Date: July 23
Time : 9:45 AM to 10:45 AM
Location: Main Stage
Participants will explore how renewable fuels are influencing freight decarbonization strategies across a changing transportation landscape. They will assess the opportunities and limitations of renewable fuel pathways in relation to vehicle performance, emissions goals, and operational realities. The session will help attendees identify where renewable fuels may fit within short-, medium-, and long-term freight plans.
Michael Roeth, Executive Director, NACFE and Principal, NA Freight, RMI
Mike has worked in the commercial vehicle industry for over 40 years, is the Executive Director of the North American Council for Freight Efficiency and is the trucking lead for RMI. Mike’s specialty is brokering green truck collaborative technologies into the real world at scale. In October 2021, Mike was named an Industry Influencer by FleetOwner and was awarded the prestigious SAE 2020 L. Ray Buckendale Lecturer and manuscript author. He has a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the Ohio State University and a Master’s in Organizational Leadership from the Indiana Institute of Technology. He understands the customers, operations and intricacies of the commercial vehicle industry having held various positions with International and Behr/Cummins.
260.750.0106 https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeroeth X: @MikeRoeth, mike.roeth@nacfe.org,
Kaitlyn Bedwell is the Team Leader for Supply Chain, Transportation, Automation, and Resource Sustainability (STARS) at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI), where she directs interdisciplinary programs advancing supply chain resiliency, automated and connected vehicle research, energy efficient freight systems, and regional workforce development. Her work integrates technical research, public private partnerships, and data driven strategy to support national transportation innovation and community impact.
Kaitlyn also serves as Program Manager for the Dock to Door Coalition, a 90 plus member cross sector initiative she helped establish under Dr. Myra Blanco’s leadership as CEO to strengthen last mile delivery systems and modernize freight operations. She leads coalition strategy through the STARS team across four major program areas—Data Sharing Platform, Connected and Automated Vehicles, Energy Efficient Freight, and Workforce Development—including the development of a first in the nation federated data sharing platform.
Since joining VTTI in 2014, Kaitlyn has contributed to a wide range of projects across the institute in multiple states from VA, WA, and TX spanning automated driving system safety, human centered design, impaired driving studies, NSTSCE stakeholder engagement, and transportation policy. She previously contributed to multiple volumes of the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) considerations for automated driving systems, supporting NHTSA in shaping national guidance for ADS crashworthiness and safety requirements. Her research contributions include technical reports on cannabis impaired driving, emergency services, vehicle information reporting systems, distracted driving countermeasures, teen driver mobile safety applications, supply chain resiliency gap analyses, and national policy reviews for automated driving systems.
Previous to VTTI, Kaitlyn’s early career focused in international development and social entrepreneurship through non-profit fieldwork in Sri Lanka, Morocco, and Turkey, where she led community based research, mobile technology design, and cooperative development initiatives. She holds an M.A. in Public Administration and Public Policy and a B.A. in International Development from Virginia Tech, along with certifications in UX Design and Human Subjects Research.
