Dr. Julie Tison obtained a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from the City University of New York (CUNY) after getting her B.A. in psychology from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. She held a position as Assistant Professor at New York City College of Technology (CUNY). While at CUNY, she taught experimental methods, social psychology, psychology of personality, cognitive psychology, and industrial/organizational psychology. Before joining PRG, Dr. Tison conducted research on ambivalent attitudes and attitude change. Since joining PRG, she has been involved in evaluations of the Click It or Ticket programs and Impaired Driving High Visibility Enforcement Campaign efforts.

 

Dr. Tison directed NHTSA’s Analyzing the First Years of Click It or Ticket project and conducted a study on the relationship between primary seatbelt law implementation and minority ticketing. She also estimated the impact of implementing a primary seatbelt law on medical costs savings in a variety of states. Additional statistical work includes analyses of the National Distracted Driving survey, as well as the national phone surveys associated with Click It or Ticket (2006-2013). Dr. Tison regularly performs statistical analyses such as ANOVAs, regression analyses, survival analyses, etc. She has examined the factors related to daytime and nighttime belt use, and analyzed data for the 2013 Click It or Ticket high visibility enforcement mobilization. She has also studied recidivism rates in drinking and driving offenses and how ankle monitoring systems and ignition interlock devices may impact such rates. 

 

Dr. Tison recently conducted special analyses for the State of Rhode Island relating to bicycle and pedestrian crashes. More recently, she analyzed attitude and awareness data pertaining to NHTSA’s distracted driving demonstration project(s) as well as various programs in Connecticut (seat belts, impaired driving, holiday safe driving and racial profiling). She has conducted literature reviews on various topics (pedestrian and bicyclist safety, exploring feasibility of a field sobriety test for marijuana, and distracted driving laws). Dr. Tison has presented at various scientific conferences (ICADTS, NADCP, Lifesavers) and is a current member of the Transportation Research Board Committee on Impairment in Transportation and the Connecticut Impaired Driving Task Force.