Debra Nelson in the Director of the Office of Policy, Planning and Performance at the New York State Department of Transportation. Building upon her ecological roots and planning focus, Deb works to form coalitions and partnerships within and among agencies and stakeholders across the state, nationally, and internationally. At its core, her passion is to foster and encourage community-focused and environmentally sound transportation, facilitating collaboration and innovation to find solutions that benefit all users.
Goal-oriented manager with proven success in managing diverse, multi-disciplinary teams, fostering communication, collaboration, and empowerment.

Change agent with a positive track record in implementing broad-reaching initiatives, process improvements, policies, and procedures.

Highly analytical decision-maker specializing in asset management, sustainability, transportation modeling and forecasting, data management, emergency response and resiliency planning, environmental processes, interagency collaboration, and conflict resolution.