Consultants and Testifying Experts
Forensic Human Factors specializes in human factors and also offers consulting and expert testimony in many other areas that include:
Architect
Infotainment systems
Construction
Workplace Safety
Meteorology
Products
Accident
Reconstruction
Driver
Distraction
About Dr. Kevin Rider
Owner / Human Factors Consultant
Kevin A. Rider (PhD, PE, CPE) is a human factors consultant and owner of Forensic Human Factors, LLC, which provides expert investigations, reports and testimony for personal injury cases – plaintiff or defense. Dr. Rider investigates how people interact with other people, products and environments in predictable ways, and applying this understanding to the design of effective, efficient and safe products, services and systems. He has served as an expert in personal injury cases throughout the United States.
Dr. Rider's Expertise Include:
- Motor vehicle and pedestrian collisions, including trucks, trains and motor/bicycles
- Illumination, nighttime visibility, and pedestrian conspicuity
- DUI/DWI/OWI, where driver actions may also be the result of poorly designed/maintained roads and signs
- The design and foreseeable use of products, and the adequacy of their warnings and instructions
- The design and maintenance of safe civil and occupational environments
- Premises liability, and slips, trips and falls
- Workplace and construction safety
Dr. Rider is a Professional Engineer (PE), a Certified Professional Ergonomist (CPE), and has served as a human factors consultant since 1999, including five years as a professor at West Virginia University. He has presented his peer-reviewed work at professional conferences, nationally and abroad, and is active in several professional organizations.
Dr. Rider attended the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, which conferred his Bachelor and Master degrees in Industrial Engineering. He then received his Ph.D. in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Dr. Rider’s research includes human performance under stress, driver behavior and distraction, the performance of in-vehicle tasks, pedestrian behaviors, and manual material handling tasks. He has demonstrated abilities to explain complex scenarios in easily understood ways, both in the classroom and the courtroom.
“There’s a Human Factor in every case.”
About Dr. Victoria Ballard
Human Factors Consultant
Victoria Ballard (PhD, PE, AHP, OSE) is a human factors consultant at Forensic Human Factors, LLC, which provides expert investigations, reports and testimony for personal injury cases – plaintiff or defense.
Dr. Victoria Ballard is a distinguished expert in Industrial and Systems Engineering with over 16 years of experience as a consultant and educator. She received her PhD in Occupational Safety and Ergonomics from Auburn University, and received dual master’s degrees in engineering. Dr. Ballard is also a licensed Professional Engineer and is also a certified Walkway Auditor and Associate Human Factors Professional (AHP), along with a Graduate Certificate in Occupational Safety and Ergonomics.
Throughout her diverse career, Dr. Ballard has held various engineering roles, emphasizing safety and oversight in the chemical manufacturing and civil engineering sectors. Her expert work focuses on occupational safety and the biomechanics of slips and falls. Her academic contributions span six universities where she has served as Adjunct Faculty, Graduate Researcher, Graduate Teaching Assistant, and Fellow. Dr. Ballard’s dynamic career also includes roles influenced by her life as an Air Force spouse, adapting and excelling in multiple states across the U.S.
Her research focuses on the human performance implications and cognitive load effects of technology and workplace design on manufacturing workers. She has consistently demonstrated her ability to distill complex concepts into clear, understandable terms, effectively engaging diverse audiences both academically and in professional settings. A former chapter president of several professional organizations, she has presented her peer-reviewed work at numerous national conferences.
Dr. Ballard earned her Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Chemical and Civil Engineering from the University of Washington, Seattle. Additionally, she holds a Secondary Teaching Certification in Mathematics and Chemistry from Hardin-Simmons University, Texas. With her extensive experience and educational background, Dr. Ballard expertly bridges the gap between engineering issues and practical solutions in both the classroom and the courtroom.
About Ms. Christina Lewis
Human Factors Consultant
Christina Lewis (MS, PhD Candidate) is a human factors consultant at Forensic Human Factors, LLC, which provides expert investigations, reports and testimony for personal injury cases – plaintiff or defense.
Ms. Lewis has spent over 12 years researching cognitive neuroscience and engineering psychology, initially working in multiple laboratories at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), where she coordinated research projects on human motor control and erred behavior. She then worked as an associate researcher in the neuropsychology departments of two different hospitals, contributing to studies about the limits of human cognitive abilities in attention and memory. The related issues of cognitive tunneling are regularly demonstrated by individuals whose focus may prevent them from recognizing other salient cues. Ms. Lewis then transitioned to graduate research at Arizona State University (ASU) in the field of engineering psychology, aiming to connect fundamentals from cognitive neuroscience principles towards more applied settings. This includes research geared towards operator behavior in tasks such as driving, piloting, and military operations. Her work has been concentrated on the limits of human ability, particularly attention and distraction, under varying amounts of workload.
Ms. Lewis received her Bachelor (BS) degree in Psychology from UCSD, and her Masters (MS) in Human Systems Engineering from ASU. She is currently finishing her last year of her doctoral program, when she will receive a PhD in Human Systems Engineering. During her doctoral track, in addition to her personal research, she has been sponsored to work on multiple research projects centering on human multitasking and cognitive bias behavior. This includes an internship at the Naval Information Warfare Center, and a multi-year project from the Department of Defense.
About Dr. Lena Breuer
Human Factors Consultant
Dr. Lena Breuer (PhD) is a human factors consultant at Forensic Human Factors, LLC, which provides expert investigations, reports and testimony for personal injury cases – plaintiff or defense.
Dr. Lena Breuer received her PhD in Civil Engineering from Oregon State University, under the guidance of Dr. David Hurwitz, where she also worked as a research assistant in the Driving and Bicycling Simulators Lab, but it was Lena’s passion for transportation and ongoing interest in cognitive psychology and human factors that fueled her academic and research pursuits. While at OSU, she was chosen as an Advancing Sciences in America (ARCS) Scholar and also led the charge on four research projects for NCHRP, NHTSA, and the Oregon DOT. Her research primarily focused on interactions between drivers and vulnerable road users, cyclists and pedestrians. Dr. Breuer also designed and conducted a 50-person driving simulator study to explore the interactions between right-turning drivers and through-traveling cyclists at novel treatments for right-hook accidents at signalized intersections. Lena utilized biometric instrumentation to gather data on participant’s visual attention and stress levels. This research was funded by the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) and is used in NCHRP 15-73 – a decision-making tool and a manual of design guidelines for practitioners. For the Oregon DOT, Lena designed and led a state-wide video-based study to explore user perceptions of a novel treatment, bike turnouts, and also designed and led an in-field experiment to study how pedestrians with disabilities interacted with automated vehicles.
Dr. Lena Breuer previously received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Civil Engineering from Virginia Tech. During this time, Dr. Breuer worked as a graduate research assistant in the Center for Sustainable Mobility at Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, and also interned at Transurban in Washington DC where she was then hired to work as a consultant during her fourth year of education. While at Transurban, Lena designed, built, and maintained an interactive geospatial database for identifying location of assets by type and features on the I-95, I-395, and I-495 toll roads. Lena also used ArcGIS to study the extent to which ride-hailing services (i.e. Uber, Lyft, etc.) replaced public transit in Chicago.
Dr. Breuer has quickly gained recognition for her excellence and has been named a Dwight D. Eisenhower Transportation Fellow, Kiewit Center Scholar, Pacific Transportation Consortium Fellow, and recognized as a University Transportation Center Student of the Year. In a team of four graduate students, Lena taught herself Adobe XD to develop their team’s app (conceptual design) for NHTSA’s Student Safety Technology Design Competition. After named a North American finalist, they were invited to present their work in Yokohama, Japan where they were awarded second place among the eight international finalists.