COMMISSIONERS
Christopher Hart (District of Columbia), Chair
Mr. Hart is chair of the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission. Mr. Hart has extensive experience working on transportation and transportation safety issues in both the public and private sectors. He served as an attorney for the Air Transport Association of America, as an associate attorney for the law firms Peabody, Rivlin, Lambert, & Meyers and Dickstein, Shapiro & Morin, and as a managing partner for the law firm Hart & Chavers. He also served as the Deputy Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Administration and Assistant Administrator for System Safety and Deputy Director of the Air Traffic Safety Oversight Service at the Federal Aviation Administration. Mr. Hart served two terms as a member of the National Transportation Safety Board from 1990 to 1993 and 2009 to January 2018. He served as chairman of the NTSB from 2014 to 2017. Mr. Hart earned a Bachelor of Science in Engineering and a Master of Science in Engineering from Princeton University and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.
Michael J. Rush (Commonwealth of Virginia), Vice Chair
Michael J. Rush is the Vice Chair of the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission. Mr. Rush also serves as Senior Vice President, Safety and Operations for the Association of American Railroads (AAR). AAR is a leading policy, research and standard-setting organization for freight and passenger railroads. Mr. Rush serves as the rail industry’s liaison with regulatory bodies, including the U.S. Department of Transportation, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the Environmental Protection Agency. Mr. Rush also oversees much of the rail industry’s work on interchange standards, its homeland security plans, and environmental protection and safety programs. Mr. Rush has 38 years of experience at AAR. Prior to assuming his current position, Mr. Rush served as associate general counsel, where he counseled AAR and its members on environmental and safety issues and other corporate matters of concern. An expert in regulatory law, Mr. Rush has represented AAR in various regulatory agency and legislative activities, testifying at hearings and drafting comments, briefs, and Congressional testimony.
Debra Farrar-Dyke (State of Maryland), Secretary-Treasurer
Ms. Farrar-Dyke is Secretary-Treasurer of the WMSC. Ms. Farrar-Dyke is a senior manager with over 30 years of successful, progressive leadership in transportation and procurement management. Ms. Farrar-Dyke also serves as a Commissioner on the Maryland Transportation Commission. Previously Ms. Farrar-Dyke was responsible for the Disadvantaged Business and Small Business Programs at the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). She also led oversight of operating and capital budgets preparation and implementation at WMATA.
Robert Bobb (District of Columbia)
Mr. Bobb earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Grambling State University and a Master of Science degree in Business from Western Michigan University. He furthered his education by earning a Certificate for Senior Executives in State and Local Governments from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Mr. Bobb is known as a turnaround specialist and has served as emergency financial manager of Detroit Public Schools and as city administrator for the District of Columbia, among many positions.
Suhair Al Khatib (State of Maryland)
Mr. Al Khatib is a KCI Practice Leader for Transit, with expertise in capital programs, maintenance and regulations. He previously worked at the Maryland Department of Transportation for more than 30 years, rising from a scheduling engineer on Baltimore’s Light Rail to capital program manager for the Maryland Transportation Authority and deputy administrator and chief planning, program and engineering officer at the Maryland Transit Administration.
Robert Lauby (Commonwealth of Virginia – Alternate)
Mr. Lauby is the former Associate Administrator for Railroad Safety and Chief Safety Officer for the Federal Railroad Administration and is currently an independent consultant with RCL Rail Safety Consulting, LLC. He is a licensed mechanical engineer with more than 40 years of railroad and rail transit experience involving safety, security, accident investigation, and engineering. Mr. Lauby’s career included positions at the National Transportation Safety Board, Knorr Brake Corporation (a railroad and rail transit brake supplier), and Conrail. He has led safety regulation initiatives and safety oversight programs, has been involved in the development of passenger rail safety standards, and has conducted railroad and rail transit accident investigations worldwide.