NHTSA’s public mandate is consumer safety — recalls, ratings, defects, and the information people need to act. During this tenure the agency was pushing toward communications that were relevant, consumer friendly, easy, and accessible, with a new visual identity and a more consumer-focused website to support that shift.
The work sat in the usual federal constraint stack: Section 508, brand governance, Drupal production surfaces, and content that had to stay accurate under regulatory review — not a marketing microsite with freedom to simplify the hard parts away.
Outcomes.
Consumer-readable safety web
Production templates and surfaces aligned to the agency’s consumer-facing communications direction — safety information structured for public comprehension, not internal document hierarchy.
Brand system in production
Drupal templates and campaign lockups executed against NHTSA brand guidelines — giving editors a governed foundation instead of one-off page builds.
Federal constraint fluency
Shipped work under UICGS/Bowhead contract rhythm: accessibility requirements, approval paths, and CMS patterns that survive handoff to agency stakeholders.
Arc to national-scale public UX
Bridge in the public-sector through-line — health and science comms (Palladian) → federal safety web (NHTSA) → national booking at Amtrak → agentic civic AI at Red Cell.