AASHTO Journal - Faisal Saleem Selected as New NOCoE Director

The National Operations Center of Excellence or NOCoE has selected Faisal Saleem (seen above) to be its new director.

[Above photo via MCDOT]

He begins his role at NOCoE – a partnership of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, the Institute for Transportation Engineers (ITE), and the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America), with support from the Federal Highway Administration – in mid-January 2022.

NOCoE said in a statement that Saleem is a longtime advocate of Transportation Systems Management and Operations or TSMO strategies to help improve safety, mobility, and efficiency nationwide.

He served in various information technology capacities for the Maricopa County Department of Transportation or MCDOT for nearly 20 years, including as the ITS branch manager, MCDOT SMARTDrive program manager and the AZTech technical lead. In addition to participating and leading national trainings and technology transfer events, NOCoE named Saleem as one of its TSMO Champions in 2020.

Saleem’s primary responsibility as NOCoE’s new director is to advance the organization’s mission of NOCoE of providing centralized services to the transportation industry through workforce development, advancing the deployment of technology and practices, and the “mainstreaming” of TSMO across the industry.

Additionally, Adam Hopps – currently serving as NOCoE’s interim director – will lead the group’s technical services and communications efforts going forward. ITE’s Niloo Parvinashtiani will continue to manage NOCoE’s webinar program with the support of Kevin Viita from ITS America, while Sarah Abel and Doug Nobel of ITE will continue to organize NOCoE’s peer exchanges.