Agenda

Andrew Spencer graduated from Kansas State in 2014 with a focus in structures. He was hired at KDOT as a bridge designer. From there, he moved onto bridge evaluation, where he became the bridge load rating engineer. He has since moved up the ladder and became the bridge evaluation and management engineer where he has served for more than two years.

Bruce Meisch currently serves as the director of technology for the Kansas Turnpike Authority and started his career with KTA in 1985 as a computer programmer. He is responsible for technical leadership over toll collection systems, data and fiber networks, software development and telecommunications.

Meisch has a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from Wichita State University. Meisch and his wife, Julie, reside in Wichita and when he is not working you will find him at the golf course.

Colby Farlow joined the Kansas Department of Transportation in 2009, following his graduation from the University of Kansas with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering.

He has a diverse 16-year career with the agency, with seven years as a bridge designer and five years in the Bureau of Local Projects.  

In 2022, Farlow joined the Division of Program and Project Management where he is currently the director.

Dan Holloway has worked in project design and management for over 30 years. He began as an engineering intern at Cook, Flatt, and Strobel Engineers and has moved through various roles, including design engineer, project engineer and project manager all at the same company. He is currently a vice president and chief operations officer at CFS Engineers.

Holloway has experience planning and managing a variety of projects throughout Kansas from  highways and bridges to parks and trails. Typically, these projects include management and oversight from planning and concept design through final plans and construction.

David "Dave" Schwartz has worked to improve the safe mobility of Sunflower State travelers for more than 30 years at the Kansas Department of Transportation.

After earning a master’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, he has experience in forecasting and modeling traffic, transportation performance management, and systemic safety analysis and solutions. He is currently the special safety projects engineer in the Bureau of Transportation Safety.

David Seitz, P.E., leads the Kansas Department of Transportation’s Access Management Unit out of KDOT headquarters in Topeka. The unit handles development reviews, highway access permitting, transportation planning and management of KDOT’s Corridor set aside program.

Seitz has bachelor’s degrees in history from Washburn University and in civil engineering from the University of Kansas. He is a licensed engineer in Kansas and has proudly served in transportation safety roles for more than 15 years.

Seitz is a member of the Transportation Research Boards Standing Technical Committee on Local and Arterial Roadway Management. He is also a member of ITE.

Dawn Hueske is a graduate of Kansas State University with a degree in civil engineering. After graduation, she joined the Oklahoma Department of Transportation and worked in various bureaus for 11 years.

In 2005, she came to KDOT, spending 2 years in the Seneca Construction Office before joining the Bureau of Local Projects. She has served as a local road engineer and the assistant chief in the bureau until her 2024 promotion to bureau chief.

Hueske and her husband have two adult daughters and reside near Seneca. She enjoys watching hockey and making quilts.

Eric Fitzsimmons, Ph.D., P.E., is currently a member of three Transportation Research Board standing committees, as well as a panel member on multiple NCHRP and BTSCRP projects. Additionally, he is a handling editor for the Journal of the Transportation Research Board. Fitzsimmons serves as director for both the Kansas Transportation Engineering Conference and Traffic Assistance Services for Kansas (TASK), and is a member of the Kansas Local Technical Assistance Program (KLTAP) board of directors.

His research focuses on various aspects of surface transportation safety and operations in both rural and urban environments. In 2018 he was awarded an Early Career / New Investigator award by the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate police officer safety and wellness. Also in 2018 Fitzsimmons became director of the Rural Railroad Safety Center at Kansas State University, a Federal Railroad Administration-designated university transportation center involving four other research institutions.

Fitzsimmons has authored or co-authored 25 peer-reviewed journal articles, two U.S. patents and numerous peer-reviewed conference proceedings. 

Haley Dougherty currently serves as the state highway safety engineer for the Kansas Department of Transportation. For more than a decade, Dougherty has been actively involved in various facets of transportation, leveraging expertise in design, construction and field inspection and severe crash prevention. She is a Professional Engineer and a certified Road Safety Professional, demonstrating a commitment to the highest standards of professionalism and promoting effective road safety strategies to mitigate risks.

Jess Revel is a bridge engineer at JEO Consulting Group with 11 years of industry experience. She holds an M.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where her research focused on bridge bearings, and a B.S. from University of California-Davis, where a highlight was learning to mill and weld as part of the steel bridge team.

Her project experience has run the gamut from "signature" to "workhorse," and each one came with unique challenges. Inside the office, her goal is to leave on Friday knowing more about bridge engineering than she did on Monday. Outside the office, her top activities are engineering outreach and playing the cello.

Jesse Kuhlen, P.E., is HNTB’s project manager for the 69 Express Project. He has been with HNTB for 23 years and served in a variety of roles and projects over the course of his career there.

Kuhlen is a graduate from the University of Nebraska with a B.S. in Civil Engineering degree.

Kuhlen lives in Olathe with his wife and three children. His hobbies include home improvements and coaching sports… both of which feel more like jobs at this point.

With more than 33 years of service, Jim Frye began his career in field maintenance and advanced through leadership roles, including equipment operator specialist, sub-area supervisor and area supervisor, before joining the Bureau of Maintenance at KDOT Headquarters in 2013.

In 2025, Frye was named full-time emergency manager, where he oversees the agency’s Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) and manages the Everbridge personnel alerting system. He represents KDOT with the Kansas Division of Emergency Management during disaster response, coordinating transportation resources to support statewide response and recovery.

Frye also serves on the Kansas Commission on Emergency Planning and Response and is a member of the Kansas Hazard Mitigation Team, supporting statewide preparedness, planning and mitigation efforts.

With a career spanning more than three decades,  Kim Restoff has had the opportunity to oversee complex infrastructure projects from the initial planning phase through design and construction. She began her engineering career in college as a co-op student working for the Department of Transportation literally drawing cross-sections by hand in the office and testing concrete samples in the field.

Restoff’s project history demonstrates a consistent ability to deliver safe, efficient and cost-effective transportation solutions across Kansas, Illinois, Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.

Keith Hohn's research focuses on the use of heterogeneous catalysis for applications related to energy. This has included research on hydrogen generation, natural gas conversion, and synthesis of fuels and chemicals from biomass-derived molecules.

He has authored or co-authored more than 100 journal papers which have resulted in more than 3,400 citations and an H-index of 32. His research group has presented its research more than 120 times at national and international conferences and universities. Hohn has advised 10 Ph.D. and five M.S. students.

Hohn has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Kansas.

Since July 2009, Kevin Ward, P.E., has been the Missouri Division Administrator for the Federal Highway Administration. He was recently named the interim Kansas Division Administrator. He leads multi-disciplinary transportation professionals responsible for administering the Federal-aid Highway Programs in Missouri and Kansas.

Ward joined FHWA in 1993 after receiving his civil engineering degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia and is a member of MU’s Academy for Distinguished Alumni. He is a registered P.E. in Missouri and has experience working in Missouri, Illinois, Texas, Washington State and now Kansas, having been responsible for everything from planning through implementation of both rural and urban surface transportation projects.

Ward and his wife, Sandy, are from southeast Missouri and have three grown kids – Zachary, Benjamin and Carly. His hobbies include boating, barbecue and his 68 Camaro.

Mandy Anderson, P.E., P.T.O.E., has been with Garver since 2019 and brings nearly 25 years of experience in traffic and transportation planning projects for state and municipal clients. She focuses on transportation technology, traffic safety and operations and traffic impact studies.

Anderson serves on the ACEC-KS Board as the treasurer. She is a past president of ITS Heartland. She has a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Iowa State University and an MBA from Baker University.

Anderson lives in Olathe with husband, Matt Volz, and children, Errol and Edie. She enjoys travel, scuba diving and supporting the kids in all of their sporting activities.

Matt Messina began his career with KDOT in 2016 as the state’s bicycle and pedestrian coordinator to pursue his passion to improve systems for affordable forms of transportation and for the most vulnerable of road users.

Currently, Messina serves as the bureau chief of multimodal transportation, leading a small team that administers the state’s programs and initiatives related to active transportation, public transit, freight and passenger rail, and electric vehicle infrastructure and other alternative-fuels.

Melanie Derby researches thermal-fluids problems pertaining to the food, energy and water nexus, having expertise in multi-phase flows, phase change, building energy and rural resilience. She also runs the Cooling and Heating Innovation Lab.

Derby has authored and/or co-authored more than 70 peer-reviewed journal articles and conference papers and holds one patent. She was awarded a 2017 NSF CAREER Award, 2017 ASME ICNMM Outstanding Early Career Award and 2017 K-State College of Engineering Outstanding Assistant Professor Award. 

She earned her B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. 

Michelle Needham graduated from University of Kansas in 2001 and spent the first half of her career in the helping fields. In 2019, she started at the Kansas Department of Transportation with the Cost Share program and a year later became the economic development programs manager.

Needham enjoys being able to work with communities across Kansas to access the transportation improvements they need.

Pat Toby is a licensed Professional Engineer in three states and has been licensed for more than 30 years.

Outside of engineering and planning, Toby did masters work in engineering management at KU, has a minor in communications from MS&T and holds a certificate in graphic design from the Kansas City Art Institute.

When not at work, you might find Toby in his woodworking shop, behind the camera, working cattle, driving grain trucks, traveling the U.S. or visiting his adult children here and abroad. Toby's lifelong favorite color is purple and had he been college aged in Kansas, when asked if he would have attended KSU, his reply was "absolutely!"

Ray Seif managed two airports over the span of eight years prior to joining KDOT as the director of aviation. He also has more than a decade of aviation risk management experience. He is an instrument-rated, commercial pilot with single and multi-engine land ratings, and earned a Master of Aeronautical Science degree from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University with aviation management and operations specialties, in addition to a minor in aviation safety.

Seif is passionate about growing aviation and ushering in the next generation and is actively working toward implementing a meaningful high school aviation curriculum that would be accessible to any school within the state.

Scott King has 33 years of service for KDOT, and all within the Division of Engineering and Design.

He held various positions such as an engineer associate, road squad leader, road design leader and eventually became the bureau chief of road design in 2014. In 2023, King was promoted to the director of engineering and design. Also, King serves on the AASHTO Committee on Design and recently retired from the Technical Committee on Roadside Safety.

Shannon Moore has been employed by the Kansas Turnpike Authority as an engineering program manager for 17 years. Prior to that, Moore spent 10 years in KDOT Bridge Design. Moore is a 1996 graduate of Kansas State University.  

Moore and his wife of 29 years, Amy, have four daughters.  

Simon Sun  is a graduate of Kansas State University with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering. With a background in highway design, he is an associate vice president and a senior project manager at HDR. In his current role, he has led and delivered numerous projects that enhances the transportation system in Kansas and Missouri.

Sun resides in Kansas City with his wife, Lindsay, and his two children, Logan and Luke. He enjoys playing golf but has since trade-in his golf clubs to take on a second job as a baseball dad on his sons’ high school and club baseball teams.

Steve Degenhardt, P.E., graduated from Kansas State University in 2003 with a B.S. in Civil Engineering. He began his career at the City of Wichita and spent 21 years in the construction office. In 2024, Degenhardt became assistant city engineer and now has oversight of the development and design work on all public infrastructure projects for the City of Wichita.

Steve Rockers is KDOT’s Project Director for the 69 Express Project. Steve’s background is Road Design. Rockers has been with KDOT for 34 years. He is graduate of the University of Kansas with degrees in civil engineering and business administration.

Rockers lives in Lawrence with his wife, Amy. Amy also works for KDOT in road design. They have two grown daughters, Grace and Delaney.

Trey "Duane" Bebee is a design engineer for GBA. He earned his bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and is currently working toward his master's degree in urban and regional planning from the University of Florida. 

Troy Whitworth is a State of Kansas Certified Public Manager with more than 30 years of highway transportation experience. He served in field maintenance positions during his first 20 years.

Whitworth was promoted to staff maintenance manager in 2008, administering the KDOT RWIS program, managing the weather service contract and being a KDOT representative in an emergency management role with the Kansas Division of Emergency Management. During that time, he developed snow and ice training videos still in use and served on multi-state Pooled Fund Study groups improving winter operations.

In 2013, he was promoted to assistant to the director of operations, and in 2020, Whitworth became director of safety. He uses his experience to advise management on field challenges and advocates for improved training and development of employees and managers.

Andrew Spencer graduated from Kansas State in 2014 with a focus in Structures. He was hired at KDOT as a bridge designer. From there he moved onto bridge evaluation where he became the bridge load rating engineer. He has since moved up the ladder and became the bridge evaluation and management engineer, where he has served for more than two years.

Seth Allen was born and grew up in Salina, Kansas. He graduated from Salina South High School in the Spring of 2015 and moved to Manhattan where he attended college at Kansas State University.

Allen began his engineering career as an engineering intern with Schwab Eaton in May 2018. After obtaining his FE certificate in March 2020 and graduating from Kansas State University in May 2020 with his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, he joined Schwab Eaton full-time as an E.I.T. Through his 4-year stint as an E.I.T., Allen was provided with the opportunity to work on various projects in the transportation discipline. He became an integral part of the Transportation design team with his accrued knowledge in road and bridge design. Many of these projects were bridge replacements for various counties throughout the state. Allen passed his Civil PE exam in November 2023 and became a licensed P.E. in May 2024.

During his time as an E.I.T., and more-so into his professional career, Allen has been more involved in a project management role. Allen continually works directly with his clients and coordinates with his team at Schwab Eaton to ensure that projects are seen to completion in a logically and fiscally responsible manner.

Outside of work, Allen enjoys spending time with friends, training at his local gym and playing with his dog.