Audrey Copeland, Ph.D., P.E.

Audrey oversees the strategic direction and operations of all NAPA programs and leads a staff dedicated to advancing the asphalt industry.

Experience

Under Audrey’s leadership, NAPA leads the asphalt pavement industry in advocating for Federal highway funding, ensuring the longevity of the industry, and promoting the benefits of asphalt pavements. Since 2019, she has led the modernization of NAPA’s offices and operations to best serve members, built a staff known for excellence and member service, and revised NAPA’s governing structure resulting in a nimble, strategic Board of Directors and a national Advisory Council with increased member engagement. NAPA’s accomplishments under Audrey’s leadership are detailed in Annual Reports.

Prior to being named President & CEO, Audrey served as NAPA’s Vice President of Engineering, Research, and Technology. In this role, she secured $5 million in dedicated funding for asphalt technology, research, and development. A first in NAPA’s history, under Audrey’s leadership, NAPA was awarded more than $2 million in federal funding to advance innovative asphalt technologies. She led the five-year project, resulting in continued growth of recycled asphalt pavements; improved production, construction, and performance of asphalt mixtures; and numerous educational opportunities through industry-government working groups, conferences, and publications.

Audrey also led an ongoing partnership between NAPA and the 39 State Asphalt Pavement Associations (SAPAs) that resulted in $3 million for research and development, which helped advance better understanding and use of life-cycle cost analysis and development of the PaveXpress pavement design software. This funding was also used to create and implement Emerald Eco-Label, NAPA's verified Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) tool for asphalt mixtures.

Audrey began her career as a highway engineer and researcher at the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), where she headed a national effort to increase the use of recycled asphalt pavements, leading to more than 10 state DOTs changing their specifications. She also led a pooled-fund study among state DOTs for implementation of the Asphalt Mixture Performance Tester and was a key member of the Every Day Counts initiative to advance deployment of warm-mix asphalt – now estimated to exceed 40% of the asphalt pavement market.

Audrey is a founding member and the current Secretary of the Women of Asphalt and serves on the Board of Directors for the National Center for Asphalt Technology at Auburn University. She is a member of Tennessee Tech University’s Engineering Advisory Council and a Past President of the Association of Asphalt Paving Technologists (AAPT). She is a registered engineer in the Commonwealth of Virginia and in the State of Maryland.

Education

M.S. and B.S. in Civil & Environmental Engineering, Tennessee Technological University

Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, Vanderbilt University