(Washington, DC) – The Eno Center for Transportation announces the appointment of a new slate of members to its Board of Advisors, Board of Regents, and Digital Cities Advisory Board. Eno’s Board of Advisors provides valuable expertise on critical and emerging topics in transportation, assists in finding new fields deserving of attention from Eno, contributes to Eno research initiatives, and assists with disseminating analyses and publications.

New Board of Advisors members:

Steven Polunsky — Director of the Transportation Policy Research Center, University of Alabama. Steven Polunsky is the Director of the Transportation Policy Research Center within the Alabama Transportation Institute at the University of Alabama, where he leads a multidisciplinary team of researchers providing transportation and mobility information to policymakers and the public. He previously was a research scientist with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute where he provided policy implementation support for topics of legislative interest and has extensive experience in the executive and legislative branches of state government.

Sameer Sharma — Global GM (Smart Cities & Transportation), IOT Solutions at Intel. Sameer Sharma is the Global GM (Smart Cities & Transportation) for IOT Solutions at Intel and a thought leader in IOT/AI ecosystem, having driven multiple strategic initiatives to scale over the past 20+ years. Sameer leads a global team that incubates and scales new growth categories and business models for Intel. His team also focuses on establishing leadership across the industry playing a pivotal role in deploying solutions for the development of smart cities around the world—an important effort in furthering the goal of sustainability.

Eno’s Board of Regents supports the educational and professional development programs, including selecting the Future Leaders Development Conference Fellows, offering advice and guidance on program development, and providing leadership for the Eno Alumni Association.

New Board of Regents member:

Avital Barnea — Deputy Secretary for Transportation Planning, California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA). Avital Barnea is the Deputy Secretary for Transportation Planning at the California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA), a position to which she was appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom. Avital serves in a key advisory role to the CalSTA Secretary on transportation planning, including sustainability, mass transit, rail, ports, and freight. She also serves as CalSTA’s Equity Manager, providing leadership on equity issues to CalSTA’s eight departments, boards, and commissions with a staff of 40,000 employees. Prior to her appointment at CalSTA, Avital was the Program Manager for Freight at the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and also worked at the United States Department of Transportation.

Eno’s Digital Cities Advisory Board is a standing body that provides Eno staff with guidance and expertise on all matters related to technology-enabled transportation policy, including automated and connected vehicles, transportation network companies and taxis, technology-enabled transit, technology and traveler information, the transportation sharing economy, and technology and freight movement.

New Digital Cities Advisory Board member:

Andy Taylor — Head of Global Strategy, Cubic. Andy Taylor is a global transportation expert with over 30 years of experience in such diverse domains ranging from air traffic management to multi-modal integration. Andy is the Head of Global Strategy for Cubic and has overseen the evolution and development the global strategy over the last seven years, focusing on strategic partnerships with some of the world’s leading technology and software companies. In that role, he has spearheaded the Mobility-as-a-Service solution to help cities and transit agencies evaluate the potential benefits of integrated multi-modal transport options. Andy is currently educating user communities and transit agencies on the true benefits and impacts of Mobility-as-a-Service and the importance of cities taking ownership of MaaS as a Multi-modal Management Model.

“Eno’s collaboration with a diverse group of advisors continually pushes us to new heights—enabling us to broaden our reach, strengthen our work, and increase our credibility,” says Eno President and CEO Robert Puentes. “We are looking forward to having Avital, Steven, Sameer, and Andy be part of that process.”

They join other distinguished leaders from across the transportation field currently serving on Eno’s Board of Advisors and Board of Regents. For a full list of all members, visit Our Boards page.

Eno is an independent, non-partisan think-tank that shapes public debate on critical multimodal transportation issues and builds an innovative network of transportation professionals. The leader in our field for nearly a century, government and industry leaders rely on Eno for timely research and an independent voice on policy issues. Our professional development programs strengthen the leadership and practical skills of transportation professionals across the industry.

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