May 1, 2020

We are grateful for three distinguished colleagues with whom we have worked for the past decade who have agreed to join our Board of Advisors. All three have not only helped make our projects successful, but they have been mentors and teachers in the most important ways and are responsible for who we are today. We are honored to now take their contributions to an even higher level through their services on our Board of Advisors.

Tho Bella Dinh-Zarr

The Honorable Tho Bella Dinh-Zarr, PhD, MPH, trained as a public health scientist and is dedicated to promoting safe, sustainable transportation. She served as the Vice Chairman and 42nd Member of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), an independent U.S. agency charged with making safety recommendations resulting from in-depth investigations in the fields of aviation, maritime, highway, rail, pipelines, and hazardous materials.  Confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate, Dr. Dinh-Zarr chaired NTSB board meetings and investigative hearings and represented the agency at the scene of high-profile disasters.

Previously, Dr. Dinh-Zarr served as the North American Director and UN Representative at the FIA Foundation, where she successfully advocated for transportation safety to be included in the UN Sustainable Development Goals.  She also worked at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI), and the American Automobile Association (AAA), where she was the National Director of Traffic Safety Policy.

Born in Vietnam, Dr. Dinh-Zarr is a graduate of Rice University in Texas and has a Master of Public Health (MPH) and a PhD degree from the University of Texas School of Public Health, with fellowships at the Institute of Child Health in London and the U.S. Guide to Community Preventive Services. Dr. Dinh-Zarr has appeared on media outlets around the world and testified before U.S. Congressional and United Nations hearings. She is the Co-Founder of the “05 Saves Lives Coalition,” a nonpartisan alliance of diverse organizations dedicated to preventing drinking and driving crashes.

Dr. David Sleet

Dr. David Sleet is a consultant and former Associate Director of Science in the Division of Injury Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, where he has planned and managed research programs and provided direction to a national injury prevention program. He was a co-founder of the San Diego State University School of Public Health where he conducted research and taught public health. Dr. Sleet also directed the Road Accident Research Unit at the University of Western Australia for two years, spent four years as a research scientist with the U.S. Department of Transportation, and was a visiting road-researcher in Finland.

Over the course of his career, Dr. Sleet has published more than 185 articles related to injury prevention and health, and co-edited the World Health Organization (WHO)World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention and the CDCHandbook of Injury and Violence Prevention.He has worked to develop sustainable injury prevention programs in Australia, the United States, and Belgium, and also helped AIP Foundation with itsHelmets for Kidsand Global Helmet Vaccine program evaluation for more than a decade.

In 2014, Dr. Sleet was awarded a Medal (Royal Order of Sahametrei) by the Prime Minister of Cambodia for his work in traffic injury prevention. In 2015, he also won the James Fries Foundation Prize for Health Education. He is a founding member of the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration, an advisor to the WHO, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Health Behavior. Dr. Sleet is also on the editorial board of seven journals, where he contributes his public health experience and expertise.

Ms. Ratanawadee (Ratana) Winther

Ms. Ratanawadee (Ratana) Winther is the Chairperson of AIP Foundation Denmark and the Chairperson of AIP Foundation Thailand. For nearly 10 years, Ms. Winther worked to advance the mission of our organization as the Country Director of AIP Foundation Thailand. Ms. Winther’s career in the field of road safety began 20 years ago at the Danish National Road Directorate, where she worked to build the road safety capacity of road engineers and technicians from low and low-middle income countries. Since then, she has worked as a consultant on several international development assistance programs helping to reduce road traffic crashes in countries throughout Asia.

Over the course of her career, Ms. Winther has served as a tireless and dedicated advocate to preventing road crash injuries and fatalities, with a focus on helping the most vulnerable road users. She has worked strategically with partners and decision makers at all levels, from local communities to global public health leaders, with the aim of raising public awareness and political commitment to address the road safety crisis. She is currently working with civil society groups in Denmark to gather technical and financial support for projects addressing unsafe mobility and road safety equity in developing countries.

Prior to her career in road safety, Ms. Winther managed continuing education programs for the Toronto Board of Education. She obtained an M.A. in Education from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. She lives in Copenhagen with her husband, Ambassador Mikael H. Winther, and spends her time between Denmark and Thailand.