Executive Secretariat

Organization - CMTS

Ashley Chappell comes to the CMTS from NOAA. With a degree in Geography from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she started as a cartographer with NOAA. She soon migrated from nautical charts to policy, strategic planning, and budget formulation in support of safe and efficient marine transportation. After earning her Master’s in Geography and Cartographic Sciences from George Mason University, she detailed to NOAA’s Office of Policy and Planning to support the Promote Safe Navigation Strategic Goal. This move enabled her to work on several interagency MTS-related projects, including the 1999 Assessment of the U.S. Marine Transportation System, the formation of the Interagency Committee on the Marine Transportation System (ICMTS, predecessor to the CMTS), and the impactful U.S. decision to turn off Selective Availability of GPS signals, enabling GPS innovations in commercial and civil applications.
 
Building on this early MTS background, Ashley has continued to build strong interagency relationships, whether in her primary role leading NOAA’s Integrated Ocean and Coastal Mapping program, co-chairing the Interagency Working Group on Ocean and Coastal Mapping, or co-leading the Federal Geographic Data Committee’s Elevation Theme. Ashley has always participated in the ICMTS/CMTS, working on strategic plans, congressional engagement opportunities and CMTS publications, including as an Arctic Integrated Action Team co-chair. Ashley has focused largely on the emerging threats and opportunities from a warming Arctic, and the national need for better marine transportation system information infrastructure and foundational geospatial data to support science-based decision-making in the coastal zone.
 
In recent years, Ashley has participated in crafting and implementing the National Ocean Mapping, Exploration and Characterization Strategy, which calls for interagency coordination and collaboration to map the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone. She also led the drafting of the Alaska Coastal Mapping Strategy and was instrumental in adding coastal mapping to the federal/state Alaska Mapping Executive Committee’s purview. Ashley has also brought her extensive experience to the table on offshore wind and coastal resilience data acquisition initiatives, including the creation of NOAA’s RDML Richard T. Brennan Ocean Mapping Matching Fund.

Organization - USACE

Brian Tetreault has just retired as the Deputy Director of the U.S. Committee on the Marine Transportation System (CMTS), the Marine Transportation System Program Manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), and USACE Liaison to the U.S. Coast Guard. He has always demonstrated grace under pressure, maritime expertise, and strong leadership skills as USACE Senior Advisor and CMTS Acting Director. We miss him already and owe him a huge debt of gratitude for his service.

In his over four decades of work in the maritime world, Brian sailed on ships on the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic oceans, and all the Great Lakes. He was a vessel traffic services (VTS) officer and managed the USCG national VTS program. He worked on projects to develop and implement navigation information systems, including the establishment of both the USCG and USACE automatic identification system (AIS) networks, and innovative use of AIS to communicate navigation safety information. He authored or co-authored dozens of peer-reviewed papers and given numerous presentations on his navigation services work (as well as on baseball). He served as U.S. representative to several international navigation-related technical standards bodies. He is a graduate of the United States Coast Guard Academy and studied at the US Naval War College and University of Washington. He was once a country music DJ for a radio station in Alaska, writes a blog about a weekly Canadian crossword puzzle, and can recite the alphabet backward. In May 2024 he delivered the game ball to the pitcher’s mound prior to the Orioles-Yankees game at Camden Yards in Baltimore, where he lives with his wife Nina and two cats, who are also Orioles fans

Organization - NOAA

Ms. Heather Gilbert has worked for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for over 15 years. She is the NOAA Senior Advisor to the U.S. Committee on the Marine Transportation System (CMTS).

Prior to her role in the CMTS, Ms. Gilbert began her career at NOAA as a nautical cartographer with the National Ocean Service, Office of Coast Survey. From there she moved to NOAA's Homeland Security Program Office, where she served as the project manager for the internal Geographic Information System (GIS) and managed the agency-wide notification system. In her current role at the CMTS she works with the Future of Navigation Integrated Action Team (IAT) and leads task teams on Maritime Security and Maritime Transportation Extreme Weather.

Ms. Gilbert earned a Masters of Geographic and Cartographic Science from George Mason University and a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Geography from Ohio University. She also holds a Master's Certificate in Project Management. Ms. Gilbert, when not traveling or skiing, lives in Alexandria, VA.
 

Organization - CMTS

Michelle Carns joined the U.S. Committee on the Marine Transportation System (CMTS) in 2022, serving as the Senior Advisor to the Supply Chain and Infrastructure Integrated Action Team, and the Resilience Integrated Action Team.

Before CMTS, Michelle worked within the U.S. Coast Guard's Vessel Response Plan program for 18 years. Using Federal Regulations as guidelines, she was one of ten people who reviewed thousands of vessels to ensure their compliance. With compliance via an approval letter from the Coast Guard, these vessels were then allowed to transit U.S. waters.
Michelle holds a Bachelor of Science in Marine Science and a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science from Salisbury University and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.
 

Arctic Marine Transportation, Maritime Innovative Science and Technology and Offshore Marine Transportation System IATs

Patricia McKee advises the Executive Director on the Arctic, MIST, and OMTS IATs. In 2022, she earned her B.S. in Natural Resources from North Carolina State University. At NC State, Patricia studied the role of local media in disseminating disaster-related information to communities facing compounded crises. She also assisted in a project investigating zoonotic disease transmission and risk communication within the Caribbean region.

Patricia will graduate with her J.D. from the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University in May 2025. While at Haub Law, she researched how local governments can exercise their land use authority to improve public health outcomes for their constituents. Patricia was also a Summer Research Associate with the National Sea Grant Office, where she examined wetland restoration techniques, specifically thin-layer placement.



 

How To Get In Touch

Phone: (202) 366-3612

Committee on the Marine Transportation System

Office of the Executive Secretariat

U.S. Department of Transportation

1200 New Jersey Ave SE

Washington, DC 20590