Introducing ATSIP’s New Executive Director

The Executive Board is pleased to announce the hiring of ATSIP’s new executive director, Tara Casanova Powell. Tara has over twenty years of experience in the field of road safety and is the Principal of Casanova Powell Consulting, an independent traffic safety research consulting firm. She is also the project lead for a NHTSA cooperative agreement with the Network of Employees for Traffic Safety to expand employer-based traffic safety programs in the U.S. through assistance from State Highway Safety Offices (SHSO).
The bulk of Tara’s early career was at Preusser Research Group (PRG) where she was employed for seventeen years. AT PRG, Tara led several national and state projects involving alcohol and drug impaired driving, occupant protection, teen driving in relation to graduated licensing, pedestrian and bike safety, older drivers, distracted driving, and speed.
Tara is a consultant for the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) Consulting Services Initiative, a founding member of the Connecticut Statewide Impaired Driving Task Force, a faculty staff member for the National Center for DWI Courts (NCDC), and a member of the Institute for Behavioral Health’s Drugged Driving Committee. She was recently appointed to the Leadership Committee of the Transportation Research Board’s Alcohol and other Drug Committee, and the Treatment Measures Working Group of the International Council of Alcohol, Drugs, and Transportation Safety where she is also a member. Additionally, Tara serves as an expert panelist for the Behavioral Traffic Safety Cooperative Research Program 2018 Distracted Driving Initiative. Tara is a volunteer for the Connecticut Draft Horse Rescue, a non-profit organization dedicated to saving the lives of draft horses that were bound for slaughter and/or victims of starvation, neglect, and abuse. Tara and her husband Scott live in Virginia Beach with their beloved boxer, Riley.