WASHINGTON, DC Three officials from the state departments of transportation of Idaho, Arizona and Hawaii are taking up positions at AASHTO this year under the association's annual 12-month fellowship program, working out of AASHTO's Washington, D.C., headquarters.

The program, until now, offered fellowships in AASHTO's engineering division, but for 2106 the association expanded it to take fellows with planning and policy expertise, said Engineering Program Director Jim McDonnell.

The 2016 AASHTO Engineering Fellow is Kevin Sablan, the Traffic Services Engineer at the Idaho Transportation Department who oversees ITD resources in geometrics, hydraulics, roadside design, standard drawings and traffic.

From 2005 through 2015, Sablan was Traffic Engineer for the ITD's southwestern District 3 region, managing traffic design, data collection and maintenance activities. His ITD experience also includes working in consultant administration and construction.

Before joining the department in 1999, Sablan worked as a Design Engineer for Boeing and CG Engineering in Washington State. He attended the Boise State University/University of Idaho cooperative engineering program, graduating with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the University of Idaho in 1996.

Anne Ellis, from the Arizona DOT director's office and the former head of ADOT's Transportation Research Center, is a fellow whose work will be shared by AASHTO's engineering and policy divisions. She has worked for the state for 17 years - 10 with Arizona State University's engineering program and seven at ADOT, with responsibilities in research, intelligent transportation systems and freight policy. She currently leads a multi-state coalition to create the I-10 Western Connected Freight Corridor.

Ellis is a member of several association committees and task forces, co-chairs the research Coordination and Collaboration Task Force and is National Transportation Product Evaluation Program liaison to the Research Advisory Committee. She holds a bachelor's degree in chemistry, a master's in strategic marketing and a doctorate in transportation and environmental policy.

Rachel Roper, a Professional Engineer at the Hawaii DOT, has become a fellow with the AASHTO policy division. She studied civil and environmental engineering as a regent scholar at the University of Hawaii, and has been with HDOT for eight years.

Roper began there as the bicycle and pedestrian coordinator, where she managed development of the HDOT's "complete streets" policy and the department's nationally recognized statewide pedestrian master plan.

She has since transitioned to the planning branch of HDOT's systems planning section, where she helps oversee the statewide transportation planning process, including state and regional long-range land transportation plans, and develops other planning studies. She is also legislative coordinator for the planning branch.