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 a number of 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 in large part 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 been heavily engaged 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 the addition of 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 is 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. In his over four decades of work in the maritime world he has sailed on ships on the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic oceans, and all the Great Lakes. He has been a vessel traffic services (VTS) officer and managed the USCG national VTS program. He has 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 has authored or co-authored dozens of peer-reviewed papers and given numerous presentations on his navigation services work (as well as on baseball). He has 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 has 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 currently serves as 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 where she serves as the Senior Advisor to the Supply Chain and Infrastructure Integrated Action Team, and the Resilience Integrated Action Team.
Prior to 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 that 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.



 

Artic Marine Transportation and Maritime Innovative Science and Technology IATs Offshore Facilitation Team

Chris Perrett is the 2024 Knauss Fellow in the CMTS and serves as the Advisor to the Executive Director on the Arctic Marine Transportation and Maritime Innovative Science and Technology Integrated Action Teams. He is also the staff lead on the Offshore Energy Facilitation Task Team. He earned his B.A. in History from the University of Southern Maine in 2019, his J.D. from the Roger Williams University School of Law in 2022, and his M.M.A. from the University of Rhode Island in 2022. During his masters and law programs, Chris focused his research on law and policy implications of a warming Arctic, including commercial vessel traffic and IUU fishing. Before joining the CMTS, Chris worked as a research attorney with the Marine Affairs Institute at the Roger Williams University School of Law and Rhode Island Sea Grant Program. In that role, he focused on law and policy questions related to offshore wind energy development in the Northeast United States. Prior to completing his undergraduate degree, Chris served in the Coast Guard for six years, both afloat and ashore.



 

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