T&DI Board of Governors
The ASCE Transportation & Development Institute (T&DI) is led by an 8-member Board of Governors. The Board includes four elected members, two appointed members, one appointed Younger Member (YM), and one ASCE Presidential Appointee.
T&DI's FY26 Board includes the following members:
Diniece Mendes, EIT, M.ASCE
President
Diniece Mendes is an experienced civil engineer and transportation professional with over a decade of public sector leadership. She serves as Assistant Commissioner for Transit Development at the New York City Department of Transportation, where she leads citywide initiatives to make buses faster, more reliable, and easier to use through dedicated lanes, transit signal priority, automated enforcement, real-time passenger information, and other safety and mobility treatments. Her work focuses on advancing sustainable, efficient, and equitable mobility for all New Yorkers.
Previously, Diniece was Director of Freight Mobility, overseeing a multi-million-dollar portfolio of programs that reduced the impacts of trucks on infrastructure and communities while improving delivery efficiency, safety, and the city’s economic competitiveness.
Nationally, Diniece serves on the Board of Governors for ASCE’s Transportation and Development Institute (T&DI), where she led the development of the Institute’s new strategic plan. She has also held leadership roles as chair of the Infrastructure Systems Committee, chair of the Planning and Development Council, and contributor to Diversity and Inclusion initiatives. In addition, Diniece is a corresponding member of the ASCE Transportation Policy Committee, which develops and maintains ASCE’s transportation policy statements. In New York, she serves on the Executive Board of the City College of New York Engineering School Alumni Affiliate Group, strengthening connections among students, faculty, and alumni.
Diniece earned a Master of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and a Bachelor of Engineering in Civil Engineering from The City College of New York. She is a registered Engineering Intern (E.I.) in New York State.
She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and young son and enjoys traveling, entertaining, and exploring cultural experiences.
Jianming Ma, Ph.D., P.E., PMP®, M.ASCE
Vice-President
Dr. Jianming Ma is the Director of the Traffic Safety Division’s Traffic Management Section at the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). In this role, he leads the development and implementation of statewide traffic management programs, including Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), Traffic Signal Systems, Transportation Systems Management and Operations (TSMO), and Traffic Incident Management (TIM).
With nearly 30 years of progressive experience spanning research, project and program management, traffic engineering, and transportation safety, Dr. Ma has consistently demonstrated a commitment to operational excellence, team leadership, and process innovation. He has authored more than 50 technical papers and reports in the fields of ITS, traffic safety, connected and automated vehicles (CAV), and traffic operations.
Dr. Ma serves on several national and international committees. He is a member of the ASCE Transportation & Development Institute (T&DI) Board of Governors and the founding co-chair of the ASCE T&DI Connected & Autonomous Vehicle Impacts Committee. He also contributes to the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Committee on Connected and Automated Vehicle Systems.
He is the Immediate Past President of the Chinese Overseas Transportation Association (COTA) and currently serves as the Research Development and Implementation Coordinator for the AASHTO Committee on Transportation System Operations. Additionally, Dr. Ma is active in ITS America, participating in the Committee on V2X and Connected Transportation, the Committee on Automated Vehicles, and the Committee on Artificial Intelligence. He represents the United States on the Road Network Operations/ITS Technical Committee of the World Road Association (PIARC).
Dr. Ma has been invited to serve on numerous high-impact research panels, including those for TxDOT, the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP), Strategic Highway Research Program 2 (SHRP2), the AASHTO CAV Working Group, the Cooperative and Automated Transportation Coalition, and the Connected Vehicle Pooled Fund Study (CV PFS). He has also served on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Safety Research.
Scott Murrell, P.E., M.ASCE
Past-President
Scott Murrell started his professional career with the Port Authority in 1982 as a Civil Design Engineer, rising through the ranks to become the Chief Civil Engineer in 2005. As the Chief Civil Engineer, Mr. Murrell was responsible for overseeing more than $1 billion of transportation infrastructure projects, including a $300 million runway reconstruction at John F. Kennedy International Airport along with numerous roads, bridge, tunnel, and port facility projects. In 2015 he joined Applied Research Associates (ARA) as Director of Commercial Aviation Services. Since joining ARA, Mr. Murrell has been the technical lead for support of the FAA’s Airport Technology Research, focusing on airport pavements, and airport consulting projects.
Mr. Murrell is a registered Professional Engineer in the states of New York and New Jersey and a recognized authority in transportation engineering. He has won numerous professional awards, including the 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Robert Horonjeff Award for the Advancement of Air Transportation Engineering and 2010 ASCE Civil Engineer of the Year (New Jersey Section). He has participated in several professional organizations, including TRB, AASHTO, ACRP, ASCE, and FAA committees, boards, and panels.
Scott is a charter member of T&DI and has served in a variety of roles including Airfield Pavement Committee Chair, Council Chair, and two-year appointed board member. He was co-chair of the First T&DI Congress, which later became the ASCE International Conference on Transportation & Development. Scott is a familiar face at Airfield and Highway Pavement Specialty Conferences, having served as co-chair and steering committee member from 2006 through 2020. He also continues to be an active member of the Airfield Pavement Committee.
Eileen Velez-Vega, P.E., M.ASCE
Treasurer
Eileen Velez-Vega, P.E., M.ASCE has been elected for the 4-year position on the Board of Governors of Transportation & Development Institute (T&DI) of ASCE. Her term will commence October 1, 2026. With her election, she will be on track to serve as T&DI’s President for FY28.
Eileen Velez-Vega serves as the Strategic Infrastructure Director at Kimley-Horn Puerto Rico, LLC. She recently finished her distinguished tenure as the secretary of the Department of Transportation and Public Works for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (DTOP) - notably, the first woman to serve in this position.
Through her leadership at DTOP, Vélez-Vega oversaw significant advancements in the island’s transportation infrastructure, including initiatives in the areas of roadway maintenance, public transportation, and recovery efforts following Hurricanes Maria and Fiona. Her efforts were concentrated in modernizing Puerto Rico’s infrastructure, ensuring its resilience, and promoting long-term sustainability for the island’s transportation network. During her tenure as secretary, Vélez-Vega served as the chair of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Aviation Council and was appointed to the US Department of Transportation’s Transforming Transportation Advisory Committee (TTAC), working to guide the future of US transportation innovation and policy. She has also served as the chair of T&DI’s Airfield Pavements Committee.
Beyond her professional accomplishments, Vélez-Vega is a passionate advocate for STEM education, particularly for young girls. She has dedicated significant time to mentoring and inspiring the next generation of women in engineering and aviation. As a leader in Women in Aviation International and the Society of Women Engineers, Vélez-Vega actively supports initiatives that encourage young women to pursue careers in STEM fields. Her commitment to empowering women in aviation and engineering was recently recognized with her induction into the Class of 2024 Space Camp Hall of Fame, a prestigious honor that celebrates individuals who have made exceptional contributions to aerospace and STEM education.
Before she was appointed the head of DTOP, Vélez-Vega served as an aviation practice leader at Kimley-Horn Puerto Rico, LLC. Additionally, her time with the US Army Corps of Engineers provided her with a solid foundation in large-scale infrastructure projects and public sector collaborations.
Navneet Garg, Ph.D., F.ASCE
ASCE President-Appointed Member
Dr. Navneet Garg is a Program Manager in Airport Technology R&D Branch at the FAA’s William J. Hughes Technical Center in Atlantic City, N.J. He earned his Ph.D. (1997) from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; M.S. (1993) from Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago; and B.E (1990) from Karnataka Regional Engineering College, Suratkal, India, all in Civil Engineering.
Dr. Garg has been involved in airport pavement research at FAA’s National Airport Pavement Test Facility since 1998, and manages projects on Accelerated Pavement Testing, Pavement Instrumentation, and Pavement Materials. He conceptualized/developed FAA’s National Airport Pavement & Materials Research Center (NAPMRC) – a $9 million state-of-the-art research facility. Currently he is managing projects on full-scale testing of innovative paving materials, development of advanced pavement analysis software PANDA-AP, and web-based Life Cycle Assessment tool “FAALCAn” for improved energy use quantification, and local aggregate resource use. He has authored over 125 papers for peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings.
He is a Fellow of ASCE, past Chair of ASCE Airfield Pavements Committee, Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of International Society for Asphalt Pavements (ISAP), Associate Editor of IJPE, Member of TRB Aircraft Compatibility with Airport Infrastructure committee (AV016), and Past Secretary of TRB Aircraft-Airport Compatibility Committee (AV070). He is the recipient of 2023 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) Civil and Environmental Engineering Distinguished Alumnus Award, FAA’s 23rd Annual Ellis A. Ohnstad Award for Technical Excellence (2022), UIUC Chi Epsilon (National Honor Society for the Civil Engineering profession) Chapter Honor Member (2022), 2018 ASCE T&DI Airfield Practitioner Award, and 2004 Engineer of the Year award given by the Southern New Jersey Professional Societies.
John Corbin, P.E., F.ASCE
Appointed Member
John is currently a Senior Advisor to the Transportation Digital Infrastructure and Emerging Technology Initiative in the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of the Secretary.
He recently served as the Emerging Mobility Technologies Program Manager within the Federal Highway Administration’s Office of Operations, and as the Director of Traffic Operations in the Wisconsin and Iowa Departments of Transportation. While with the Wisconsin DOT, he served as the State Traffic Engineer, and as the Freeway Operations Engineer and Intelligent Transportation Systems Program Manager for Metropolitan Milwaukee. Earlier in his career, he worked as a Traffic Control Engineer for the City of Milwaukee, and as a Construction Engineer for the Illinois Department of Transportation. In addition, he is an adjunct faculty member in the engineering departments at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
John completed his undergraduate work in Transportation Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1986. He went on to obtain a Master of Civil and Environmental Engineering through the University of Illinois-Chicago and UW-Madison, also earning a UW Certificate in Public Administration.
He is a Fellow Member of both the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). He also serves on the Board of Governors of ASCE’s Transportation and Development Institute. John is the Digital Infrastructure Initiative Leader within the Transportation Research Board Intelligent Transportation Systems Committee. His previous national professional community roles included membership in the formative leadership group of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Committee on Transportation Systems Operations, and the leadership team of the Strategic Highway Research Program Reliability Technical Coordinating Committee.
José Holguin-Veras, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE
Appointed Member
Dr. José Holguín-Veras is the William H. Hart Professor, and Director of the Center for Infrastructure, Transportation, and the Environment; and the Volvo Research and Educational Foundations (VREF) Center of Excellence on Sustainable Urban Freight Systems at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He received his B.Sc. in Civil Engineering, Magna Cum Laude, from the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, in 1981; his M.Sc. from the Universidad Central de Venezuela in 1984; and his Ph.D. from The University of Texas at Austin in 1996. He has been a faculty member at California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo (1996-1997), City College of New York (1997-2002), and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (2002-present).
His research emphasizes the integration, synthesis, and projection of the knowledge that exists in multiple disciplines to produce solutions to the complex and multifaceted dynamics—which have proven to be too complex to be solved by single-disciplinary approaches—that impact freight transportation activity. His research blends fieldwork and applied and basic research to ensure that theory relates to reality; and, ultimately, to a set of actionable policy recommendations that contribute to the betterment of the economy and society.
His research activities focus on three major areas: freight transportation demand modeling, sustainable freight policy, and humanitarian logistics. His work on freight demand modeling focuses on the development of freight demand modeling techniques that minimize data collection needs. His work on sustainable freight policy studies the interactions between the agents (e.g., shippers, carriers, receivers, city agencies, real estate companies) involved in freight activity, to define ways to exploit these interactions to foster sustainable development and operations. One of his most visible contributions is the NYC off-hour-delivery (OHD) project, adopted by the City of New York and dozens of cities around the world that adopted OHD as part of its sustainability plan, leading TIME magazine to identify OHD as one of the “10 Ideas that Make a Difference” in traffic congestion.
Alyssa Ryan, Ph.D., EIT, M.ASCE
Appointed Younger Member
Alyssa Ryan, Ph.D., M.ASCE, has been appointed to serve a one-year term on the FY26 Board of Governors as Younger Members’ (YM) representative, with term beginning on October 1, 2026. She serves as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Michigan State University, and is the Past-Chair of T&DI’s Younger Member committee.
Dr. Ryan leads research in transportation safety, equity in transportation, human factors, driving simulation, health outcomes, behavioral modeling, traffic operations, and the use of emerging technologies in transportation systems. She has contributed to over 30 peer-reviewed journal publications and 70+ conference presentations. She has been in active roles within the Transportation Research Board as a member of the Women and Families Standing Committee and previously on the Road User Measurement and Evaluation Standing Committee. She currently serves as the Vice Chair of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Education Council and Chair of the ITE Equity Committee. Recently, she was awarded the 2025 Outstanding Younger Member Award from the Transportation & Development Institute of ASCE. Dr. Ryan is dedicated to mentoring future transportation engineers to serve communities through safer, more accessible, and resilient systems.