Governors Highway Safety Association
The States' Voice on Highway Safety

Debra Coffey has been on a mission to help people and make a difference in our communities since her first job as a court administrator in the Texas court system.

In 1998, Coffey moved to Smart Start, an alcohol breath-testing technology company based in Grapevine, Texas. From here, she launched the national effort to require ignition interlocks on the cars of drunk driving offenders. For more than 26 years, Coffey has worked to establish laws that prevent a drunk driver from ever repeating their crime. Thanks to her leadership, every state and the District of Columbia has enacted ignition interlock laws. These laws have led to more than 300,000 devices being installed in the United States keeping roads safer, saving lives and helping people drive sober.

Coffey founded the Safety and Advocacy for Empowerment (SAFE) Coalition and worked to ensure a collaborative approach to determining best practices for ignition interlock and alcohol monitoring programs. As part of her efforts, she has served as an advisor to the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) supporting their work on ignition interlock best practices.

Coffey regularly provides expert testimony in Congress and statehouses across the United States. She continually educates national, state and local leaders on ignition interlocks as well as new technologies to prevent impaired driving. She is a founding board member, and now the Chair, of the National Alliance to Stop Impaired Driving. Coffey has also been an active supporter of GHSA throughout her career. She was one of the first corporate associate members of GHSA and the first Annual Meeting sponsor in the ignition interlock industry, which led to support from others in the industry.

Coffey constantly demonstrates her vast knowledge of impaired driving issues, her significant work on advancing legislation to increase the use of ignition interlock devices and her decades of dedication to saving lives.