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Northwestern University

NUTC'S 70th Anniversary

Northwestern University Transportation Center 70th Anniversary Workshop

Tuesday, November 17, 2026

Ford Hive (Room 2.350)
Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center
2133 Sheridan Road | Evanston, IL 60208

Registration

While Northwestern celebrates its 175th Anniversary this year, the Northwestern University Transportation Center is celebrating its 70th anniversary of operations. In 1954 the Northwestern Board of Trustees approved the establishment of the Center and in 1955 Franklin M. Kremil, who established the Traffic Institute of Northwestern in 1936, was named the acting director. The Center opened for formal operations on October 3, 1956.

Speakers

Rachel Cole

Rachel Cole

As the Head of the Transportation Library, Rachel Cole directs  the collections strategy and continue to be a partner to the students and faculty of Northwestern and to researchers around the world.
Edward Colgate

Edward Colgate

Edward Colgate received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1988. He subsequently joined Northwestern University, where he serves as the Walter P. Murphy Professor of Mechanical Engineering, the Allen and Johnnie Breed Senior Professor in Design, and Director of the NSF Engineering Research Center for Human AugmentatioN via Dexterity (HAND) at the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Bret Johnson

Bret Johnson

Bret Johnson is the interim director of the Northwestern University Transportation Center (NUTC), after having spent the previous 16 years as senior associate director, where a key responsibility involved developing and managing strategic and research collaborations with industry and public sector partners. In this role, he also managed the growth of and strategic engagement with NUTC’s Business Advisory Council.

Xiaopeng "Shaw" Li

Xiaopeng "Shaw" Li

Dr. Xiaopeng (Shaw) Li is currently Harvey D. Spangler Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and an affiliate in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison). He directs the USDOT Rural Autonomous Vehicle Program for People Movement.
Benjamin McLean

Benjamin McLean

Benjamin J. McLean joined Ruan in 2007 and assumed his current role as Chief Executive Officer in January 2015. His prior roles within Ruan have included COO, CIO and oversight of the company's legal and assets departments. Prior to joining Ruan McLean assisted companies with mergers, acquisitions and equity offerings at William Blair & Company in Chicago, IL.

Jennifer McNeill

Jennifer McNeill

Elsy Ocejo

Elsy Ocejo

Elsy Ocejo brings 22 years of operations and supply chain leadership across global manufacturing, food, and distribution businesses, and now advises companies as a fractional COO/CSCO. She most recently served as Senior Director of Supply Chain Operations at Bimbo QSR, where she was recruited to build a new end-to-end operations organization spanning planning, customer service, procurement, inventory, and S&OP.
Kendra Phillips

Kendra Phillips

Kendra Phillips is the VP of Transportation Management leading the managed transportation and brokerage divisions of Ryder System, Inc, a Fortune 500 Transportation and Logistics company. Prior to her role at Ryder, Kendra was the Vice President of Service Delivery for Aurora Tech, a leading company in the autonomous vehicle sector.
Ian Savage

Ian Savage

Ian Savage is a Professor of Instruction and Associate Chair of the Department of Economics at Northwestern University, where he also directs the Transportation and Logistics Program. His research focuses on urban public transportation, transportation economics, and safety regulations, with extensive publications on transit operations, financing, and safety.
Joseph Schofer

Joseph Schofer

Joseph L. Schofer is Professor Emeritus of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Northwestern University's McCormick School of Engineering. His research focuses on transportation policy, infrastructure planning, system resilience, transportation finance, and road safety.
Jeff Silver

Jeff Silver

Jeff Silver is a pioneer in technology and supply chain. His first logistics experience was in 1984, fresh out of the University of Michigan when he joined American Backhaulers (ABH), a Chicago-based third-party logistics (3PL) company. Jeff created the vision and design for the ground-breaking proprietary technology platform that he and his team would build and scale and eventually lead to an industry-wide transformation. That technology fueled the growth of ABH to become the second largest 3PL provider in the country in a very short period of time.

Karen Smilowitz

Karen Smilowitz

Karen Smilowitz joined the Office of the Provost in September 2025 as Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education. A Northwestern faculty member since 2001, Karen is the James N. and Margie M. Krebs Professor in Industrial Engineering and Management Science at the McCormick School of Engineering and a professor of operations in the Kellogg School of Management. 
Justin Zubrod, Sr.

Justin Zubrod, Sr.

Justin Zubrod, Sr. is managing partner of Justin Zubrod & Company, LLC, a professional services firm focused on the logistics and transportation sectors. He has previously served as a leader of the commercial transportation management consulting practices at Booz & Company, Booz Allen Hamilton, and A.T. Kearney, Inc.

Workshop Agenda

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