People

Troy Walden

Director
Center for Alcohol Drug and Education Studies
(979) 317-2526
[email protected] 

Troy D. Walden is the Director of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s (TTI) Center for Alcohol and Drug Education Studies (CADES), which currently resides within TTI’s Center for Transportation Safety. Dr. Walden has over 34 years invested in highway safety as a law enforcement officer, crash re-constructionist, traffic safety advocate and impaired driving researcher. He received his Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from Sam Houston State University, Master of Science in Education from Texas A&M University and Doctor of Philosophy from Texas A&M University.

Dr. Walden began his law enforcement career with the City of College Station (Texas) Police Department in 1988. While there, he served in the Patrol, Recruiting and Training, Special Enforcement and Criminal Investigation divisions. In January 1999, Dr. Walden joined the Texas A&M University System—Texas Engineering Extension Service as a law enforcement training program coordinator. He was responsible for training management of statewide (Texas) impaired driving education program initiatives including the Standardized Field Sobriety Testing and Drug Evaluation and Classification programs. Dr. Walden also previously served as a private consultant specializing in traffic safety, human performance measures and legal issues surrounding alcohol and drug impairment. He has created professional development training for traffic safety administrators, legal professionals, consultants and law enforcement officers at the state, national and international level. He has also provided technical case reviews and analyses on hundreds of impaired driving cases involving both alcohol and other drugs.

Dr. Walden’s research interests include alcohol and drug driving, the behavioral impact of alcohol and drugs on human performance, and the impact of alcohol and drugs on traffic safety. He has written and presented his research findings at many state, national and international conferences. Dr. Walden has served as the chair of the Texas Impaired Driving Taskforce and continues to serve on several statewide traffic safety coalitions and working groups.

Cinthya Fillips

Assistant Research Scientist 
(979) 317-2505
[email protected]

Cinthya Fillips is an Assistant Research Scientist at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI). She focuses on researching topics related to fostering criminal desistance and behavioral health improvements among justice-involved individuals who commit driving while intoxicated (DWI) offenses. She specializes in connecting traffic safety, public health, and criminal justice to save lives and improve community health. Some of her current projects involve creating a curriculum for delivery to jailers, judges, prosecutors, and community supervision stakeholders. She has been training criminal justice professionals on the importance of using screening/assessments, mental health literacy, and referral practices for DWI offenders. She received her Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Texas A&M University (TAMU), her Master’s in Public Administration from The Bush School of Government at TAMU, and a Master of Science in Clinical Mental Health. Cinthya is a Licensed Professional Counselor Associate (LPC- A).

She is also interested in mapping the DWI pipeline to identify structural gaps jurisdictions could close through collaboration and resource sharing. She delivers blood alcohol concentration webinars to judges to educate them on the importance of toxicology testing, impaired driving statistics, and the importance of having complete data to pinpoint the problem. Some of her contributions to other CADES projects relate to data collection and synthesis, coalition building, training, and policy analysis. The projects she contributed are a feasibility study of an all-offender DWI tracking system for Texas, law enforcement with Texas’ Crash Reporting and Analysis for Safer Highways systems, Texans Attitudes Towards Marijuana Laws, and Ignition Interlock Training and Evaluation.

Christine Adams

Assistant Research Scientist
(979) 317-2547
[email protected]

Christine Adams is an Assistant Research Scientist for CADES. Her primary role is serving as the Administrator for the Texas Impaired Driving Task Force, in partnership with the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). She received her Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of North Texas and her Master of Business Administration from the University of Nevada, Reno.

Prior to joining CADES, Ms. Adams served as the vice chairperson for the Northern Nevada DUI Task Force for seven years, where she was presented with the State Impaired Driving Abatement Award for her work on the strategic highway safety plan and her advocacy at the Nevada legislature.

Ms. Adams’ knowledge and experience include prevention of underage access to alcohol, server/seller compliance, building community partnerships, public education campaigns, effective marijuana strategies and victim services. She has spent 16 years working to reduce harm caused by substance use in communities and on roadways.

Cody E. Stewart

Associate Transportation Researcher
(979) 317-2506
[email protected]

Cody E. Stewart is an Associate Transportation Researcher at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute. Mr. Stewart has over 12 years of experience in risk management and traffic safety at the Institute. He received his Bachelor of Business Administration from Sam Houston State University and his Executive Master of Public Service and Administration from Texas A&M University.

Mr. Stewart was included as a subject matter expert to provide testimony to the Impaired Driving Program Assessment team assembled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for the 2022 State of Texas Impaired Driving Program Assessment for his work in alcohol-impaired driving countermeasures. His work on prescription drugged-impaired driving in Texas as a co-author has also been published in the Texas Public Health Journal.

Furthermore, Mr. Stewart’s current research includes serving as the Principal Investigator on TxDOT’s sole cannabis-specific traffic safety grant. He also serves as the Principal Investigator on an ignition interlock training and evaluation grant, as well as a motorcycle training, licensing, and analysis grant. Previously, Mr. Stewart’s work included a feasibility study of an all-offender driving while intoxicated tracking system for Texas, comprehensive motorcycle crash analyses, blood alcohol concentration reporting, and training and technical assistance with Texas’ Crash Reporting and Analysis for Safer Highways system.

Emmaline Shields

Associate Transportation Researcher
(979) 317-2898
[email protected]

Emmaline Shields joined TTI as a Graduate Student Worker in 2018 while earning her Master of Public Health from Texas A&M University. After graduating, she joined CADES as an Assistant Transportation Researcher in 2020. She provides support to projects related to ignition interlocks and DWI recidivism, marijuana-impaired driving, and pedestrian and bicycle safety. Primarily, she assists with coordinating the Texas Impaired Driving Task Force.

Ms. Shields’ current research interests include the safety impacts of micromobility devices, such as e-scooters and e-bikes.

Courtney Hrncir

Research Specialist I
(979) 317-2534
[email protected]

Courtney Hrncir joined the CADES team in July 2021 as a Research Specialist. She has aided in projects related to treatment and referral services for impaired drivers experiencing mental and/or substance use conditions, blood alcohol concentration (BAC) reporting practices and more. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Community Health from Texas A&M University.

Previously, Ms. Hrncir worked for Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station as a program specialist with the Engineering Professional Education team, where she was responsible for overseeing professional development course registrations, communication, management and more. She has experience in assessing community needs, program planning, implementation and evaluation, and technical and grant writing.

Crystal O’Rear

Research Specialist I

(979) 317-2539
[email protected]

 

Crystal O’Rear joined TTI as a Research Specialist for CADES in 2021. Prior to employment with TTI, she held a Master Peace Officer Certification from the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement and worked as a police officer. While in that position, her passion was impaired driving enforcement, and she was awarded the Mothers Against Drunk Driving award. Ms. O’Rear has a vast knowledge of the criminal justice system.