junior Faculty Award. He has been selected by the National Academy of Engineering to participate in the 2010 German-American Frontiers of Engineering (FOE) Symposium and organize a session on transportation at the 2016 European-American FOE Symposium. He has also been selected as a 2012 Kavli Frontiers of Science Scholar by the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Malikopoulos is an Associate Editor of Automatica and IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, and a Senior Editor of IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE, a Fellow of the ASME, and a member of the Board of Governors and Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society.

Dr. Ellen K. Mantus is the Director of Science at the Health Effects Institute (HEI). She oversees the Environment and Health program that primarily focuses on the relationship between air pollution exposures and health. In that role, she works with the Research and Review Committees and HEI staff to identify important research topics, develop research proposals, review research applications, oversee funded research, and review investigator reports. Previously, she was a Scholar and Director of the Chemical Sciences Roundtable on the Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (National Academies) where she served as the study director on more than 20 National Academies studies. As a study director, she worked closely with diverse National Academies committees to assess the underlying science and ensure successful completion of the committee reports. In recognition of her achievements at the National Academies, she was awarded the National Academies Distinguished Service Award in 2008. 

Rachel Muncrief is a chemical engineer with more than 20 years of experience working to mitigate the health and climate impacts from the transportation sector. Before becoming Executive Director of the International Council on Clean Transportation, Dr. Muncrief held several roles at the ICCT, including Deputy Director and Program Director overseeing ICCT’s Heavy-duty Vehicles and Compliance and Enforcement programs. Prior to joining the ICCT, she worked as a research faculty at The University of Houston, where her research focused on NOx and PM emissions reduction for diesel applications as well as full-scale vehicle and engine testing of heavy-duty vehicle technologies and fuels. She holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering with a focus in catalysis and reactor engineering from Tulane University, an MBA from The University of Houston, and a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Miami (go ‘canes!).

Jimmy O’Dea is the Assistant Deputy Director for Transportation Electrification at the California Department of Transportation, where he leads the Department’s efforts to advance zero-emission vehicles across the state. He previously held roles at CALSTART and the Union of Concerned Scientists, where he helped shape and advance first-in-the-nation policies supporting the deployment of electric trucks and buses at the local, state, and federal levels. Dr. O’Dea served as a Science and Engineering Congressional Fellow in the office of U.S. Senator Brian Schatz, contributing to federal energy and climate policy. He began his career in research at the University of California, Santa Barbara and Cornell University, where his work focused on improving the performance and reducing the cost of hydrogen fuel cells.

Stephen Ritchie is Chancellor's Professor Emeritus of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). He is an internationally recognized educator and pioneering researcher in intelligent and sustainable transportation systems planning and engineering emphasizing the development, application and field deployment of emerging technologies and artificial intelligence techniques for traffic operations and management, and support of infrastructure investment for the nation’s freight transportation system. He served as Director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at UCI from 2006-25, where he led the Institute to become one of the major transportation research centers in the nation, while also being the focal point of the highly successful transportation research and education enterprise on the UCI campus. His research, and his founding of the international journal Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, helped define and advance the scientific basis of what is now the worldwide field of Intelligent Transportation Systems. His current leadership of the Freight Mobility Living Laboratory, a near-real-time, scalable ecosystem for exploring field deployments of innovative approaches and technologies for collecting vital road and rail freight activity data, is impacting research frontiers and the state of practice in California and the nation. Professor Ritchie has published over 200 peer-reviewed journal articles and conference papers and graduated 28 PhD students and 25 MS students to date in transportation engineering. Thirteen of his PhD graduates hold positions as Professors of Civil or Transportation Engineering in major universities, and 2 have won prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER awards. He is a recipient of the U.S. National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award, the ASCE Frank M. Masters Transportation Engineering Award (with citation: "For his innovative work in the development and application of new technologies in transportation engineering"), the US Transportation Research Board Pyke Johnson Outstanding Paper Award, and the Intelligent Transportation Society of America “Best of ITS” Research Award. His extensive professional service includes serving as organizer/conference chair/co-chair/organizing committee member for major national and international transportation conferences, including the ASCE international conference series on Applications of Advanced Technologies in Transportation Engineering. He has served as Chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UCI, and developed and taught numerous undergraduate and graduate transportation engineering classes. Professor Ritchie is a Fellow and Life Member of ASCE. 

Todd is currently Assistant Chief of the Mobile Source Laboratory Division at the California Air Resources Board (CARB), and Senior Enforcement Advisor of the California Environmental Protection Agency.  He previously served as Deputy Director of Site Mitigation and Restoration at the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, Enforcement Division Chief at CARB, and Assistant Chief in the Mobile Source Control Division. Todd has overseen mobile and stationary source testing, emissions inventory, incentives and enforcement projects.  He has a Doctorate in Environmental Science and Engineering from UCLA. 

Matt Sheehan serves as Senior Consulting Engineer – Fuels at Chevron, based in Richmond, California. In this role, he leads fuels product strategy, provides expertise on fuel specifications and performance, and coordinates Chevron’s participation in key industry committees. Matt currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Coordinating Research Council and is Section Chair for ASTM International Committee D02.A0.01 on Gasoline and Gasoline-Oxygenate Blends.

Previously, Matt served as Biofuels Technology Commercialization Manager, where he led efforts to integrate renewable fuels processing into Chevron’s refinery operations, supporting the company’s lower-carbon transportation strategy.

Stephanie Severance is a technology and strategy leader with more than 20 years of experience in global powertrain development, research, and decarbonization across advanced internal combustion, hybrid and electric systems, and hydrogen technologies.

As Director of Strategy, Innovation & Partnerships within Cummins’ Research and Technology organization, she leads enterprise technology strategy and oversees a global research portfolio, advising senior leadership on investments across multiple decarbonization pathways. Her work focuses on aligning sustainability, business performance, and access to reliable power in an increasingly complex energy landscape.

John C. Wall (ScD, NAE) retired from Cummins Inc. in 2015, where he was Chief Technical Officer from 2000-2015. He has over 45 years of industry experience in the development of low-emission internal combustion engines and fuels and working with regulatory agencies in the United States and worldwide to align engine and fuel technologies with future emissions policy with the objective of delivering products meeting both commercial and environmental expectations. During his time with Cummins, Wall was directly involved in the most critical technology programs for low emissions, powertrain efficiency and alternative fuels and he also led the growth of the Cummins technical organization from 1,000 engineers, mostly centered in the United States, to more than 6,000 engineers worldwide. Prior to joining Cummins in 1986, he led Diesel and Aviation Fuels Research for Chevron, where his team was first to discover the important contribution of fuel sulfur to diesel particulate emissions, leading to the first low-sulfur fuel standards by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1994. Wall has been elected into the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and is a Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Fellow. He received the SAE Horning and Colwell Awards for research in the area of diesel fuel effects on emissions, SAE Pischinger Powertrain Innovation Award and ASME Honda Medal for significant contributions in the field of personal transportation, the California Air Resources Board Haagen-Smit Award and EPA Thomas W. Zosel Award for career accomplishments in diesel emission control, and has been recognized by the Health Effects Institute for technologic innovation and commitment to clean air. He is currently an advisor to the International Council on Clean Transportation, the Institute of Transportation Studies – UC Davis, the California South Coast Air Quality Management District and the College of Engineering – Center for Environmental Research and Technology (CE-CERT) – UC-Riverside. Wall studied Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received joint S.B. and S.M. from the ME Honors Program in 1975 and Sc.D. in 1978, and he was scrum half for the MIT 1974 New England Rugby Champion team. 

Jaron Weston is Branch Manager of at the California Energy Commission, where he leads teams working on EV infrastructure, vehicle-grid integration, data analytics, and clean transportation regulation. His previous experience in the clean transportation sector includes prior roles at SDG&E and at Elli, a Volkswagen Group company. He holds an MBA and MS in Natural Resources from the University of Arizona.

Dean Zabrieszach is the Chief Executive of Ohmio Automotion and its parent company, HMI Technologies, which develops and deploys intelligent transport systems for transport agencies, governments, and commercial organizations worldwide. Prior to becoming Global CEO, he led HMI Technologies’ Australian operations from 2015 to 2017, establishing the company as a strong industry competitor, securing major projects, and expanding operations across multiple states.

Dean is widely recognized in the intelligent transportation systems (ITS) sector both in Australia and internationally. In 2017 he became President of ITS Australia after previously serving as Vice President and Project Director for the 2016 ITS World Congress in Melbourne. He also serves on the ITS Asia-Pacific Board of Directors and the World Congress International Program Committee and was the Australian Head of Delegation to the ISO Technical Committee 204 on intelligent transport systems.

Earlier in his career, Dean held several senior leadership roles at VicRoads, including Manager of Intelligent Transport Systems, Director of Road User Services, and Director of Road Operations. He holds a Bachelor of Civil Engineering from the University of Melbourne.