Our Team
Marcus Johnson
Project Coordinator
Marcus holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Howard University. With over 10 years of experience in federal procurement and project coordination, he has played a pivotal role in fostering relationships between MSIs and federal agencies. His expertise in regulatory compliance has significantly contributed to the integration of MMUCC guidelines into various academic programs.
Elizabeth Martinez
Liaison Officer to Federal Agencies
Elizabeth graduated with a degree in Transportation Engineering from the University of Texas at El Paso. She has over 8 years of experience working with federal and state transportation agencies. Elizabeth facilitates collaborations between MSIs and government entities, ensuring a fruitful exchange of knowledge and resources.
Dale Porter
Drug Education and Detoxification Specialist
Dale holds a Master’s degree in Public Health from Columbia University, with a specialization in substance abuse education. With over 12 years of experience in the field, Dale has worked with several governmental and non-governmental organizations on drug education, testing, and detoxification programs. In this project, he is responsible for integrating a comprehensive drug education module to educate on the effects of substances on driving and road safety. His extensive network within federal health institutions aids in maintaining an updated curriculum and in fostering collaborative efforts to address substance-related road accidents following MMUCC guidelines.
Alan Turner
Educational Program Developer
Alan possesses a Master’s degree in Urban Planning from UCLA. With a focus on road safety and transportation planning, Alan has been instrumental in developing curriculum that incorporates MMUCC guidelines. His 7-year tenure in academia and connections with MSIs have been crucial in promoting transportation safety education.
Sarah Williams
Outreach and Awareness Coordinator
Sarah earned her Bachelor’s degree in Communications from North Carolina A&T State University. Her 5-year experience in community outreach and public relations has enabled her to lead awareness campaigns emphasizing the importance of MMUCC guidelines. Sarah orchestrates various engagement initiatives that bridge MSIs with local and federal road safety projects.
The Minority Serving Institutions-Community of Partners (MSI-COPC) held its first meeting on November 21, 2006. Approximately 25 representatives from the various federal agencies attended the meeting representing 15 federal agencies.
At that meeting the group agreed to establish the MSI-COPC as an interagency council, create and ratify a charter for the MSI-COPC, elect officers, and begin working and sharing information. We agreed to maintain transparency, establish liaisons with the White House Initiatives, and focus on the strengths that exist among the membership in working to increase the participation of MSIs in the competitive Federal procurement process.
Our work is to increase MSI participation in the work of Federal Agencies to assist in managing federally funded programs and expose the institutions to the federal procurement programs.
The Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria (MMUCC) is a set of guidelines developed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for collecting and analyzing data on motor vehicle crashes. MMUCC aims to standardize the collection of crash data across the country to improve our understanding of crash causes and develop effective strategies for preventing future crashes.
Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) play a role in supporting the implementation of MMUCC by offering programs in areas related to transportation and road safety. For example, MSIs with engineering or transportation-related programs integrate MMUCC guidelines into their curriculum to train students on how to collect and analyze crash data according to MMUCC standards.
This not only helps to improve the quality and consistency of crash data collected but also increases the number of professionals trained in this field.
In addition, MSIs also collaborate with local, state, and federal agencies involved in road safety to promote the use of MMUCC guidelines. This is done through partnerships, research collaborations, and outreach efforts aimed at increasing awareness of the importance of MMUCC in improving road safety.
Some of America’s foremost authorities on highway safety have worked together to develop and update MMUCC since the first edition of the Guideline was released in 1998. The program is funded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and jointly managed by NHTSA and the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) with input from other offices in the U.S. Department of Transportation.
One of the keys to the widespread acceptance of MMUCC in so many states has been the collaborative approach to developing the Guideline. Professionals from all over the country representing law enforcement, state DOTs and DMVs, the safety and medical communities, federal agencies, state governments, emergency responders, medicine, and other stakeholder groups have been closely involved with MMUCC development and implementation since its inception.
All of the MMUCC stakeholder groups are represented on an expert panel that leads efforts to update the Guideline and administer the program. The expert panel always welcomes ideas for updating and improving the Guideline in the discussion forum on the MMUCC website, and at conferences such as the Traffic Records Forum, the GHSA annual meeting, and other highway safety gatherings.
As MMUCC evolves into its fourth edition, the expert panel will continue working closely with stakeholders all around the country to ensure further growth in the use of the Guideline, allowing states to collect better data that leads to safer roadways and reductions in traffic deaths and injuries.