Jessi Hopkins

Highway Safety Specialist, Occupant Protection Division
Board Member company since 1994

Jessi Hopkins is a Highway Safety Specialist in the Office of Impaired Driving and Occupant Protection at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), U.S. Department of Transportation.

Ms. Hopkins started her career with NHTSA’s Regional Operations and Program Delivery (ROPD) office, overseeing the State of Michigan’s highway safety plan development, implementation, and evaluation. She served as the NHTSA regional point of contact for impaired driving, autonomous vehicles, law enforcement services, vehicle recalls, and data evaluation.

Prior to NHTSA, she worked as the State of Illinois’ Occupant Protection Coordinator. Her duties with the State Highway Safety Office included coordinating the state’s Child Passenger Safety (CPS) program, administering grants, certification and continuing education for more than 1,800 CPS technicians. She also coordinated messaging, media and grant-funded traffic enforcement for safety campaigns like Click It or Ticket and Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over.

Ms. Hopkins’ seventeen years of traffic safety experience has included work developing and managing a statewide teen safe driving initiative, distracted driving awareness campaign, and child passenger safety (CPS) emergency identification program. She served on the Illinois CPS Advisory Board, the Secretary’s Fatality Reduction Task Force, and various Strategic Highway Safety Plan working groups, including distracted driving, young driver, unrestrained occupant and impaired driving.

Ms. Hopkins is currently pursuing her MBA and holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Western Illinois University. She is an instructor for the Safe Kids Worldwide CPS Technician certification program and NHTSA’s Child Safety Restraint Systems on School Buses curriculum.

She lives in south suburban Chicago with her husband and son Ben where they enjoy hiking, biking, and gardening.