Chattanooga Connect Speakers

Laura Chace

Laura Chace was named President and CEO of ITS America in August 2021. Her focus is to promote policies that advance the development and safe deployment of intelligent transportation technologies throughout the United States to save lives and reduce crashes on U.S. roadways, reduce congestion, minimize transportation’s carbon footprint, and provide seamless mobility and transportation choices for all Americans. Previously, she served as the association’s Chief Operating Officer.

Chace serves on U.S. DOT’s Transforming Transportation Advisory Committee offering advice on how to plan for a transportation future that leverages technology and innovation to solve complex mobility challenges. She also serves as a member of the Electric Vehicle Working Group, formed by the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, to provide recommendations regarding the development, adoption, and integration of EVs into the transportation and energy systems.

She is passionate and speaks often about the need to include more female and diverse voices in the transportation workforce to create better outcomes for all who use the transportation system. Chace has founded initiatives and partnerships focused on advancing gender equity in transportation.

 Laura Chace on LinkedIn

Timothy Drake 

Timothy Drake serves as ITS America’s Vice President for Public Policy and Regulatory Affairs. He brings 10 years of experience in the private and non-profit sectors working on federal, state, and local transportation and infrastructure policy and has experience developing and implementing comprehensive strategic plans regarding policy, legislative, regulatory, and funding priorities. Tim is responsible for developing ITS America’s policy positions on transportation and infrastructure issues including automated and connected vehicles, spectrum, sustainability, resiliency, and smart infrastructure. He is also responsible for ITS America’s interactions with federal agencies, including USDOT, the Federal Communications Commission, and the Department of Energy, as they develop guidance and regulations to implement federal law and policy in these areas. Prior to joining ITS America, Tim was a Public Policy Associate at Squire Patton Boggs, LLP, working on transportation and infrastructure policy and regulatory affairs. He advised public and private sector clients in a variety of issue areas, including infrastructure funding, automated vehicles, transportation technologies, safety regulations, unmanned aircraft systems, economic development, public transportation, and federal agency procurement.

Charles D. Frazier

Charles D. Frazier is Chief Executive Officer of the Chattanooga Area Regional Transportation Authority (CARTA), the public transit system serving Chattanooga and Hamilton County, providing mobility, infrastructure, and parking services in the region. Charles has served for more than 24 years spearheading local government projects and facilitating the work of human service organizations, nonprofit corporations, and industry associations. Charles is a member of the American Public Transportation Association and in 2018 was one of 25 industry leaders in the nation appointed to APTA’S most prestigious development program, Leadership APTA.

Before joining CARTA, Charles served as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for the Jacksonville Transportation Authority (JTA), directing the performance of passenger transportation services serving the Jacksonville Florida metropolitan region, with an annual budget of $175 million and 850 employees, and providing public transit service seven days a week.

Charles also served for four years as Chief Executive Officer of Rock Region METRO, the public transit system serving central Arkansas, and as Assistant Executive Director of Palm Tran, Inc., the transit system serving Palm Beach County, Florida.

In 2013, after graduating Leadership Palm Beach County (Palm Beach County’s premier leadership program), he was elected by his class to the LPBC Board of Governors. He then served as Treasurer of the organization in 2014 and 2015, as First Vice President in 2016 and 2017, and then was elected President of the organization in 2018.

In 2021, Charles received the prestigious “Arkansas Traveler” from the Governor of the State of Arkansas and was named an “Ambassador of Goodwill” from Arkansas to other states and nations beyond the borders of the United States in recognition of his distinguished accomplishments for the state.

Charles earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Finance and information systems from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. He started his professional career as an English language consultant in Fukuoka, Japan, developing school curricula for the Japanese Education Consulate.

Victoria Hirschberg

Victoria Hirschberg serves as the Assistant Vice President for Research, Outreach and Economic Development for the University of Tennessee System. Based in the office of UT Government Relations and Advocacy, Victoria’s role intersects policy, economic development, talent, and corporate engagement to create opportunities to strengthen the university system and state. She liaises with companies and policy stakeholders to leverage diverse and innovative UT resources to build long-term partnerships. Victoria joined the UT System in August 2022. 

Also, Victoria served as the interim executive director to launch the TNGO (Transportation Network Growth Opportunity), a new economic development strategy aimed to attract more research and development, engineering, and innovation jobs to Tennessee. This initiative was led by the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD), where Victoria previously worked as a director of business development from 2012-2022. While at TNECD, her tenure led to relationships with more than 250 global and domestic companies, $13 billion in new capital investment and thousands of new jobs for Tennesseans. Her work focused on key sectors such as automotive/mobility, advanced manufacturing, and energy. 

Prior to joining TNECD, she held positions with Thomas P. Miller and Associates in Indianapolis, Ind. and the McAllen Economic Development Corporation in McAllen, Texas. Hirschberg earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and Latin American studies from State University of New York at Plattsburgh, and a master’s degree in community and regional planning, and a Master of Arts in Latin American Studies from the University of New Mexico. She is a 2022 graduate of Leadership Tennessee NEXT and has been recognized as a top economic developer by the Site Selectors Guild, Consultant Connect and the International Economic Development Council. Victoria resides in Nashville and when she’s not working, she’s booking her next adventure or playing outdoors.

 Victoria Hirschberg on LinkedIn

Asad Lesani

Asad Lesani is the Vice President of Smart Infrastructure Products at Ouster. He has a Ph.D. in Transportation from McGill University, Canada, and B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering. 

He has more than ten years of experience in the field of Intelligent Transportation Systems and Transportation Safety. After finishing his Ph.D., Asad co-founded Bluecity Technology Inc in 2018, a startup that developed an AI-Powered Multi-Modal Traffic Monitoring and Data Analytics Powered by Lidar Technology. The solution has been deployed at over 250 intersections globally, helping cities improve road safety and mobility. 

The company was later acquired by Ouster in 2022.

 Asad Lesani on LinkedIn

Jerele Neeld

Jerele D. Neeld is versatile, executive leader with more than twenty years’ experience working for Fortune 500 global technology companies and a track record of delivering customer and business value beyond what’s normally anticipated. His broad expertise, willingness to take risks responsibly, and multi-disciplinary approach enable him to lead, build, run, transform, and scale-up functions and capabilities no matter the leadership role. Jerele is uniquely skilled at using his entrepreneurial background to see opportunities, to make business cases for pursuing them, and to build strategic plans and the delivery engine to realize them.

Jerele joined the City of Chattanooga, TN in January 2024 to be the Director of Intelligent Cities. In March 2024, Jerele was asked to expand his responsibilities to be Interim Chief Information Officer for the City of Chattanooga. In July 2024, Jerele was appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by City Council to be the city’s permanent Chief Information Officer. Our goal is to make Chattanooga the preeminent mid-size city in the US using leading-edge technologies to make citizens’ use of City infrastructure and services easier, simpler, and better.

Jerele has a Bachelor of Science degree from the College of Liberal Arts at Texas A&M University. He has done additional coursework at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and the C.T. Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston. Jerele was selected to Who’s Who in America 56th Edition.

 Jerele Neeld on LinkedIn

Mina Sartipi

Dr. Mina Sartipi is the Executive Director of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) Research Institute and the Founding Director of the Center for Urban Informatics and Progress (CUIP) at UTC. She is also the Guerry Professor in the Computer Science and Engineering Department at UTC and maintains a joint appointment at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, focusing her expertise on improving urban mobility and safety through advanced technology. Her goal as the director is to advance R&D and experiential learning profiles in key cross-disciplinary areas leveraging Chattanooga and UTC’s unique assets such as city-wide R&D testbed for the future of mobility and the first commercially available quantum network.

In recent years, Dr. Sartipi has led projects as Principal Investigator (PI) or Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI) that have secured over $25 million in grants from organizations including the U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, and others. She has received the 2024 UT President’s Award in the “Nimble and Innovative” category and the 2024 Thomas B. Ballard Advanced Energy Leadership Award. Her contributions to smart city initiatives earned her recognition as a 2019 Chattanooga Influencer, and her work has been honored with the 2019-2023 Smart 50 Awards and the 2019-2021 and 2024 International Data Corporation (IDC) Smart Cities North America Award. Dr. Sartipi earned her bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Sharif University of Technology and her master’s and doctoral degrees in electrical and computer engineering from Georgia Tech.

She has delivered several keynotes and presentations including presentations to the U.S. Congressional Briefing on Infrastructure, the U.S. Congressional Caucus on Smart Cities, the Smart Cities Connect conference, and the National Transportation Training Directors. An IEEE senior member since 2016, she serves on the board of directors for EPB, The Enterprise Center of Chattanooga, Chattanooga Design Studio, Siskin Hospital for Physical Rehabilitation, and Variable, Inc.

Neo Toprak Han

Neo Han is an experienced Senior Manager at the Global Business Division of LG CNS America, an IT Services and Smart Solutions provider. Neo is in charge of Strategic Partnerships & Business Development with IT industry key players, targeting Digital Transformation (DX)-based projects both in the US market and the global arena. Prior to his career at LG, he was an entrepreneurial professional and a diplomat with government experience and 23 years of business development success. Neo is a multilingual communicator, columnist, media moderator, and frequent keynote speaker at global events and corporate functions, covering future strategies for smart cities with smart technologies.