For press information, contact Sean Ellis, 901-678-2837

Mark Norris

An attorney with the Transportation Law Practice Group of Adams and Reese, Norris is a member of the Transportation Lawyers Association. As a legislator, Norris served two years as Tennessee Senate’s Transportation and Safety Committee chair and was named Legislator of the Year in 2006 by the Tennessee Public Transportation Association. He also recently served as chair of the Transportation Policy Task Force of the Council of State Governments.

“Senator Norris has always been a great friend to the University of Memphis and to our Institute, so it made perfect sense to invite him to serve on our executive board,” said Dr. Martin Lipinski, director of IFTI. “His extensive background in transportation matters, in Tennessee and across the nation, makes him a valuable resource to the Institute.”

Added Sean Ellis, associate director of IFTI, “Having a robust board filled with individuals in touch with the current needs of the freight community is critical to meeting our full potential as a research institute.”

When asked to serve, Norris said, “I could not think of a better venue through which to address our transportation challenges and needs than the Intermodal Freight Transportation Institute at the University of Memphis, one of the South’s greatest urban research institutions. I am pleased to have worked with the Institute in the past and am eager to enter this new relationship with it and its partners in the Mid-South and throughout the transportation industry.”

Formerly a two-term member of the Shelby County Commission, Norris was first elected to the Tennessee Senate in 2000 and became majority leader in 2007. He and his wife, Chris, live on their farm in Collierville.

The University of Memphis is a metropolitan research university located at the hub of the lower Mississippi Delta’s intermodal freight transportation network. In recognition of this strategic position, the University established IFTI to provide an administrative home for a wide range of multi-disciplinary research and curricular initiatives as well as public-private partnership endeavors collectively designed to provide national leadership on issues related to intermodal freight transportation.

More information about research being conducted by the Intermodal Freight Transportation Institute is available online at www.memphis.edu/ifti