Jackie Gillan

Board Member

Jackie Gillan is President Emeritus of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety (Advocates), a coalition of national consumer, health and safety organizations and the major property and casualty insurance companies and trade associations. She joined the staff of Advocates in 1990 after serving on the Board of Directors and helping to launch the organization. Under her leadership, Advocates is considered one of the nation’s premier highway and auto safety organizations influencing federal, state and local transportation safety policies and laws.

Her professional career has been in the areas of highway and auto safety, transportation planning and policy and government relations. In addition to leading Advocates, she has held senior positions in the United States Senate, the U.S. Department of Transportation, as well as three state transportation agencies (New Jersey, California and Ohio).

She is a knowledgeable expert and spokesperson in the media on numerous transportation safety issues including autonomous vehicles and self-driving technology, motor vehicle and motor carrier safety, occupant protection, teen, distracted and impaired driving, as well as bicycle and pedestrian safety. Jackie frequently has testified before the United States Congress and State Legislatures about highway and auto safety programs and legislation. Additionally, she has appeared on national television news shows and is often quoted in major newspaper publications around the country.

Her public policy and lobbying accomplishments have resulted in the successful enactment of numerous federal and state laws preventing motor vehicle crashes, saving lives and providing important consumer protections and information. As a result of her leadership, lobbying skills and determination, cars today are equipped with lifesaving features as standard equipment such as airbags, better seat belts, rollover and ejection prevention technologies, tire pressure monitoring systems, side impact protection and rearview cameras. Additionally, she has successfully advanced laws upgrading child
passenger safety, requiring that government crash safety ratings be displayed on the window sticker of new cars, and improving truck and intercity bus safety. Her work in state legislatures has led to the adoption of laws requiring the use of motorcycle helmets, seat belts and child safety seats, protecting novice teen drivers and imposing tougher penalties on drunk drivers.

Jackie has served on expert panels and government commissions and often speaks at national conferences on consumer and public safety issues. She was a Presidential appointee to the National Commission on Intermodal Transportation charged with studying and recommending to Congress new policies and initiatives for a 21st Century surface transportation system. Furthermore, because of her efforts and recommendations, the County Executive of Montgomery County, Maryland established a Pedestrian Safety Advisory Committee, which she chaired for three years. She is a founder and previous board member of Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways (CRASH), a national truck safety group. Recently, she was appointed to the board of advisors for the Collaborative Sciences Center for Road Safety (CSCRS), a transportation safety research consortium comprised of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Duke University, Florida Atlantic University (FAU), University of California, Berkeley, and University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Furthermore, Jackie has been recognized for her contributions to highway and auto safety by elected officials including Members of Congress and state lawmakers as well as Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), the Truck Safety Coalition and Advocates’ Board of Directors. She is a recipient of the American Trauma Society Maryland Division’s Distinguished Service Award for her contributions to reducing trauma and preventing injuries.

She is a graduate of the University of California Santa Barbara and holds a master’s degree in Urban Planning from the University of California, Los Angeles.