Well-recognized as a national multimodal safety expert, Nicole comes to us with an extensive 20-year career in transportation planning and policy and over a decade specializing in safety planning work. A longtime DC resident and avid Washington Nationals fan, her passions include sports, travel and unique hotel experiences, and spending time with her daughter. Her first job at the Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations (AMPO) ignited her interest in all things transportation and she picked up her passion for safety along the way by working with amazing mentors in this space.  It helped her make the connection that she didn’t want anyone’s life to change in an instant with a phone call about someone they knew getting in a crash. Nicole will serve as a companywide multimodal safety expert leading the Fehr & Peers safety practice in the East and South Regions.

Nicole Brings a Steeped Knowledge of the Safe System Approach & Planning

Through her dedication to safety planning, she has managed close to thirty multidisciplinary state, regional, and local safety plans across the country. Her groundbreaking work at the federal and research level includes coming alongside the Transportation Research Board (TRB) through their National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) in projects that created implementation tools for practitioners as well as processes and frameworks to assist in effectively institutionalizing safety into the traditional transportation planning process. Her cumulative knowledge and understanding of best practices from numerous states will bring immense value to our team and the communities we serve.

Nicole’s work also extends to contributions and content development of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Integrating the Safe System Approach into the Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP) Guide. Here she collaborated with the FHWA and co-led a practitioner focus group (representatives from DOTs, MPOs, FHWA, and NHTSA) to re-think how the Safe System Approach could be considered and aligned with SHSP development. Her upcoming work includes the Washington Strategic Highway Safety Plan where she will support development of a first-of-its-kind plan to integrate the Safe System Approach and safety culture. 

Nicole Brings a Key MPO Background

Beginning her transportation career at the AMPO, Nicole served as Program Manager for six years. She worked with numerous regional Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) across the country and provided extensive training and technical assistance to help the agencies target opportunities to integrate the five Safe System elements into the job responsibilities and across the core functions of the MPO. As the Acting Administrator for a North Carolina MPO, Nicole led the planning for and programming of transportation funds to include work with the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP).

Nicole Brings Extensive Experience in the Development and Training of Industry Practitioners

Nicole’s extensive experience in training practitioners on both regional and national stages is elevating the state of the practice in integrating the Safe System Approach into planning. She has developed presentations, workshops, and sessions for the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), and the Transportation Research Board (TRB) and to date has helped educate over 1000 practitioners nationally. She engages planners, engineers, and behavioral specialists in identifying the best opportunities to address issues like safe roads, safe users, safe speeds, and post-crash care. She teaches full-day classes to assist State DOTs and MPOs in identifying tools, techniques, strategies, and policies to prioritize safe systems concepts in their transportation planning documents. Utilizing the research results from many of her projects, Nicole also leads training on how to integrate safety into public engagement, multidisciplinary coordination, goals and objectives, data analysis, project prioritization, and monitoring and evaluation. Her courses help states and agencies come away with roadmaps and action plans to better integrate Safe Systems principles into all their planning activities. Her customized approaches can be designed to demonstrate compliance with Safe Streets for All grants.

We are thrilled to have Nicole and warmly welcome her as she joins our team. Her addition will allow us to continue to invest in innovations related to safety analyses and address the expanding demand for safety work on the heels of the new Safe Streets and Roads for All federal funding. We are so excited about her valuable contributions to one of the fastest-growing technical areas of our firm and the expertise she will share in our efforts to create safer communities. Please join us in welcoming Nicole to Fehr & Peers!