Organization

William R McShane PhD PE PTOE is President and CEO of KLD Associates, Inc. Bill is a Fellow of ITE, a Life Member of IEEE, and a Member of ASCE. He is a registered professional engineer in several states. He joined KLD in early 2007.

At KLD, he is responsible for strategic planning, business operations, IR&D, and directing certain projects.

Bill is also Professor Emeritus at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering. He had an active career in the transportation research and academic programs at its predecessor (Polytechnic University), including five years as VP/Dean responsible for all academic and research programs. He was the original lead author of the text Traffic Engineering (Prentice-Hall, 1990) and remains one of the co-authors through the 5th edition (2018). He has contributed to the Highway Capacity Manual, conducted research for NCHRP and others, and served on national committees. He was a consultant to Florida DOT on traffic planning methodology, HOV operations, and access management.

He has been involved in systems safety work for the Office of the Secretary, USDOT, including work on modal safety indices. He was lead investigator for the NCHRP work on “Traffic Signal Warrant for Railroad at-Grade Crossings near Intersections”. His education was centered on systems engineering, control systems, and statistics.

Steven T. Mavros, MBA has over 40 years of experience and specialized training in transportation safety, data analysis, management, and USDOT practices. He is the Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer. He has managed the KLD work for the NHTSA NASS Program since the program’s inception and is an active contributor to the quality control practices and its evolution.

He has a proven record of managing large and disperse data collection efforts and is now focused on further developing KLD’s deep bench to manage and lead such programs. Steve was the program manager of KLD’s work for NHTSA under its Data Modernization Program, including the CISS and CRSS efforts.

Steve has led KLD’s role in establishing the infrastructure of these programs, including; establishing cooperation with local law enforcement agencies and hospitals, staffing and opening field offices, and managing day-to-day operations. Steve now continues serving as project manager for CISS including various special studies.

He is now working to expand the CISS program by increasing the number of field offices and adding additional staff to 10 existing PSUs. He is located in KLD’s San Antonio Office, at which he developed a core stable workforce that can lead and manage the dispersed activities which include 32 CISS field offices (expanding to 40 PSUs during 2023).

Above all, he has worked with NHTSA in refining practices and procedures in the startup of the challenging Data Modernization Program, and led early efforts in the NASS Program days to introduce new data collection tools and techniques, automate error-checking of data entry, and overall quality control.

The key to success in KLD’s data programs lies in a highly motivated, stable workforce throughout its field offices and base location. Steve has not only achieved this, but has been singularly responsible for the retention of a large portion of the highly experienced workforce at KLD, who now contribute to the new Program – despite a total redefinition of the field office locations and data practices.

“The secret to our success, is that we build our team with well-trained, skilled personnel that we trust, and give them challenging assignments that they are well prepared for.”

Tara Marano is KLD’s Business Manager, and responsible for HR activities at KLD. She handles the needed certificates of authority and related items in all States in which KLD has a nexus. Ms. Marano monitors the 401K Plan, handles the annual Plan audit, and provides all materials for the annual internal report on compliance with Service Contract Act Health and Welfare Fringe Benefits (SCA H&W FB). She is the primary contact for KLD’s corporate insurance, 34 office leases, and some aspects of leased vehicle fleet. Ms. Marano also monitors compliance with the ISO and other certifications. She has been at KLD for 10 years.

MBA with 20 years of experience in transportation research and crash analysis. Mr. Bays began his KLD career as a field researcher in Dallas, Texas, conducting crash investigations for the Crashworthiness Data System. Mr. Bays is a certified Crash Data Retrieval System Operator and Data Analyst, and served as Senior Team Coordinator of CDS, supervising all electronic crash data collection. He has served as an instructor at the Transportation Safety Institute, and as a member of the NASS Coding Manual editorial staff. He concurrently serves as the Field Operations Manager of NHTSA’s Crash Investigation Sampling System, and also Senior Analyst for FMCSA’s Crash Preventability Determination Program.

Mr. Woodill is a retired manager, leader and instructor with thirty-eight years’ experience in the National Automotive Sampling System program, funded by NHTSA. During the last 25 years, Mr. Woodill served as the Eastern Zone Program Manager. Previously, Mr. Woodill was a police officer and vehicular homicide investigator. Mr. Woodill is currently coordinating the annual NHTSA / CISS investigator training on a part-time basis and working on special assignments as they occur.

John P. Pfeiffer, III began his career as a member of the NHTSA effort to improve the safety of vehicles on the roadways in 1976. Through participation in various programs (NCSS, PICS, MDAI, NASS, NMVCCS, LTCCS and others), Mr. Pfeiffer developed expertise in many aspects of the crash research arena including on-scene crash investigation, paper and electronic data collection form design, study parameters/procedures, and field operations.

Early in his career Mr. Pfeiffer became interested in the data reduction and management aspects of the crash investigation effort. NHTSA developed a series of DBMS plans beginning with remote data entry (RDE), local control of data collection through the use of small servers with UNIX operating systems tied to individual desktops utilizing MSDOS and moving into RDBMS utilizing an Oracle base.

Mr. Pfeiffer assisted in the use of these systems. As his career moved from active crash investigation to a supervisory role in NASS, Mr. Pfeiffer continued his interest in the database and information management aspects. He assisted in the development of performance measuring software, database development including the creation of the NMVCCS software for the Oracle database, data consistency and quality assurance checks for NMVCCS and CDS, monitoring of data acquisition rates and sampling accuracy.

Mr. Pfeiffer is conversant in Oracle SQL*Plus and MS SQL Server, capable of assisting in data quality SQL structures, writing data consistency checks, development of database design and implementation. He also led the most recent TPMS study.

James (Dave) Bean has 43 years of experience in transportation, research, crash investigation and data analysis. He is retired from the United States Department of Transportation, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as a Crash Investigator. He is also a retired law enforcement officer.

He has substantial knowledge of federal and state government information systems. He currently holds the position of Field Operations Manager with KLD Associates, Inc.

Work is very important to he because He enjoy doing things that’ll either help someone or potentially change someone’s life, even in a small way.

Rebecca Tsuji has been with KLD for over 20 years. Her time with the company has taken her from the field environment to remote work and now to a management position. Her years of experience in transportation research and crash data analysis makes her uniquely qualified to lead those who are currently in the field. She has a passion for motor vehicle safety which keeps her excited about the work she performs. Rebecca is also continuing her education in leadership and communication and is a dedicated mother of two.

Jessica Gardner holds a BA Political Science from UNCW with 7 years experience in transportation research and crash analysis. Ms. Gardner began her career as a Team Leader in Atlantic County, NJ, conducting research for CISS. She is currently the CISS Region 1 Field Operations Manager, overseeing 8 field offices. Throughout her tenure with KLD, Ms. Gardner has played a role in recruiting and training CISS Field Technicians. She is CISS Sample certified in New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, along with being a certified CISS Crash Technician.

Paul Tillema started working for KLD in 2010 on the NASS contract with NHTSA. He was based out of Lake County, Indiana until the commencement of CISS, which replaced NASS in late 2014. In the spring of 2015 he moved to Moline, IL where he became Team Leader for PSU 02, which is located in Henry and Rock Island Counties in Illinois. In the spring of 2020, he was promoted to Field Operations Manager for Region 3, responsible for the work product of 11 PSUs. Paul has said, “I believe the data KLD collects for NHTSA is critical to accomplishing the goal of creating safer roads and vehicles for the public.” He has dedicated his career path towards that goal.

Ms. Pitzer has been with KLD since 1986 and started in the field for the NASS contract. She is currently the CISS Field Support Coordinator. She is responsible for arranging travel when needed, checking rates and compliance with contract obligations, ordering and logging M&S needs of the PSUs and the San Antonio Office. Ms. Pitzer keeps records of all non-labor expenditures and prepares a related biweekly reimbursement report. She keeps track of all bank accounts arranged for the PSU’s and for the San Antonio Office.

Marguerite Ruby

Marguerite (Maggie) Ruby has 18 years of experience in the Administrative field and has worked for KLD Associates, Inc. since April 2018. Areas of responsibility include field operations support for all teams, onboarding new hires, and maintaining government-level security clearance system-wide. She is passionate about creating a positive working environment that fosters communication and team building.

B.A., Business Management, with 31 years in vehicle crash research and analysis. She began her KLD career in 1991 as a part-time research assistant for the NASS and worked her way up to Project Manager for CRSS Sampling in July 2020. She worked with the CRSS COR and ACOR while overseeing CRSS Sampling Production for 28 PSUs (Primary Sampling Units). She has proven to be responsive to client needs, makes recommendations based upon on-going evolving field realities and is adaptable in execution. Ms. Wiggs has participated in a variety of special studies, the development of data collection procedures, field testing proposed procedural changes, writing and editing new procedures and training field researchers. She has training in commercial motor vehicle crashes, tire and vehicle dynamics, rollovers and vehicle fires and completed NHTSA Instructor Development training. Currently, Ms. Wiggs is Fleet Manager for the Crash Investigation Sampling System (CISS) and works as a Special Study Crash Analyst collecting area documentation for the expansion of future CISS sites.