Tim Beckham has been in traffic safety since 2012. He was an
instructor at Oregon Driver Education Center (ODEC) and worked his way up to
the Vice President of the company until August of 2021. At ODEC he trained
teens, adults, and instructors. He became a Trainer of Trainer with Western
Oregon University in 2016, where he loves training adults to become instructors.
He now works at Highway Safety Services (HSS) as a Project Specialist. HSS manages the American Driver & Traffic
Safety Education Association (ADTSEA) and has contracts with National Highway
Traffic Safety Association (NHTSA) where they work on national driver education
initiatives.
Mary DeFerrari has provided compliance activities to ODOT’s
teen driver education program since 2007, when she was hired into a new
position approved by the state legislature just that year. After laying down
the foundation of the compliance program she has continued to make
improvements, to assure state-wide compliance, to provide mentorship and
support to providers and to support overall program efforts. Previously, Mary
worked for Oregon Health Authority for 14 years where she inspected x-ray
machines and radiation safety programs across the state, and served as an FDA
certified Mammography quality standards act inspector. She has a BS in Business
Management and has worked nearly 35 years serving the State of Oregon.
Cheri Kimball began her journey in the Driver Education world in July 2015. Since then has been what she calls “the best decision I’ve made in a very long time”. She started as the General Manager of a private commercial driving school conducting driver education classes for teens in Lane County and the Greater Portland areas. She still holds this position and has since added a position as the Chair of the Driver Education Advisory Committee, President of our state association, ODTSEA, and Western Oregon University Trainer of Trainers. She holds each of these positions with pride and looks forward to a long career in driver education.
In her very little personal time she most enjoys spending time with her family especially her two grandchildren, attending as many concerts as possible, running, hiking, paddleboarding, dancing and anything that has to do with the ocean
Traci has over twenty years of
highway safety grants experience, starting out as the Occupant Protection
Program Manager for Nevada’s Highway Safety Office, and moving to Oregon in
2016 to work for ODOT’s then Transportation Safety Division as the Highway Safety
Programs Section Manager. She grew up in
Nevada and earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of
Nevada-Reno. She is very passionate
about transportation safety, and is commonly referred to by friends and family
as ‘the traffic safety lady;’ most notably by her husband and stepchildren who
did not regularly wear safety belts ‘BT,’ or before Traci came along 18 years
ago! Traci is married with a blended
family of five adult children, eight grandchildren, and even two
great-grandchildren, who you can be assured are riding properly restrained in
the car, every trip, every time.
Jody Raska has been with the ODOT
Transportation Safety Office since June 2015 and became the Driver Education
Program Manager in July 2020, in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. In
this time, she has continued to learn about the challenges of addressing highway
safety. Prior to public service, she worked 30 years in the private industry
specializing in accounting and business/office management. She has a BA in
Business Administration, Accounting from Eastern Oregon University and an MBA
from Corban University.
Tony is currently the program manager for the High Desert Education Service District’s Driver Education Program in Central Oregon. Tony took over this role in 2019 and prior to that had worked in education as an English and reading teacher, high school football and powerlifting coach, and high school principal. He understands the important role that driver education plays in keeping Oregon’s roads safe for everyone and more importantly the impact it can have on reducing the number of traffic fatalities among teens. Oregon driver education programs cannot be successful without knowledgeable and competent instructors. This is why he feels working as a Trainer of Trainers at Western Oregon University is so important.
Tony lives in Sisters, Oregon with his beautiful wife where he enjoys spending as much time outdoors in the beautiful Central Oregon landscape. His hobbies include competing in strongman and powerlifting competitions, riding his bike (AKA motorcycle), and any other activity that gets him outside and on the mountains, trails, rivers, and lakes in our beautiful state.