Washington, D.C. —As the National Sleep Foundation prepares to convene its 2026 Drowsy Driving Forum this fall, the organization building coalitions.
The foundation announced Wednesday the lineup for its Solutions & Actions Panel, a discussion that will bring together some of the country’s most prominent voices in sleep medicine, highway safety and automotive journalism. The panel builds on an earlier Leadership Panel and will convene October 29 at the National Press Club, where organizers hope to translate new research into concrete steps that reduce fatigue-related crashes.
A Cross-Sector Bench
The roster reflects an attempt to bridge worlds that rarely share a stage. Joseph Dzierzewski, the foundation’s senior vice president of research and scientific affairs, will represent the sleep science side of the conversation. Jonathan Adkins, chief executive of the Governors Highway Safety Association, and David Harkey, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, bring perspectives from state policy and crash-data research, respectively. Fariha Abbasi-Feinberg, president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, rounds out the clinical viewpoint, while veteran automotive journalist Jamie Butters, host of the Autotown Radio Show and Podcast, offers an industry and consumer lens.
Moderating the discussion will be Mark R. Rosekind, chair of the National Sleep Foundation’s board and a former administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, who also served on the National Transportation Safety Board. Rosekind’s dual background in sleep science and federal transportation oversight positions him as a natural bridge between the panel’s medical and regulatory constituencies. John Lopos, the foundation’s chief executive, will open and close the event.
New Data as the Anchor
The panel’s discussion will center on findings from the foundation’s 2026 Drowsy Driving Survey, which the organization says explores emerging issues in the field while reinforcing sleep health as foundational to safe driving. The survey has not yet been released in full, but its results are expected to shape much of the panel’s conversation about where intervention efforts should focus next.
The stakes described in the announcement are not abstract. Drowsy driving is characterized as impaired driving in its own right, and the foundation cites estimates that it factors into roughly one in five fatal crashes nationwide. The gap between public awareness and public behavior is striking: while the vast majority of Americans acknowledge the danger, a much larger share admit to having driven while too tired to keep their eyes open comfortably. Among newly licensed teenage drivers, a notable share report driving drowsy within their first two years on the road.
From Awareness Week to a Year-Round Program
The October forum is being positioned as the centerpiece of a broader, year-round Drowsy Driving Prevention Program that the foundation has been expanding, one that combines public education campaigns, ongoing scientific research, cross-sector partnerships and advocacy at the national level. That framing marks a departure from the foundation’s traditional approach, which has centered heavily on its long-running Drowsy Driving Prevention Week.
Rosekind framed the panel’s purpose around implementation rather than diagnosis. “Meaningful progress in drowsy driving prevention depends on turning research into actions,” he said, adding that the panel was designed to let leaders “examine new evidence, share practical perspectives, and help identify collaborative approaches that can move the field forward.”
Lopos struck a similar note, suggesting the foundation sees its role expanding beyond public messaging. “Now is the time for organizations with a shared interest in public health and safety to do more together to help save lives,” he said, describing the forum as a mechanism to “inform and align organizations around evidence-based solutions and practical tools.”
Where the Auto Industry Fits In
For those tracking vehicle safety technology, the inclusion of an automotive journalist alongside sleep clinicians and safety regulators is a notable signal. Drowsy driving sits squarely at the intersection of human behavior and vehicle design, an area where driver monitoring systems, attention-tracking cameras and fatigue-detection algorithms have moved from experimental features to increasingly standard equipment in new vehicles. Whether the Solutions & Actions Panel addresses in-cabin technology directly, or focuses more narrowly on policy and clinical intervention, may become clearer once the agenda and survey findings are published.
Registration for the forum is free and open to the public, with agenda details available through the National Sleep Foundation. The event’s location at the National Press Club, and its convening of NHTSA and NTSB veterans alongside insurance-industry researchers, suggests organizers are aiming for an audience that extends well beyond the sleep health community into transportation policy circles in Washington.
The National Sleep Foundation independently produces Drowsy Driving Prevention Week and its associated educational content, and has positioned the October forum as a natural extension of that longer-running effort.