Matthew Driscoll currently serves as the executive director of the NYS Thruway Authority. As director, Driscoll oversees one of the longest toll systems in the United States, spanning 570 miles across New York State. He successfully led the system-wide conversion to all electronic tolling, modernizing the driving experience for Thruway customers. To enhance customer services and facilities, he led a successful negotiation in securing a public-private agreement to rebuild and replace 27 service plazas across the system; this project is currently underway.

Prior to joining the Thruway Authority, Driscoll served as commissioner of the New York State Department of Transportation, leading a department of 8,300 employees with an annual capital program of $3.7 billion. In 2016, he reorganized all 11 regional administrative offices across the state with an emphasis on accountability, project delivery, and communication with local governments. In 2017, he implemented a Critical Project Delivery Team in DOT’s main office focusing on acceleration of project delivery and cost accountability.

From 2010 to 2015, Driscoll served as president and chief executive officer of the New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation (EFC), which provides low-cost financing to local governments for wastewater and drinking water infrastructure. It is the largest and most successful revolving loan fund in the nation, managing more than $12 billion in assets. In 2013, Driscoll implemented a new business model at the EFC, creating an improved and more efficient use of financial resources designed to stimulate more projects across the state. EFC ended the 2014 fiscal year with more than $2.3 billion in financing and refunding to local governments—the largest single-year total in EFC’s history—and led the nation with the largest investment in wastewater infrastructure.

On September 12, 2013, Driscoll was appointed to the State Financial Restructuring Board for Local Governments. The Board delivers targeted restructuring strategies and long-term solutions to assist New York municipalities under fiscal stress.

From 2001 through 2009, Driscoll served as the 52nd mayor of the City of Syracuse. Elected to two terms, his action plan for energy conservation, sustainability initiatives, and environmental protection efforts earned Syracuse the title of “The Emerald City” and recognition by Popular Science Magazine as one of the nation’s greenest cities (ranked #17).

Mayor Driscoll also instituted a performance-based accountability program for city government—SyraStat—which saved millions of dollars for city taxpayers. In addition, he helped make the City of Syracuse the first city in the country to offer free college tuition to every student who graduates with a Regents diploma and led a successful comprehensive planning and development action plan for downtown and neighborhood housing development.

In her current position, Deputy Mayor Sharon Owens oversees city programs and services that address quality of life in the Syracuse community, including Neighborhood and Business Development, Diversity and Inclusion programs, and the Police and Fire Departments. She also serves as chief of staff to Mayor Ben Walsh.

Owens served as the third CEO of Syracuse Model Neighborhood Facility, Inc., and previously worked for the City of Syracuse as deputy commissioner of neighborhood and business development from 2010 to 2013 during the Miner administration.

She also serves on the I-81 Community Stakeholder Committee and as board chair of BluePrint15.

The role Owens is most proud of is wife to Shaun Owens and mother to Simone and Isaac. She is also a proud alumna of Syracuse University.

Auyon J. Ghosh is an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York. After graduating from medical school at SUNY Upstate, Ghosh completed internal medicine residency training at Boston University Medical Center and pulmonary and critical care medicine fellowship at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He subsequently completed post-doctoral research training with Craig Hersh and Ed Silverman at the Channing Division of Network Medicine and completed a master’s in public health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Ghosh is an active clinician, taking care of patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) and patients living with lung disease. He is also an active researcher, having co-authored several papers in the last year. His research interests include understanding subtypes of lung disease using large genetic and genomic datasets as well as the heterogeneous impact of the environment and climate change on lung health. As part of his fellowship, Ghosh will examine the lung health-related effects of highway placements within and between demographic groups.

Mark Frechette is the I-81 Viaduct project director. Frechette has worked for the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) since 1985 with diverse management and engineering experience in construction, highway design, structures, planning, program management, local programs, and emergency response. Prior positions include serving as the regional director of the North Country between 2009 and 2014. The I-81 Viaduct project is one of the largest transportation projects that NYSDOT has embarked upon and it poses many challenges to provide transportation solutions that enhance the livability, sustainability and economic vitality of Central New York.

Dr. Lemir Teron is a faculty member at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF). His research focuses on urban sustainability, energy policy, and environmental justice.  He received his PhD from the University of Delaware and completed a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) supported postdoc at the Environmental Cooperative Science Center at Florida A&M University. He currently serves on the energy working group of the forthcoming New York State Climate Impacts Assessment. Teron was awarded the 2019 Distinguished Faculty Member for Teaching Excellence Award by the SUNY ESF Undergraduate Student Association and he received a 2020 Unsung Hero Award at the 35th Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration in Syracuse, New York, for his commitment to racial and environmental justice.

Dr. Laura Rabinow is the director of research for the Rockefeller Institute of Government, supporting the broad array of research conducted at the Institute and focusing her own research on environmental policy issues. Her prior work has moved between public policy research and practice.

Between 2023-2024, while working at the Institute, Rabinow served as a senior advisor for chemical safety at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, with a focus on issues related to PFAS.

Previously, Rabinow worked in the New York State Legislature in various roles, including as a chief of staff in the Assembly and as the environmental conservation, agriculture, and cultural affairs policy analyst in the Senate. Prior to her legislative experience, she worked in agricultural microfinance and foreign policy research. Rabinow’s more recent research considers New York State and federal policies with respect to drinking water and chemical contaminants, with a particular focus on the ways that public policy, social movements, and public health cultures co-construct the production of knowledge and ignorance about contaminants.

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