Acting Assistant Secretary
Office of the Secretary, USDOT
Vinn White currently serves as Acting Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy at the US Department of Transportation, where he supports the office of the Secretary and Under Secretary to effectuate national transportation policy involving sector innovation, community solutions at the urban level, and national and regional project implementation throughout the United States.
Vinn has served as Secretary Foxx’s lead architect across the Department developing USDOT’s 30-Year Framework. The resulting report, entitled Beyond Traffic: Trends and Choices, provides analysis of the transportation network over the last several decades and forecasts future impacts to the year 2045. At almost half a million downloads, this report focuses on identifying trends and challenges shaping the current system—including technology and data solutions, the future demands on our freight system and need to accommodate significant population growth—over the next 30 years.
Vinn is part of the leadership team overseeing policy aspects of the Department’s innovation platform, which includes autonomous and connected vehicle deployment, spectrum management and smart city applications. In addition, he has served as a primary policy lead tasked with implementing freight provisions enacted in the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. Vinn also oversees transit policy activities in the Under Secretary’s office, as well as other rail-related policy actions.
Other efforts managed on behalf of Secretaries LaHood and Foxx over the years include serving as USDOT’s lead to various White House interagency policy initiatives and coordinating USDOT’s recovery in the northeast from the impacts of Hurricane Sandy.
Last fall, Vinn received the Secretary’s Gold Medal for Outstanding Achievement for the Department-wide efforts related to developing Beyond Traffic, which has launched a national dialogue about the future of our transportation system.