Allyson Lumpkin of Bainbridge, along with the members of the National Teen Distracted Driving Prevention Leadership Team, recently attended the 90th annual Transportation Research board meeting in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 23-26.

Lumpkin met with transportation practitioners, researchers, public officials and other professionals to address the transportation challenges of the 21st century.

The 20 young leaders, who were selected by National Organizations for Youth Safety during a competitive application process, fanned out across the District to shadow traffic safety specialists and learn about careers in transportation.

The NOYS team, which has members from 17 states, met with their U.S. Senators and Representatives to ask them to support stronger traffic safety laws that will help reduce the number of teen driving crashes.

During their time in Washington, the team also toured the White House and met with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

The team is currently working on implementing programs of action in their respective communities to combat distracted driving with the hopes of serving as model programming for other communities.

“This opportunity with NOYS isn’t just a chance to learn—it’s a chance to bring this information back to my community,” said Lumpkin, who is junior multimedia communications major at Georgia Southern University. She was the Bainbridge High School salutatorian in 2008 and the daughter of Melvin and Linda B. Lumpkin.