Our Board & Staff

Dr. Kelly L. Fleming is the Director of the Institute for Transportation Decarbonization. Kelly is an expert in energy technology with a focus in transportation energy and energy policy, including the transition to zero-carbon fuel resources, and the role of electricity in transportation decarbonization.

Kelly has served as an intermediary between world-leading transportation research and the key policymakers, mobility and environmental organizations, and leaders in the transportation industry. She has held prior roles at Zero Emission Transportation Association (ZETA) and the Policy Institute for Energy, Environment, and the Economy at the University of California, Davis, an affiliate of the Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS).

Kelly served as an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the U.S. Department of Energy in the Vehicle Technologies Office. Kelly is Vice President at Boundary Stone Partners where she is focused on facilitating relationships between federal policymakers and clean transportation companies deploying solutions. Kelly has a doctorate and master’s of chemical engineering from the University of Washington, and a Bachelor’s degree in chemical and biochemical engineering from the Colorado School of Mines.

Suzi Emmerling is the Chair of the Advisory Board of the Institute for Transportation Decarbonization. She has nearly two decades of experience working in communications at the both local and federal levels – as an advocate, a communications leader, a government insider, and a force for change in philanthropy. She is an alumnus of one of the most powerful progressive think tanks in Washington DC, the Center for American Progress, and served in President Obama’s Administration as the Deputy Chief of Staff at the US Department of Transportation. Now based in Los Angeles, she most recently served as the Chief Communications Officer for billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad and the Broad Foundation and as Communications Director for Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti.

Prior to living in LA, Suzi spent most of her career in Washington, D.C., most recently as an appointee of President Obama as the Deputy Chief of Staff and Director of Public Affairs at the U.S. Department of Transportation. In this role, Suzi served on the executive leadership team and advised former Secretary Anthony Foxx on all transportation issues and crises facing the department. During her time at DOT, Suzi worked closely with her counterparts in the White House on all major transportation and infrastructure-related rollouts and initiatives. She maintained close oversight of every mode of transportation to ensure that President Obama and Secretary Foxx’s priorities were implemented. Highlights include reinstating commercial flights to Cuba and the FAA’s Drone Program, as well as Federal Automated Vehicle Policy, the 2015 Philadelphia Amtrak derailment, the Ladders of Opportunity initiative, movement of crude oil by rail, and the national Smart Cities Competition.

Prior to joining the Obama Administration, Suzi worked on the 2013 Presidential Inaugural Committee, the 2012 Obama for America Campaign, and the Democratic National Convention Host Committee in Charlotte, North Carolina. She has been an advocate for progressive policies on the communications teams at the Center for American Progress and the BlueGreen Alliance in San Francisco, and as the Director of Development at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.