UMass Amherst Student Named 2020 Lifesavers Traffic Safety Scholar

UMass Amherst civil engineering Ph.D. student Alyssa Ryan has been named a 2020 Traffic Safety Scholar (TSS) and awarded a $1,000 scholarship to attend the 38th annual Lifesavers National Conference on Highway Safety Priorities, March 14 through 17 in Tampa, Florida. She is one of an elite group of 50 U.S. and international students selected through a competitive application process to attend Lifesavers, the nation’s largest and oldest gathering of highway safety professionals that showcases the latest research, evidence-based strategies, proven countermeasures and promising new approaches for eliminating traffic deaths and reducing serious injuries.

This is the fifth year of the TSS program that showcases the diversity of opportunities in traffic safety and encourages students, regardless of their field of study, to pursue a career in a dynamic field that draws from a variety disciplines from engineering, education and enforcement to communications, business, marketing, public health, political science, counseling and more. Ryan is pursuing a doctorate in civil engineering and environmental engineer.

Ryan will kick-off her Lifesaver’s experience on March 14 by learning about career opportunities from a panel of young traffic safety professionals working in the public and private sectors. She will continue this career discussion with state and national highway safety leaders at a reception convened in the scholars’ honor later that afternoon. Then over the next three days, the scholars will hear keynote presentations from some of the nation’s leading highway safety professionals and advocates and explore new technologies and programs in the exhibit hall. They’ll also have the opportunity to participate in nearly 100 workshops and peer exchanges featuring leading experts in the fields of distracted and impaired driving and walking; child passenger, pedestrian, bicycle, motorcycle, teen and older driver safety; adult occupant protection; vehicle technology; law enforcement and criminal justice; commercial motor vehicles; roadway design; and more.