Rochelle Sobel is the founder and President of the Association for Safe International Road Travel (ASIRT), a nonprofit organization that promotes road travel safety throughout the world via education and advocacy. Ms. Sobel founded ASIRT in response to her son Aron’s death in a 1995 bus crash in Turkey. Aron, a 25-year-old medical student, and 22 other passengers were killed in that crash. Ms. Sobel is an experienced educator in the Washington, DC, area, and has traveled to many countries to hold forums and raise awareness on road safety issues.Ms. Sobel served on the World Health Organization (WHO)’s Global Road Safety Steering Committee and represents ASIRT as a member of the UN Road Safety Collaboration (UNRSC).
She served on the steering committee for the establishment of a global alliance of road safety NGOs and is now a member of the founding Board of Directors.She has presented on the issue of global road safety at numerous forums and conferences, including the UN’s Global Road Safety Stakeholders’ Forum, the NAFSA Annual Conference & Expo and FIA Foundation’s Paris conference on Road Safety and Tourism, among many other national and international programs. Ms. Sobel delivered the closing plenary address at the historic First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in Moscow in November 2009. Ms. Sobel has also contributed to numerous publications on road safety.Ms. Sobel received educational degrees from Barnard College, New York City (BA); University of Chicago (MA, English literature); and George Washington University, Washington, DC (MA, education, and an advanced degree in educational policy).
