Christopher Jenks

Roles: Special Guest

Christopher Jenks serves as director of Cooperative Research Programs for the TRB, a unit of the National Academies in Washington, DC. In this capacity, he is responsible for administering five cooperative research programs with a combined annual budget of about $67 million. Each cooperative research program provides industry-driven, problem-solving applied research to a particular segment of the transportation industry, including State departments of transportation, public transportation operators, airports, and the freight and hazardous materials transportation communities. Research programs administered include the National Cooperative Highway Research Program, Transit Cooperative Research Program, Airport Cooperative Research Program, National Cooperative Freight Research Program, and Hazardous Materials Cooperative Research Program. In the past, Jenks served as an associate director for business planning and development at the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority and chief of transit service planning and operations for the Fairfax County (VA) Department of Transportation in suburban Washington, DC. He also held positions with the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission in western Massachusetts and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. He has an engineering degree from Cornell University.