Our Experts

Federico E. Vaca

Dr. Federico Vaca is Professor and Executive Vice Chair of Emergency Medicine at UC Irvine’s School of Medicine and a Faculty Associate at the Institute of Transportation Studies, Irvine. Deeply interested in the intersection of health and transportation, Dr. Vaca is a Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine (AAAM) and previously served as a Medical Fellow at the U.S. Department of Transportation’s, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in Washington, D.C. Dr. Vaca’s transportation research interests are informed by 30 years of emergency medicine practice within both the UCI School of Medicine and the Yale School of Medicine. One of his recent projects includes the Youth Thriving in Life Transitions with Transportation program, which aims to expose high school students to the benefits that independent transportation and transportation science has on the health, education, and employment of youth as they prepare for emerging adulthood. By bridging the gap between knowledge of young driver safety behavior, and what transportation science offers in education and employment, Dr. Vaca’s program work and research promotes a safer tomorrow for youth and their communities.