Steve Dowling serves as Chief Safety Officer for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), where he leads the agency's efforts to advance commercial motor vehicle safety and reduce crashes, fatalities, and injuries on the nation's roadways.

Dowling brings more than 35 years of combined law enforcement and transportation industry experience focused on commercial vehicle safety, operational leadership, and crash risk reduction. Before joining FMCSA, he served as Senior Director of Safety at Covenant Logistics, where he led safety initiatives that contributed to three consecutive years of record reductions in the company's crash rates.

Prior to his private-sector career, Dowling served with the California Highway Patrol, retiring as Chief of the Valley Division. In that role, he commanded an 850-person force serving the greater Sacramento region and oversaw operations across 20 commands, a commercial vehicle enforcement facility, and three communications centers that encompassed ten counties. He also served as Incident Commander of the Emergency Operations Center during multiple major emergencies, including the 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, California.

An active leader in the commercial motor vehicle safety community, Dowling served as Chair of the American Trucking Associations' Law Enforcement Advisory Board and previously served as President of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance and as an adjunct professor in William Jessup University's criminal justice program.

Dowling holds a master's degree in organizational management and a bachelor's degree in general studies. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California Price School of Public Policy Executive Leadership Program and the FBI Law Enforcement Executive Development Association program.