Acting Technical Center Director of Safety Management and Human Factors 

Anne Gates is acting director of the Safety Management and Human Factors Technical Center, formerly chief of the Aviation Safety Management Systems Division at the U.S. DOT Volpe Center. Gates has been a general engineer at the U.S. DOT Volpe Center since 2010, with a focus in system engineering, safety analysis, analysis of new technologies, safety risk management, aviation surveillance data mining, and the development of models and methods. She currently serves as project manager for the U.S. DOT Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology (OST-R) Complementary Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (CPNT) project helping U.S. DOT drive CPNT adoption across the nation’s transportation system and within other critical infrastructure sectors.

Gates previously served as federal project lead for the FAA Surveillance and Broadcast Services (SBS) Advanced Surveillance Enhanced Procedural Separation (ASEPS) project currently focused on industry engagement on the satellite-based Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) technologies, to assess market capabilities and determine if approaches are viable for future investment considerations.

Before her division chief and now acting technical center director role, she served in various acting leadership positions across the U.S. DOT Volpe Center, including serving as acting chief for the Systems Safety and Engineering Division as well as the Aviation Systems Engineering Division. Gates has led and participated in various organizational initiatives across the U.S. DOT Volpe Center, such as the Mentoring Program. Before studying for her engineering degree and joining the U.S. DOT Volpe Center as a Pathways intern, She taught high school mathematics for five years.

Gates holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from St. Anselm College (Manchester, NH), a master’s degree in mathematics from the University of New Hampshire (Durham, NH), and a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Boston University (Boston, MA).