Election for CITE Executive Committee
We are pleased to announce the following candidates to serve on the CITE Executive Committee beginning January 2022. Three positions have been acclaimed and will be confirmed at the next Annual General Meeting.
- President: Ryan Vanderputten, Southern Alberta Section
- Vice President: Pedram Izadpanah, Hamilton Section
- District Director: Edward Soldo, Hamilton Section
- Past President*: Julia Salvini, Southwestern Ontario Section
*The current sitting President will become Past President, an un-elected position, after December 31, 2021.
Candidates for Secretary-Treasurer
A vote will be held for the position of Secretary-Treasurer of the Executive Committee with the following candidates. The elected member will automatically become a member of the CITE Board of Directors.
Voting will be open from March 29 to April 12, 2021, inclusive, by electronic ballot. Regular members of the Canadian District of ITE in good standing will receive a ballot by email on Monday, March 29. If you do not receive a ballot by this date, please contact us. Student members are not eligible to vote in ITE elections.
Irini Akhnoukh
Senior Transportation Engineer, Liveable Streets Division, The City of Calgary
This year I am running for the Secretary-Treasurer role on the Canadian District executive because I strongly believe in the role that CITE plays in the continued progress of the transportation engineering profession. CITE aids professionals in staying ahead on hot new trends by providing networking and knowledge-sharing opportunities, as well as technical products.
I have been lucky enough to become involved with CITE during my last year in undergrad at the University of Manitoba as part of an immensely active and passionate student Chapter.
I have carried that passion and involvement with the CITE/ITE family for the last 16 years through my involvement on the local, national and international levels of the organization. As a member, I have served in all the roles on the Southern Alberta ITE Section Executive (from 2011 to 2018). I was also the Social Program Coordinator on the Local Arranging Committee for the 2013 CITE Conference held in Calgary. On a national level, I was the Co-Chair (2015-2017) of a new initiative called excite formed to help students, recent grads, and young professionals in Transportation to get involved in CITE and develop in their profession. I have served on the CITE Board for 3 consecutive years (2015-2017) in three different roles. I am the current past Chair for the Technical Liaison Committee, where I served as Chair for 2 years (2018 -2020) leading the committee through new initiatives and building the CITE presence both on TAC and ITE.). On the international level, I have served on the ITE Traffic Engineering Council (TEC) where I was part of the Technical Projects Committee for two years (2013-2015). I also served as the Canadian representative on the ITE Coordinating Council (2019-2020) and am currently serving as the Canadian representative on the ITE Transportation Planning Council executive.
On a professional level, I have over 15 years of experience in the public and private sectors leading and managing large and complex transportation planning studies, including corridor studies, functional planning studies, and transportation network reviews; implementing Complete Streets in retrofit and greenfield areas, organizing and facilitating collaborative community and public engagement events, dealing with various consultants and stakeholders, and working closely with Council and City officials.
The experience I have gained over the last 16 years of involvement in the different committees and different levels of ITE and interaction with members and students have given me a deep understanding and knowledge of ITE, its strengths and its weaknesses. I want to bring my knowledge, experience, and passion to the CITE executive to continue serving the members, bringing new initiatives, continuing to grow and being the go-to organization for anyone in the transportation field.
Ian Roth
Managing Transportation Engineer, Urban Systems
BC Interior Section Director, CITE Board of Directors
I have been a member of CITE since 2010, which first began through my involvement in the BC Interior Chapter, and where I have had the pleasure to serve and contribute to our membership including in all roles of the Chapter Executive and as a mentor, coach and friend. Over these last 11 years, I have greatly enjoyed getting to work with and build trust among our transportation community of engineers, planners and professionals working in government, academic and community-based organizations.
In reflecting on my experience with CITE, I believe it is this grassroots nature that flows through CITE at the Chapter and Section levels that brings our members together and creates so many opportunities for shared learning, leadership and personal growth.
During my time as President of the BC Interior Chapter, I conferred with members of our District Executive, Greater Vancouver Section and our Chapter, and led the transformation of the BC Interior Chapter (of the Greater Vancouver Section) into the BC Interior Section. With formal adoption of a new Charter and Bylaws by the Board at the 2018 AGM in Edmonton, this exciting change was marked by membership growth and participation in the BC Interior, one which I am proud to have been a part of.
Further, my experience in CITE has allowed me to serve our community in the following roles and outcomes:
- Support for the Chartering of the UBC Okanagan Student Chapter (2013)
- Leading Communications for the Kelowna Annual Conference on the Local Arrangements Committee (2016)
- Re-Chartering the BC Interior Chapter to a Section of CITE (2018)
- Section Representative to UBC Okanagan Chapter Industry Nights, Mini Traffic Bowl events, and Student Paper Competitions
- BC Interior Section Board Director and Contributor to the CITE 2020-2024 Strategic Plan (2019-2021)
- Member of the District Training Committee (2019-2021)
When I completed my civil engineering degree at UBC’s Okanagan campus (2012), I began my career in consulting at Opus International. In 2014, I moved to Urban Systems where I have found much joy in delivering traffic engineering studies, multi-modal transportation plans and related services for a diversity of people and the organizations they represent. Since graduating, I have also met and married my wonderful husband Loyal, where we both find happiness in our downtime riding our bikes through the summer and skiing the mountain slopes in the winter.
My outlook and hope for CITE, if I am selected as the District’s Secretary-Treasurer, is to bring people together, talk and collaborate about important issues to our transportation industry. With your support, I humbly intend to provide you and our Chapters and Sections with continued financial stability, connection, and a uniquely western Canadian perspective. And lastly, I will maintain an open door for dialogue to explore how we in CITE can best support our member’s interests, issues and needs to advance our community of transportation professionals into this decade!
CAMPAIGN RULES
Candidates for the District Executive Committee election shall abide by the following campaign rules:
• Any expenses incurred during the campaign are not eligible for reimbursement by CITE, including attendance at the 2021 CITE Annual Conference
• Communication efforts will be limited to the candidate information that is distributed with the ballots and published on the CITE website. There will be no separate mail-outs or individual email campaign notices to members.
• Any current CITE Executive Committee member who is a candidate shall not take advantage of their position during the campaign.
Any breach of these rules may result in the Nominating and Elections Committee revoking the nomination of that individual for office.
