Dr. Sheila “Charlie” Klauer is a research scientist and leader of the Applied Driver Assessment Performance & Training Group in the Division of Vehicle, Driver, & System Safety. In addition, she is an associate professor in the Industrial and Systems Engineering Department at Virginia Tech. Dr. Klauer has been working in transportation research since 1996; prior to joining VTTI in 1999, she worked at the Battelle Human Factors Research Center in Seattle, WA. At VTTI, she has served as the principal investigator (PI) for a series of naturalistic driving studies (NDS) including three teen NDSs and the Canada Naturalistic Driving Study. She currently serves as the PI of the Driver Adaptation of L2 Technologies study and for two additional NDSs that are focused on adolescents. The first of these is concerned with adolescents diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder and the second NDS is focused on adolescents diagnosed with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.
Dr. Klauer recently authored papers that have been published in The New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Pediatrics, and Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics. Her NEJM paper is still listed in the top 2% most read of all articles in the NEJM. Her primary research involves studying the effects of distraction and fatigue on driving, especially with regard to novice drivers.