Executive Commitee

Founder and President
Rochelle Sobel
Rochelle Sobel is the founder and President of the Association for Safe International Road Travel (ASIRT), a nonprofit organization that promotes road travel safety throughout the world via education and advocacy. Ms. Sobel founded ASIRT in response to her son Aron’s death in a 1995 bus crash in Turkey. Aron, a 25-year-old medical student, and 22 other passengers were killed in that crash.

Ms. Sobel is an experienced educator in the Washington, DC, area, and has traveled to many countries to hold forums and raise awareness on road safety issues. Ms. Sobel served on the World Health Organization (WHO)’s Global Road Safety Steering Committee and represents ASIRT as a member of the UN Road Safety Collaboration (UNRSC). She is the past chair of and served on the steering committee for the establishment of the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety and is a member of the founding Board of Directors. Ms. Sobel delivered the keynote speech at the multi-stakeholder panel of the High-Level Meeting (HLM) on Improving Global Road Safety at the United Nations in New York on July 1, 2022.

 

First Vice President
Judith Kranz
Judi Kranz serves as ASIRT Vice President; Montgomery Village Architecture Review Committee Chair and Garden of Remembrance Memorial Park Vice President.

Judi is a graduate of City College of New York. She began her career as a teacher of new immigrants in Israel. She then worked as an elementary school teacher in the NYC public schools. Following that career she was a stay at home Mom to her three sons during which time she returned to school and completed a major in Accounting. Her combined skills led her to become the Executive Director of Kehilat Shalom Congregation from which she retired after thirty-two years of service. She also served on the board the North American Association of Synagogue Executives in several capacities including international Vice President.

Judi is one of the original founders of ASIRT and has served in several capacities on the board leading to her present position as VP. She is committed to the mission of road safety and especially to the memory of Aron Sobel. She is the 2009 recipient of the Aron Sobel Guardian Award and is committed to making international travel safer for all. She has travelled to many parts of the world and has seen the need for improved safety first hand.

Vice President
Andrew D. Koblenz
Andrew D. Koblenz is the Executive Vice President of Legal and Regulatory Affairs and General Counsel at the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) where he has worked since 1999. He directs the Association’s Legal and Regulatory Group which, among other things, represents NADA and dealer interests before federal agencies. Before joining NADA, Andrew served for five years as a senior attorney with the American Automobile Manufacturers Association (AAMA).

A significant part of Andrew’s time at both NADA and AAMA has been dedicated to advancing vehicle and road safety. Included among the safety-related projects on which he has worked have been the passage of state primary enforcement safety belt laws, the National Air Bag & Seat Belt Safety Campaign, the promotion of child safety seat installation and inspection events, and “Check To Protect,” a campaign designed by the National Safety Council to encourage vehicle owners to have outstanding recalls completed.
Andrew holds degrees from Union College and Harvard Law School. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the American Law Institute.

Vice President
H. Randall Morgan
H. Randall Morgan’s international career began with Russian trade and translation in the late 1980s, for which he maintained an office in Moscow from 1989 to 1995. Now, as CEO of Morgan Language Services Corp. (www.morganlanguages.com), he operates a company providing comprehensive language solutions in over 120 languages, including translation, interpretation and “role playing.” Along with his 300 Afghan-American employees, he has spent up to 4 weeks at a time living “in character” in mock Afghan villages in the southwestern U.S. to support U.S. military pre-deployment training.

An executive coach and public speaker, Randy presents seminars internationally on topics ranging from Entrepreneurship to International Road Safety. He is the producer of the Maryland-Israel Water Conference, has served as the Chair of the Maryland-Israel Sister State Committee since 2018, and is the former VP of The Association of Language Companies (www.alcus.org), for which he founded the acclaimed “ALC Industry Survey,” now in its 19th edition. Randy is also past president of the Dartmouth College Alumni Officers Association, for which he was twice awarded for excellence.
Randy is fluent in Russian, French, and Spanish, converses in Hebrew, Dari and Pashto, and knows enough in 35 languages to make almost any waiter crack a smile.

Randy is the 2005 recipient of ASIRT’s Community Leadership award. In 2006 and again in 2015, Randy spearheaded the strategic planning campaigns that formalized the evolution of ASIRT’s Vision, Mission and Core Values. He has served as a member of ASIRT’s Board since 2000, and in recent years as a Vice President.

Secretary
Paul J. Blank
Paul Blank has served on the ASIRT Board of Directors since 2003. He was a past honoree and recipient of the ASIRT Marom Professional and Community Leadership for Global Road Safety Award. Among his contributions, Paul assisted with the Faces Behind the Figures publication and has written editorials on behalf of ASIRT. He also has represented ASIRT at international conferences and meetings in Russia, Switzerland, Turkey and Kenya.

Paul is an educator at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, Maryland, where he has taught for the past 30 years. He holds degrees from Brandeis University and the Jewish Theological Seminary. He is an accomplished musician and an avid hiker, including Mount Kalipatar (Everest), Kilimanjaro, Mount Olympus and Mount Toubkal.

Treasurer
Linda Katzper
Linda Katzper has been actively involved in fostering the mission of ASIRT. A board member since the founding of the organization, she is committed to honoring Aaron Sobel’s memory by helping to prevent road traffic tragedies. With help from her husband, Meyer, Linda designed, developed, and maintained ASIRT’s first web site. She drafted ASIRT’s first form for collecting road travel information; produced ASIRT’s first newsletter; edited many ASIRT articles, documents, and road travel reports; collaborated on several event invitations; and expedited several business needs. For her devotion to ASIRT, she was recognized as an honoree at one of the ASIRT galas.

Linda worked for many years as an information technology specialist managing the development of computer systems for the federal government. She was an English teacher and is a calligrapher and artist. Now retired, she still is dedicated to promoting road safety throughout the world.

Linda is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Cincinnati, where she earned a BA in English, a BS in Education and an MA in English.

Board of Directors

Isabel Einzig, CLC, ACC
Isabel Einzig is an organizational leadership, life coach and tutor at Unique Pathways. Her desire has always been to guide others in finding their unique path toward discovering and developing their strengths and interests and creating an action plan to achieve their life and career goals. Individuals have the answers and often require guidance to discover how to utilize their strengths, to forge satisfying relationships to achieve their goals, and live meaningful, integrated lives.
With a BS in Education from Long Island University, an MS in Applied Behavioral Science, Organizational Behavior, and a Certificate in Leadership Coaching from Georgetown University, Isabel has built a solid educational foundation upon which to hone her skills.

As an experienced educator in public and private schools, Isabel has inspired students to think critically rather than rely on the teacher for all the answers. As a president of the Teachers’ Association, she became an advocate for change by negotiating contracts, resolving conflicts and improving the teachers’ work environment. She has also been the recipient of several awards including The Teacher of the Year Award for her creative programs and curriculum enhancements.

In accordance with her late husband’s legacy, Isabel founded a company in 2002, The Fiber Optic Marketplace, which remains a leader in training, product distribution and fiber optic solutions. As a start-up business in need of structure, Isabel established a Department of Human Resources to recruit and hire employees and interns, research and deliver employee benefit packages and assure compliance with labor laws. While also serving as president for several years, she coached staff pertaining to work/life integration and motivated teams to work more effectively.

Isabel became actively involved with ASIRT when she co-chaired the Annual Gala in 2019. She chaired the event in 2020 and will chair it again in 2021.

David Feinman
David Feinman has been involved in road safety issues since 2007 when he joined the staff of former Rep. Robert Wexler and has served on ASIRT’s Board since 2011. While with former Rep. Wexler, David staffed the Congressional Caucus on Global Road Safety, leading efforts to pass two resolutions relating to road safety through the House of Representatives, building membership for the Caucus and attending the First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in Moscow.
David now provides expertise in government affairs, advocacy and the legislative process to ASIRT’s Board, supporting ASIRT’s efforts to build champions for global road safety on Capitol Hill and encouraging passage of sound federal domestic and foreign policy to support better global road safety outcomes.

David is currently Government Affairs Director for Conservation Lands Foundation (CLF), defending the integrity of America’s public lands that hold cultural, environmental, scientific and historic value as well as the bedrock conservation laws that protect them. Prior to joining CLF, David served as Washington Representative for both the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) and World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO) from 2014-2017; Senior Legislative Associate and Project Director for The Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) from 2010-2014 and as an aide to former Rep. Robert Wexler of Florida from 2007-2010 and former Rep. Shelley Berkley of Nevada in 2006.

Mariana Maguire
Mariana Maguire is a multifunctional professional with nearly 15 years of policy, advocacy, and public relations experience in government and non-profit, developing and leading high-impact initiatives and diverse partnerships.

Mariana worked in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2006-2014 where she co-led the Congressional Global Road Safety Caucus, passing the first-ever bipartisan Resolution on Global Road Safety and representing Congress at the First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in Moscow. She also launched the Bipartisan Working Group on Women’s Issues and spearheaded the designation of the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument.

In 2015, Mariana became the Conservation Lands Foundation’s (CLF) first Southern California Associate Director for Conservation and its first Associate California Program Director in 2018. She led campaigns and partnerships throughout Southern California, where her work helped establish one of the most intact, protected desert landscapes in the world. She also helped build CLF’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiative and helped start CLF’s voter engagement initiative.

Mariana now serves as a Public Relations Officer for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority (SFMTA) where she leads communications, outreach and public engagement for a number of major projects. She also serves on several nonprofit Boards of Directors, including ASIRT, where she provides communications and advocacy strategy expertise.

Mariana holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a Master of Arts in Social and Public Policy from Georgetown University.

Hernan Rosenberg
With more than 35 years of experience in private and international public sectors spanning all continents, Hernan Rosenberg specializes in strategic planning, international development and facilitation of dialogue between the social and economic sectors. He has pioneered important changes in technical cooperation delivery and in the evaluation of programs.

Currently, Hernan trains, facilitates and advises international organizations, NGOs and countries in all aspects of public policy and program design, management and evaluation; strategic planning and results-based management (RBM). He also lectures on these topics at the graduate level at several universities in the U.S. as well as at the University of Chile’s School of Public Health, where he has been appointed professor agregado, and at Universidad de La Frontera, Temuco Chile.

Hernan was appointed as a member of the Evaluation Panel of Experts of the United Nations Development Program; is a founding member, Vice President of Finances and Advisor for Development Outcomes Organization (DOO); is a founding member and Treasurer for Global Health International Advisors (GHIA); and is a Board Member for the Shikuri Project that focuses on Sickle Cell Anemia in Africa. His career in the United Nations culminated in his role as Team Leader of the Strategic Planning, Resource Coordination and Program Support group of the Pan American Health Organization, from which he retired in 2010. He was instrumental in a total transformation of the agency’s managerial system with the adoption of a results-based management approach. While developed for an international organization, several countries in the Americas requested support for this system for their own governments. Hernan also established the Global Fund against AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM), which is the first institution to fully incorporate the RBM approach into its operations. He has also prepared a USAID funded manual for health investment plans that is now used in several countries.

Hernan earned a Master of Arts and advanced doctoral studies in Engineering-Economic Systems and Economics from Stanford University, where he was a Fulbright Scholar and a Bachelor of Science and Engineering degrees in Industrial Engineering from the Universidad de Chile. He advises ASIRT in outreach to multinational health and economic organizations and agencies.

Dr. Maria Vegega
Dr. Maria Vegega is a Road Safety and Injury Prevention Consultant. She retired in 2018 after 38 years with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Over the course of her career, she held several management positions in both the program and research offices and served as Policy Advisor to senior NHTSA executives. She ended her career as Chief of the Occupant Protection Division, where she managed a staff responsible for developing program approaches to increase the use of safety belts and child restraint systems and reduce distracted and drowsy driving. Prior to her appointment to the Occupant Protection Division, she served in several management positions where she was responsible for behavioral research and programs addressing topics such as alcohol and drug impaired driving; speeding; pedestrian, bicycle, motorcycle safety and school bus safety.

Maria has a long history in injury prevention and control. She managed the international behavioral traffic safety program and worked with a team on global road safety issues. She also served as the U.S. government representative to the Working Party for Road Traffic Safety (UNECE), worked on the World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention and on World Health Day activities, participated in the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration and development of road safety manuals, and served on an OECD committee on Keeping Children Safe in Traffic. Maria has published on a variety of traffic safety issues and has participated in many interdisciplinary efforts to reduce motor vehicle crashes. She has mentored many staff, including many public health fellows under the auspices of the Association of Schools and Programs for Public Health.

In addition to her current service on the Board of Directors for ASIRT, Maria serves on several Transportation Research Board Committees and is a member of two Behavioral Traffic Safety Cooperative Research Program panels. She also serves on a Technical Advisory Panel for a World Bank Project.

Advisory Board

Michael G. Dreznes
Michael G. Dreznes retired on December 31, 2020, as the Executive Vice- President of the International Road Federation (IRF), a position he assumed in February of 2012. Mike spent the last 35 years working to make the roads safer around the world. He started his career at Energy Absorption Systems, Inc. where he introduced the concept of crash cushions internationally. He later continued his quest to make roads safe globally with Barrier Systems, a Lindsay Transportation Safety company. Today he is recognized as one of the world’s leading specialists on roadside safety promoting the concept of “Forgiving Roads.” He has conducted multiple road safety training seminars on roadside safety, work zone safety, vulnerable user safety and road safety audit in more than 70 countries around the globe.

Michael was the Co-Chairman of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) AFB20 (2) Roadside Safety Subcommittee on International Research Activities for 18 years until he stepped down in 2019. He is Co-Chairman of the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration (UNRSC) Decade of Action Pillar 2: Safer Roads and Mobility Project Group, and a member of the PIARC Road Safety Technical Committee 3.2 Design and Operation of Safer Road Infrastructure.

In January 2015, Michael was named the winner of the TRB AFB20 Roadside Safety Design Kenneth Stonex Lifetime Achievement Award. In October 2020 the Puerto Rico Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) awarded him with their 2020 Road Safety International Ambassador Award.

Since he retired, Michael is spending his time conducting “Shaka Cool School” e-learning classes for his 10 grandchildren and planning monthly trips with his wife of 48 years, Margaret.

Dick Finch
Richard Finch retired as CEO of Tough Logistics in mid 2022, a company he set up nearly eight years ago after a lifetime career in Shell, providing discreet Strategic and Tactical logistics solutions for global clients operating in environmentally and security sensitive locations.

Started his career as an officer in Her Majesties Royal Air Force (RAF) as a graduate Supply Branch entry officer at RAF Cranwell after acquiring his honors Geography degree from Queen Mary College, London University. Richard joined the United Kingdom’s Air Movement Squadron, leading a Mobile Team, and operated globally. Upon leaving the RAF, he joined Shell Group Materials and was based in Den Hagg, Netherlands as a member of the international group of managers supporting Procurement and Logistics operations. He was posted to UK (Aberdeen & London), Venezuela (Maracaibo), Nigeria (Port Harcourt) and Bangladesh (Dhaka) and many years in Den Haag. His role took him to many regions from Alaska to Peru to China.

Richard specialized in Logistics and was involved in many new country single string drilling entries and mega projects from the Arctic to the Equator both ‘On and Offshore.” He was the first HSE manager to become the SIPM Corporate HSE Logistics Safety Adviser covering road, marine and aviation safety. During his tour he supported the development of the first Road Safety Case (post Piper Alpha) and development of the Shell Group Road Transport Safety Management Guidelines and Vehicle Standards. He was Shells representative on the Oil and Gas Producers Forum serving on the Road Safety Group.

In his role, Richard became aware of ASIRT’s country reports and supported ASIRT in developing new and updated Road Safety Reviews to support Shell’s mega project activities. In 2013, ASIRT awarded Richard with the Global Corporate Conscience Award.

Bill Frederick

Bill Frederick is Founder and Principal of Lodestone Safety International and the Director of Program Safety for the Guarini Institute at Dartmouth College. He served as Director of Safety at The School for Field Studies (SFS) for eight years, as Project Leader for the Forum on Education Abroad’s pilot incident database and as Co-Chair for several consecutive Forum Standards Institutes on Health, Safety, and Security. He has led numerous international safety reviews and worked for 16 years with Outward Bound. As a Senior Instructor and faculty committee member for Wilderness Medical Associates (WMA), he has taught emergency medicine to educators, rescue teams and international service organizations in more than a dozen countries and designed WMA’s Travel Medicine First Aid course. He has been an Emergency Medical Technician (NREMT) since 1988 and received a Certificate in Travel Health from the International Society of Travel Medicine in 2011.

Bill holds a B.A. in psychology from the University of Colorado and an M.Ed from Harvard University.

Ambassador Marc Grossman
Marc Grossman is an American former diplomat and government official and served as United States Ambassador to Turkey, Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs, and Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs.

He was most recently the United States Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan and is currently a Vice Chairman of The Cohen Group, a business consulting and lobbyist firm of former Defense Secretary William Cohen, and a member of the German Marshall Fund Board of Trustees.

Until 2015, he served as the inaugural Chair of the Board of Advisors of the Master of Science in Foreign Service Program at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, where he serves as a practitioner faculty member. He is a member of the advisory board for Washington, DC-based non-profit America Abroad Media.

Ambassador Grossman is the Chairman of the Board of the Senior Living Foundation of the Foreign Service. He also serves as the Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of the German Marshall Fund of the United States and as a Trustee of the University of California Santa Barbara Foundation. He is a member of the Board of the C&O Canal Trust.

Ambassador Stuart Jones
Stuart E. Jones is an American Diplomat, currently serving as President, Regions and Corporate Relations at Bechtel.

Stu leads Bechtel’s international and domestic government relations and corporate communications as president for regions and corporate affairs. He joined the company in 2018 as region president for Europe and the Middle East. He assumed his current role in 2019.

Before joining Bechtel, Stu served for three decades as a U.S. Foreign Service officer.  His domestic and international assignments included acting assistant secretary and deputy assistant secretary for the Bureau of Near East Asian Affairs, ambassador to Iraq, and ambassador to Jordan.

Stu also served as deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, deputy chief of mission in the U.S. Embassy, Iraq, and deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy, Cairo.  Other foreign tours include Turkey, Colombia, and El Salvador.
Hailing from Philadelphia, Stu is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Duke University. He is a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy and the Council on Foreign Relations.

Marjorie Lemmon
Marjorie Lemmon has been the Risk Manager at Yale University since June 2003. Prior to that, she was the Risk Manager for Ann Taylor Stores Corporation for almost 11 years. Her responsibilities at Yale University include oversight of all of the operational risk management activities and initiatives throughout the campus. Before moving into risk management, Marje began her career as an underwriter for two different insurance companies, including underwriting national construction accounts and universities. Marje served as URMIA’s President from 2014-2015. She co-Chairs the 2019 Annual Conference Committee and the Honors Committee, is a member of the Leadership Development Committee and is a past Chair of the URMIA Northeast Regional Conference Committee and the IAAC. She has presented at various annual and regional conferences. She has also served on URMIA’s GRAC and PDC committees. Marje has been a member of the governor-appointed State of Connecticut Insurance and Risk Management Board since 2000. This board oversees the risk management and insurance issues of the state, and she is is the longest tenured member.

Marje earned her undergraduate degree from Smith College and her MBA from the University of Hartford. She has obtained the Associate in Risk Management (ARM), Associate in Underwriting (AU), Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU), and Certified Risk Manager (CRM) designations.

Stein Lundebye
Stein Lundebye holds a B.Sc. degree in Civil Engineering, specializing in highway and traffic engineering. He has pursued engineering problems within the field of highway/traffic engineering and road safety management continuously throughout his entire professional career that includes more than 50 years of planning and engineering experience on a variety of road safety and traffic engineering projects in Europe and in developing countries in Africa, the Middle East, South and East Asia. Has considerable experience in project coordination within the field of transportation, and he is very familiar with the procedures of various government highway departments and international lending organizations.

Stein’s assignments have involved various levels of professional and managerial responsibility from Project Engineer on transportation projects to Project Manager for feasibility studies, detail design, various traffic engineering projects and implementation of major road construction projects. Throughout his career, he has been committed to road safety engineering, road safety management and introduction of comprehensive community road safety initiatives in developing countries.

Stein has received the following individual road safety awards: The Edmund Ricker Traffic Safety Award by the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) in 2000, the Norwegian Society of Traffic Safety’s Gold Pin in 2000, the Aron Sobel Guardian Award by ASIRT in 2001 and the IRTE/Prince Michael International Road Safety Award (2003). He was also a key member of the World Bank teams, which was awarded the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Road Safety Award for 1995, a member of the Road Maintenance Initiative (RMI) team awarded the World Bank President’s first Award of Excellence in 1996 and a member of the WHO/World Bank team awarded the Prince Michael International Road Safety Award 2004 for the World Health Report: “Road Traffic Injury Prevention.”

Natalie A. Mello
Natalie A. Mello is The Forum on Education Abroad’s former Vice President for Programs, Services & Training. Until 2021, she oversaw a range of initiatives including The Forum’s Professional Certification Program, Forum Credentials, the Critical Incident Database, Standards Institutes, webinars and workshops and managed the process for updating the Standards of Good Practice for Education Abroad. Natalie joined The Forum in 2011 after serving 18 years as Director of Global Operations in the Interdisciplinary and Global Studies Division at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI).

While at WPI, Natalie created the WPI Faculty Development Training recognized by TIAA-Cref’s Theodore M. Hesburgh Certificate of Excellence Award 2003, authored the successful nomination of WPI’s Global Perspective Program for recognition by the Institute for International Education’s (IIE) The Andrew Heiskell Awards for Innovation in International Education 2003-2004 as well as the successful nomination of WPI’s Global Perspective Program for recognition by NAFSA: Association of International Educators’ Internationalizing the Campus: 2003 Profiles of Success at Colleges and Universities, currently known as The Simon Award for Campus Internationalization. She also served as faculty advisor on three different faculty led programs while at WPI: 2002 in Venice, Italy; 2006 in San José, Costa Rica; and 2010 in Washington, DC.

Natalie was honored to receive NAFSA’s Lily von Klemperer Award and Region XI’s Sally M. Heym Award in 2010. She has been a leader in the field and is widely recognized as developing a model for responsible risk management for off-campus experiences. Natalie has published and presented in the areas of engineering education, education abroad and educational outcomes assessment at the national level.

Dr. Margie Peden
Dr. Margie Peden, BSc Nurs, BSc Med (Hons), PhD, is an internationally recognized injury epidemiologist. She was educated in South Africa and holds degrees in nursing and epidemiology. She worked as an ICU/trauma nurse for 10 years before taking up a research position at the SA-MRC in 1993. In 2000 she moved to WHO in Geneva, where she headed the unintentional injury prevention team for 17 years. She was the executive editor of both world reports on Road traffic injury prevention (2004) and Child injury prevention (2008) and authored multiple other WHO documents on road safety, adolescent health, alcohol, and other unintentional injuries. She led WHO’s contribution to the multi-million-dollar Bloomberg Initiative for Global Road Safety in 10 low-income countries for 10 years and coordinated the publication of the first three Global Status Reports on Road Safety. Margie is currently the head of The George Institute’s injury program and co-directs the WHO Collaborating Centre on Injury Prevention and Trauma Care.

Margie holds a conjoint senior lecturer position at the University of New South Wales (Australia) and is honorary faculty in the Department of International Health at Johns Hopkins University (USA). Her academic interests include identifying and evaluating appropriate interventions to prevent child injuries in low-income settings and implementing frameworks to improve trauma care. She is particularly interested in using participatory methodologies, empowering early career researchers and developing equitable partnerships in order to develop and implement good practices and policies for the most vulnerable in society. She currently co-chairs the Africa Advisory Group at The George Institute, is Chair of the Global Advisory Board for the Road Safety Research Unit at the University of Malawi and Vice-Chair of the Road Traffic Injury Research Network. Margie is a trustee of Eastern Alliance for Safe and Sustainable Transport (EASST), patron of the UK Rescue Organization and a board member/advisor for ASIRT and International Road Victims’ Partnership (IRVP).

Robert Wexler
Robert Wexler is the President of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace in Washington, DC. He served as a Democratic Member of Congress from 1997 to 2010, representing Florida’s 19th district in the House of Representatives before retiring to lead the Center. Wexler was named one of the “50 Most Effective Legislators in Congress” by the influential magazine Congressional Quarterly and was named to the Forward 50 list as one of the most influential leaders in the American Jewish community.

In 2008, Congressman Wexler served as an advisor on Middle East and Israel issues to President Barack Obama during his presidential campaign. In 2012, he served on the President’s reelection Steering Committee and addressed the Democratic National Convention outlining the President’s policies related to Israel.

Throughout his tenure in Congress, Wexler was an outspoken advocate for the unbreakable bond between the United States and Israel and a leading proponent of Israel’s right to self-defense and the need for a just and comprehensive resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. He traveled on numerous congressional delegations to the Middle East and met with the leaders of Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Kuwait, Turkey, Syria, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, and the Palestinian Authority. At President Clinton’s invitation, he was the only member of the House of Representatives present during the signing of the Wye River Peace Agreement. In addition, Wexler was one of two Congressmen to travel to the International Court of Justice at The Hague to oppose the Palestinian case against Israel’s construction of a security barrier.

Congressman Wexler served as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Europe, a senior Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and a member of the Middle East Subcommittee. Wexler worked to strengthen the transatlantic alliance, build security and economic bonds with the European Union and the nations of Europe, and help guide the economic and political development of the former Soviet States. Wexler served as an American representative to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and was the co-founder of the Caucus on U.S.-Turkish Relations, the Taiwan Caucus and the Indonesia Caucus. He was also an active member of the India Caucus. In addition, Wexler served as a senior member of the Judiciary Committee and the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property.