Melissa Walden, Ph.D., PE

TTI Senior Research Scientist

Education

• Ph.D., Educational Human Resource Development, Texas A & M University, 2008
• M.S., Educational Human Resource Development, Texas A&M University, 2003
• B.S., Industrial Engineering, University of Alabama, 1986

Short Biography

Dr, Walden is a senior research scientist in TTI’s Center for Transportation Safety She has more than 30 years’ experience in program development and management, evaluation, strategic planning, outreach, training as well as social and behavioral sciences. Within the center, she is responsible for the Texas Strategic Highway Safety Plan and assessments along with mentoring junior researchers in proposal development, budgeting, literature reviews, methodology identification, communicating research in terms of target audience and/or sponsor, along with effective project management. Dr. Walden’s research focus includes behavioral transportation safety, integrating quantitative and qualitative data to develop/assess education and countermeasure deployment, as well as strategic planning in safety. Dr. Walden is an experienced developer and evaluator of educational solutions, policies, and procedures targeting diverse audiences through specialized methods including multiple forms of technology.

Prior to her current appointment at TTI, Dr. Walden directed the engineering professional and workforce development efforts, all non-credit bearing courses in engineering, for the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station/College of Engineering. She expanded learning activities to a broad range of stakeholders both domestically and internationally. Aspects of this expansion included market/stakeholder research analysis, learner management systems, impact measurement, marketing, assessment, content development and evaluation. She employed surveys, focus groups, & awareness/skill assessments to develop new programs.