For over 20 years at the Center, Doug Kreis (BSMNG 1995; Ph.D. CE 2016) has built an expansive portfolio of interdisciplinary transportation research. He also brings nearly 15 years of experience in the construction industry.
Born in St. Augustine, Florida, Doug Kreis grew up in Williamsburg, Kentucky, a small coal mining town nestled in the southeastern portion of the state. Throughout his childhood, his father was employed at a coal tipple operated by Gatliff Coal, where Kreis found his first job out of high school. Working in the industry motivated him to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Mining Engineering at the University of Kentucky, where he was a first-generation college student.
Soon after graduating from UK, Kreis narrowly escaped injury in an underground mine, an experience that prompted him to reassess his professional ambitions and led him to seek out new opportunities in transportation and civil engineering. His first position at KTC was working under the Center’s Deputy Director Don Hartman on the Advantage I-75 Program. During this period he also earned an MBA through KTC’s Transportation Fellowship Program. After a brief stint with the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government’s Traffic Engineering Department, Kreis returned to KTC as a full-time researcher, working on commercial vehicle regulation.
Kreis has been instrumental in helping KTC grow research expertise in several areas, including hazardous materials transportation, freight security, supply chain management, transportation finance, intelligent transportation systems, business management, project development, and inland waterways.
In 2010 he was named program manager of the Center’s newly formed Freight and Logistics section. Here, Kreis deepened KTC’s partnerships with the Department of Homeland Security and Transportation Safety Administration through his work on Fedtrak. This project has brought over $10 million in federal funding to the Center, in addition to helping the federal government improve risk management of Tier 1 Hazardous Materials. Kreis also helped spearhead KTC’s participation in the Multimodal Transportation Infrastructure Consortium, a Tier 1 University Transportation Center.
Following his tenure as Freight and Logistics program manager, Kreis became KTC’s Associate Director in 2014. Soon after, he earned a Ph.D. from UK’s Department of Civil Engineering with a focus on Construction Management. Kreis is also a certified Project Management Professional, has received accreditation from the American Society of Transportation and Logistics, and holds a Master of Arts in Education from UK and a Masters in Supply Chain Management from Penn State University.
As Associate Director Kreis has overseen seven program areas — Traffic and Safety, Intelligent Transportation Systems, Special Projects and Initiatives, Planning and Decision Analytics, Technology Transfer, Project Development, and Policy, Finance, and Economics. He has also coordinated KTC’s outreach and marketing efforts.
As Director, Kreis will continue to strengthen KTC’s partnership with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet — its principal client. Another key goal is raising the Center’s national profile as an organization that delivers high-quality, transformational research products which fundamentally reshape the everyday practices of government agencies and other transportation stakeholders.
In his free time, Kreis enjoys fishing, playing guitar, attending concerts, and cheering on the Wildcats with his wife, Stacey, and their four children, Samantha, Stevie, Shelton, and Sawyer.
Doug Kreis may be contacted at (859) 544-0066 or at dougkreis@uky.edu.