SENIOR STAFF BIOGRAPHIES

Director, Nevada Department of Transportation

Susan Martinovich has worked for the Nevada Department of Transportation for nearly 30 years. In this position, she is responsible for the daily operations of the department that has an annual operating budget of over $800 million and more than 1,750 employees.

Prior to her appointment in January 2007, she held a variety of positions within the department. Starting as a rotation engineer, she became familiar with the operations of NDOT. She was then promoted into the bridge division, where she was responsible for the design of several structures throughout the state. After six years, she was promoted to the design division, where, as principal design engineer, she was responsible for the early development of many of the major new freeway projects currently under construction. After six years, she was promoted to the director’s office as assistant director of engineering. In this position, Ms. Martinovich was responsible for all of the pre-construction engineering divisions, including design, bridge, traffic, safety, right of way, location, and environmental. Ms. Martinovich also served as deputy director/chief engineer for three years.

Ms. Martinovich is involved in national activities in the areas of project management, safety, and research. She is actively involved in the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO), and recently served as the association’s first female president, a position in which she supported the association’s primary goal of fostering the development, operation, and maintenance of an integrated national transportation system and advocate for the enactment of a well-funded, multi-year, and flexible federal surface transportation program. Ms. Martinovich has served in many other leadership positions on many AASHTO committees including Research and Highway Safety. She is a member of the Transportation Research Board Executive Committee. She is also a member of many other Transportation Research Board committees, including the Oversight Committee for SHRP-II, which will oversee the national research activities identified in SAFETEA-LU.

Ms. Martinovich has a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Nevada, Reno, and is a licensed professional engineer in Nevada and California. Ms. Martinovich is a native Nevadan and resides in Carson City. She is an avid runner and proud mother of two sons. One is an engineering graduate of the University of Nevada, Reno and the other is serving in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Deputy Director/Chief Engineer

As Deputy Director, Mr. Rawlins is responsible for assisting the Director in the daily operations of the Department that has an annual operating budget of over $800 million and 1,750 employees. He also serves as Chief Engineer for the State. Before his appointment as Deputy Director, he served as assistant director of engineering, and was responsible for all of the pre-construction engineering sections, including design, bridge, traffic/safety, right of way, location, environmental, and project management. Mr. Rawlins has been instrumental in the development of the Department’s Pioneer Program focused on innovative project delivery methods such as Public-Private Partnerships and Design-Build contracts.

Prior to his appointment as assistant director, Mr. Rawlins worked as a project manager in the project management section and was responsible for developing projects from planning studies through environmental studies, final design, and construction. Mr. Rawlins was in charge of transportation improvement projects valued at more than $2 billion, including the I-515 Corridor Study, Boulder City Bypass Project, Hoover Dam Bypass Project, and the I-515/I-215 Beltway Interchange. Mr. Rawlins has worked for the Department for 15 years, working his way up through the roadway design and project management divisions.

Mr. Rawlins is a graduate in the inaugural class of the State of Nevada Certified Public Managers Program. He is also a past-president of the Nevada Certified Public Managers Society. He is Chairman of the AASHTO Sub-committee on Systems Operations and Management (SSOM) and is a member of the AASHTO Standing Committee on Highways (SCOH).

Mr. Rawlins received a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering from the University of Nevada, Reno, and is a registered professional engineer in Nevada and California. He played college baseball for the University of Nevada and loves all sports.

Deputy Director, Southern Nevada

After being away from NDOT for nearly five years, Rudy Malfabon returned on July 7, 2003, when Director Jeff Fontaine appointed him to the position of deputy director for Southern Nevada. The Nevada Legislature approved the position in mid-2003 to provide a director’s office presence in Las Vegas.

In 1984, Mr. Malfabon began his career at NDOT as an inspector on the Flamingo Road interchange at I-15 in Las Vegas. As an assistant resident engineer, he was the sole representative of NDOT on privately funded projects at the Colorado River Bridge in Laughlin and the Summerlin Parkway interchange at U.S. 95 in Las Vegas. After earning his professional engineering license, Rudy became a resident engineer and managed the construction of several interchanges and grade separations on U.S. 95 in northwest Las Vegas. Nearly half of Mr. Malfabon’s NDOT career was spent in Carson City, where he held the titles of assistant construction engineer and chief construction engineer. In 1998, he accepted the position of state construction engineer for the Washington State Department of Transportation. Mr. Malfabon has served on two research panels for the National Cooperative Highway Research Program, dealing primarily with construction management issues. After being recruited by Jacobs Engineering in Las Vegas in 2000, he worked three years as the manager of Jacobs’ construction management services in Nevada. In his present position as NDOT deputy director for Southern Nevada, Mr. Malfabon seeks to improve communication, coordination, and customer service with local agency partners, elected officials, and the general public.

Mr. Malfabon is a graduate civil engineer from the University of Nevada, Reno, and is a registered professional engineer in Nevada and Washington. His hobbies include camping, fishing, and gardening. He resides in Las Vegas with his wife Theresa, and their children, Jacqueline, Melanie, and Jonathan.

Assistant Director, Operations

As assistant director of operations, Mr. Nelson oversees NDOT’s statewide operations programs, including the construction, materials, maintenance and operations, and equipment sections. Prior to his appointment as assistant director in 2003, Mr. Nelson served as NDOT’s District II engineer for 13 years and in the operations analysis division for five years. He began his career with NDOT in 1984 as a rotational engineer.

Prior to Mr. Nelson’s employment with NDOT, he served as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Public Health Service attached to the Indian Health Service, serving tours on the Navajo Nation and with the California Program Office.

During his career with NDOT, Mr. Nelson has developed an extensive knowledge and expertise of surface transportation weather and winter maintenance operations. In 1996, he received the President’s Modal Award from the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials for his contributions in the area of winter maintenance. He co-chaired a delegation of engineers from the United States to study winter maintenance in Japan and was invited to assist in the development of an analysis of winter maintenance strategies employed in Argentina, South America. He continues to provide technical assistance in the development of their winter maintenance program on behalf of the United States and NDOT. Mr. Nelson has participated in and has held several leadership positions in national transportation research initiatives, and on committees and initiatives involving highway operations and winter maintenance. He is currently the chairman of the AASHTO Winter Maintenance Technical Services Program (SICOP) and the AASHTO U.S. representative to the World Road Association-PIARC technical committee on winter services, and was recently named a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Mr. Nelson is a graduate of the University of Colorado, Boulder, with a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering, and is a Registered Professional Engineer in Nevada and California.

Assistant Director, Engineering

As Assistant Director of Engineering, Mr. Hoffman is in charge of NDOT’s pre-construction engineering sections including Project Management, Design, Bridge, Environmental, Location, and Right-of-Way. His focus is on project delivery and ensuring that NDOT’s projects are of the highest quality and delivered on time and within budget. In this role, Mr. Hoffman supervises six groups within NDOT headquarters, representing more than 300 engineering and right-of-way professionals responsible for developing all engineering work necessary in delivering design plans and specifications used in the construction of NDOT projects.

Mr. Hoffman began his employment with NDOT in February 1991 as an Engineering Technician in District 2. He became a rotational engineer in 1996 and worked within District 2 on various construction projects. He then moved into the Bridge Division and served as a Bridge Designer for 5 years. From there, Mr. Hoffman worked in the Construction Division as the Quality Assurance Engineer and most recently served as the Chief of the Maintenance and Operations Division. In this role, Mr. Hoffman administered several of the Department’s statewide programs in the areas of Highway Maintenance, Roadway Operations and Facilities Management. Some of the programs under his direction included the Integrated Transportation Reliability Program (ITRP), which implements new and innovative projects to reduce congestion and keep Nevada moving, the I-80 Corridor Coalition Program, which focuses the efforts of several western states to improve winter mobility along Interstate 80, and the Maintenance Accountability Program (MAP) to establish a customer service approach to statewide NDOT maintenance activities. He also oversaw vital motorist services such as NDOT’s 511 Nevada Travel Info and Freeway Service Patrol as well as support to the nearly one million person hours dedicated yearly to NDOT road maintenance duties. Mr. Hoffman chaired several national winter maintenance committees during his tenure as Chief Maintenance and Operations Engineer.

Mr. Hoffman graduated from the University of Wyoming in December 1990, with a Bachelor’s Degree in Sports Marketing. While at Wyoming, he also played football and earned All-Conference and Honorable-Mention All-America honors. He returned to college in 1993 and graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno in December 1996, with a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Nevada.

Assistant Director, Planning

Tracy Larkin-Thomason is the Assistant Director of the Planning Division with the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT). Ms. Larkin-Thomason has more than 23 years of transportation experience with the Nevada Department of Transportation and has held positions in the areas of planning, operations, maintenance engineering, traffic engineering, structural design, and roadway civil engineering.

Currently, as the Assistant Director of Planning, she administers all planning and project programming efforts for the Nevada Department of Transportation, including research, transportation and multi-modal planning, traffic information and data analysis, performance analysis, federal programs and roadway systems. She administers preparation of the Nevada Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) and the coordination with the local MPOs to help develop the local TIPs and the local Long-Range Transportation Plans. She has served on several National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) panels and scans on a variety of subjects including asset management, cost of maintenance and fiscal constraint compliance and serves on the AASHTO’s Standing Committee on Planning (SCOP).

Ms. Larkin-Thomason has Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Nevada, Reno, and is a licensed Civil Engineer in the state of Nevada. She is also certified as an ITE Professional Traffic Operations Engineer and a Nevada Certified Public Manager. She is a past president of the Nevada Certified Public Managers Society. Ms. Larkin-Thomason and her family live east of Carson City.

Assistant Director, Administration

 Scott Sisco was appointed on October 31, 2011 as NDOT Assistant Director of Administration.  In the role, Mr. Sisco oversees five sections including Financial Management, Accounting, Administrative Services, Information Services and Flight Operations.  Mr. Sisco takes pride in protecting the credibility of the Department through sound budgeting, financial and administrative practices, while at the same time ensuring that the groups under his oversight play a proactive and supportive role in ensuring the success of the Department’s ultimate goals and objectives.

Mr. Sisco began his career with the state in 1986 and has over 25 years of service with the State of Nevada.  He came to the Department after four and a half years as Deputy Administrator and Chief Financial Officer for the Nevada Division of Forestry. Prior to that, Mr. Sisco spent over six years as Director of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and three years as the Deputy Director and Chief Financial Officer for that same Department.  He also spent a little over nine years with the State Health Division in both program management and fiscal/administrative management roles.

In 1995, Mr. Sisco was awarded the Governor’s Meritorious Certificate for development of an internal accounting system still used by dozens of state agencies today. He served for two years as Vice President of the Public Administrators Group.  Appointed by Governor Guinn, Mr. Sisco served over five years on the Employee Management Committee, adjudicating state employee grievances.  He was also appointed to the Governor’s Personnel Task Force, responsible for analyzing personnel rules and regulations as a result of the Governor’s Fundamental Review of State Government.

Mr. Sisco grew up and went to school in Carson City, and took accounting and managerial classes at Western Nevada College. 

District I Engineer

In July 2004, Mary Martini relocated to Las Vegas from Portland, Ore., to begin her career with NDOT as the District I engineer. District I encompasses the southern half of the state, is the largest geographically, and includes Las Vegas, the fastest-growing metropolitan area in the nation.

Ms. Martini is responsible for District I operations, including the administration of approximately half billion in annual construction projects, as well as the maintenance of the highway system and appurtenances. Traffic operations in the Las Vegas valley are controlled by the Freeway and Arterial System for Transportation. Known as FAST, the system is a coalition of NDOT, the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada, and local agencies. Ms. Martini represents NDOT and oversees the state-of-the-art facility that houses both FAST and the Nevada Highway Patrol.

Prior to joining NDOT, Ms. Martini was the director for surface transportation in the northwest for URS Corp. She led a business practice in highway and bridge engineering for Oregon, Washington, and Alaska. URS recruited Ms. Martini from the Oregon Department of Transportation, where she worked for 20 years. Ms. Martini began as a construction inspector/survey crew chief and over the years served as a bridge designer, project manager (resident engineer) for construction, district manager for maintenance, and regional construction engineer. Ms. Martini is a graduate of the Oregon Institute of Technology with a B.S. in civil engineering and an A.E. in structural engineering. She also holds an M.B.A. from Colorado State University.

District II Engineer

Thor Dyson was appointed District II engineer in August 2003. In this position, he is responsible for approximately 300 employees & maintenance personnel, permit and administration employees, plus six NDOT resident engineer crews and seven to eight consultant resident engineer crews. The District II engineer position is responsible for all snow and ice and avalanche control operations along highways. Emergency response operations for western Nevada state highways also fall under his charge. In addition, he oversees approximately $500 million in construction and permit projects in northwestern Nevada.

Mr. Dyson received a bachelor of science degree in civil and environmental engineering from Utah State University in 1986. He passed his Engineer in Training examination before graduation, and holds professional engineering licenses in Nevada and California. While attending Utah State University, he spent his summers working for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. A one-year hiatus from the university allowed him to visit Brazil and attend school to learn Portuguese.

After graduation, Mr. Dyson worked in Sun Valley, Idaho, and performed structural engineering for three years. In 1989, he joined the Nevada Department of Transportation in the rotational engineering program.

Before completing the rotational engineering program, Mr. Dyson joined the District II office as a staff engineer for snow, ice, and construction projects along the eastern Sierra, Nevada/Tahoe, and District II desert areas. He was assistant resident and resident engineer for highway construction contracts from 1994 to 1997. From resident engineer, he moved to assistant District II engineer for maintenance and then to assistant District II engineer for construction until he was named District II engineer in 2003.

Mr. Dyson is a 2005 graduate of the State of Nevada Certified Public Managers Program.

Mr. Dyson enjoys, kayaking, skiing, bicycling, and other outdoor activities.

District III Engineer

Kevin Lee was appointed in July 2003 as the district engineer for the Department of Transportation’s District III, which covers a broad expanse of rural northeastern Nevada. The western boundary begins on I-80 at Imlay and runs for 265 miles to West Wendover on the Nevada/Utah border. The northern boundaries begin at the Nevada state lines with Oregon and Idaho and extend south for approximately 300 miles. Moreover, this doesn’t include the many hundreds of miles of state-maintained roads that wind within the district.

A native of the District III area, Mr. Lee was born in northeastern Nevada. As a second-generation NDOT employee whose father retired from NDOT as a resident engineer, Mr. Lee joined the ranks in 1985 as an engineering technician. He has worked on highway projects throughout Nevada, including Hawthorne, Wells, Wendover, Winnemucca, Fallon, Austin, and Beatty. While working on construction crews, he enrolled in NDOT’s Engineer in Training Program and passed the EIT and professional engineer exams. Mr. Lee’s prior appointments with NDOT include engineering technician, supervisor I/associate engineer, assistant resident engineer, district traffic engineer, and assistant district engineer.

In 2005, Mr. Lee was appointed by the Secretary of the Interior to sit on the Bureau of Land Management’s Northeastern Great Basin Resource Advisory Council as a representative of transportation and rights-of-way organizations. The council provides advice to the Secretary regarding management of public lands within the Council’s jurisdiction. Mr. Lee has served on various NDOT committees and is a member of the Institute of Transportation Engineers.

Mr. Lee enjoys anything to do with the outdoors, including hunting, fishing, hiking, and camping. He is an avid wildlife photographer, and his camera is always included in these excursions. Mr. Lee and his wife Amy have a daughter, Kassandra, and sons, Kynan and Kendrick.

Communications Director

Sean Sever serves as communications director for the Nevada Department of Transportation. In this role, Mr. Sever oversees the public information, multimedia, customer service, public hearings, and photography sections.

Mr. Sever previously served as energy outreach coordinator for the Governor’s Nevada State Office of Energy, public information officer for the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada and Western Nevada College, and general manager of the Piñon Plaza Casino Resort.

Mr. Sever has a journalism degree from the University of Nevada, Reno, and has served as chairman of the Carson City Convention and Visitors Bureau. He is a Nevada native and a Carson City Leadership graduate.

Mr. Sever and his wife Petra have a daughter, Sarah, and two sons, Zachary and Noah. In his free time, he enjoys running, playing basketball, hiking in the Desolation Wilderness, and riding mountain bikes.