Each year, we are honoured to recognize many leaders who have served ITE and the transportation profession as well as emerging professionals. We are pleased to announce, alongside the Future Transportation Leaders Fund, the ITE Canada 2026 Excellence in Transportation Award and Scholarship recipients who will be recognized at our Annual Conference in Victoria, British Columbia.
Individual Excellence
Distinguished Service Award in honour of H. Robert Burton
Paula Sawicki
Southwestern Ontario Section | Mosaic Mobility Group
Paula Sawicki, P.Eng., is a transportation engineer with more than 30 years of experience across the public and private sectors, with a career focused on transit, transportation planning, policy development, traffic operations, and municipal infrastructure projects across Ontario.
She is known for combining strong technical expertise with practical implementation experience and a collaborative approach to solving complex transportation challenges. Paula has also been an active and enthusiastic contributor to the ITE throughout her career, participating in a wide variety of technical projects, committees, conferences, and industry initiatives. She served as Newsletter Editor during the transition to a digital format, was the Local Arrangements Committee (LAC) Chair for the 2014 joint ITE/OTC Annual Conference in Kitchener, and later served on the LAC for the 2024 Annual Conference in Hamilton. Paula was also the inaugural Chair of the National Technical Program Committee (NTPC) and continues to remain actively involved with the committee today. She is a frequent presenter and strong supporter of professional collaboration, technical knowledge-sharing, and the continued growth of ITE and its events.
Outstanding Voluntary Contribution Award
Greg O’Brien
Atlantic Canada Section / WSP
Greg is a Fellow of ITE and has been a dedicated volunteer with ITE Canada for many years. He has served on the Executive of the Atlantic Canada Section, several terms on the District Board of Directors with notable roles on Board committees and task forces, Conference Local Arrangement Committees, and as an ITE Canada Appointee to Transportation Association of Canada (TAC) technical committees.
Greg has worked at WSP Canada Inc. on a range of transportation planning and design projects for over 25 years and currently holds the role of Technical Director for Transportation, Atlantic Canada.
Rising Star Award
Recognizing members under 35 who have made an impact on the profession early in their careers
Kelsey Waugh
Toronto Section / CIMA+
Kelsey is a Project Manager in the CIMA+ Mobility group in Toronto and a dedicated ITE member since 2014. Over the past decade, she has made significant contributions to ITE, including service on the ITE Toronto Section, the Local Arrangements Committee for the 2017 Toronto ITE International Conference, and currently as Treasurer for ITE Canada. She is a University of Waterloo alumna, a licensed Professional Engineer in Ontario, and holds an RSP1 designation. She was named one of Canadian Consulting Engineer’s Top 10 Under 40 in 2023.
Section & Student Chapter Awards
These awards highlight the activities of our Sections and Student Chapters in the previous calendar year and the exceptional dedication of the ITE leaders who volunteer their time at our local levels.
Outstanding Section Award
ITE Toronto Section
ITE Toronto Section engaged their many members with intentional effort in 2025. They hosted or co-hosted joint efforts with other ITE Sections and Student Chapters a total of 12 diverse events ranging from workshops, tours, luncheons, webinars, and student events with a particular focus on accessibility and road safety. Notable events included the CNIB Accessibility Workshop & Walking Tour, Waterfront Toronto Bike Tour and Summer Social, Mini Transportation Conference (with ITE SWO and Hamilton) and Lakehead University Accessible Transportation Systems Workshop in Thunder Bay. Their focus on partnership and collaboration allowed them to serve a broad membership with diverse needs and foster a strong local transportation community.
Section Momentum Award
ITE Northern Alberta Section
2025 was a year of growth and development for the Northern Alberta Section. They initiated new efforts such as their first K-12 STEM outreach event supporting the University of Alberta’s DiscoverE program and building a Section sponsorship package. The Section also advanced several member-focused initiatives: they organized a series of monthly knowledge sharing events, arranged and advertised a member award program, and enhanced integration with the University of Alberta Student Chapter.
Outstanding Student Chapter Award
University of Waterloo
This year the University of Waterloo student Chapter contributed to significant growth in chapter recruitment and overall campus presence. They organized more than 10 industry seminars, technical tours, and software workshops with strong student participation and attendance. The chapter led extensive K–12 outreach initiatives through Campus Open Houses and Engineering Outreach workshops, helping expand community engagement and awareness of engineering programs. They also participated in the Sandbox Competition to create new opportunities for student engagement, leadership development, and professional growth within the chapter.
Student Chapter Momentum Award
ITE University of Victoria Student Chapter
In 2025, this team’s tremendous efforts revived the ITE UVic Student Chapter. From March to December, the chapter hosted two technical tours, five Lunch & Learns, one scavenger hunt, one Design Competition, one Industry Night, and five community outreach events. Throughout 2025, their focus has been on introducing university and K-12 students to different aspects of transportation engineering and planning through engaging and learning events.
Student Scholarships & Awards
Monetary scholarships and awards made possible by generous donors and the Future Transportation Leaders Fund.
ITE Canada Doctoral Transportation Scholarship in honour of Dr. Michel Van Aerde
Tarek Ghoul
University of British Columbia
Tarek Ghoul is a PhD candidate at the University of British Columbia, where his research focuses on developing Intelligent Transportation Systems for road safety applications. Drawing on data from cameras, drones, and autonomous vehicles, his work quantifies crash risk before collisions occur and deploys real-time interventions to reduce it.
Tarek joined the UBC ITE Student Chapter in 2018 and has held the roles of year-representative, graduate representative, treasurer, vice-president, and president. He has remained active within the chapter, helping maintain its institutional memory and continuity across successive executive teams.
ITE Canada Master’s Transportation Scholarship in honour of John Vardon
Teresa Maria Akl
University of Calgary
Teresa Akl is a Master of Science student in Civil Engineering at the University of Calgary, specializing in Transportation Engineering, and a Mobility Safety Engineer-in-Training with the City of Calgary. Her research integrates transportation and sustainable engineering principles to advance road safety, with a particular focus on pedestrian safety. Her background in road safety is grounded in several years of non-profit and NGO work at both national and international levels.
ITE Canada Undergraduate Transportation Scholarship
Aislinn Dressler
University of Victoria
Aislinn is a recent graduate of the University of Victoria civil engineering program, and is starting her Masters of Applied Science in Transportation Engineering at the University of British Columbia in the fall. She is passionate about transportation engineering and planning, and loves to explore her surroundings on bike and foot.
ITE Canada Innovation in Transportation Scholarship in honour of John Morrall
Tiancheng Li
University of Toronto
Tiancheng Li is a graduate student in transportation engineering at the University of Toronto, specializing in transportation analysis under the supervision of Professor Khandker Nurul Habib. His work integrates travel behavior analysis and urban planning policies, helping municipalities make more informed planning decisions and develop evidence-based frameworks for future projects. In the past, Tiancheng has contributed to transportation impact studies, bicycle and pedestrian planning, and complete streets initiatives.
ITE Canada Student Paper Competition Award
Xingnan Zhou
Concordia University
Xingnan Zhou is a PhD candidate in the Department of Building, Civil, and Environmental Engineering at Concordia University, supervised by Prof. Ciprian Alecsandru. Her research focuses on autonomous vehicle trajectory prediction using transformer and attention-based architectures, with the Waymo Open Motion Dataset.
Her award-winning paper demonstrates how road structure can serve as a powerful prior for safer prediction at intersections, with direct applications to Canadian AV deployment. She also achieved a top-15 solo ranking in the 2025 Waymo Open Dataset End-to-End Driving Challenge.
ITE Canada Student Presentation Competition Award
Jessica Wei-Lin Lam
University of Saskatchewan
Jessica was born and raised in suburban Calgary within the cultural diaspora of the Chinese-Singaporean community. She holds a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from the University of Calgary, and a M.Sc. from the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences. As a Transportation Engineer in Calgary and Vancouver she designed, planned and managed active, bus, and light rail transit projects. In non-profit spaces, Jessica has led local, provincial, and national initiatives focused on equity, diversity, and inclusion. Her current Ph.D. candidacy at the University of Saskatchewan explores long-term impacts of transit closures on travel behaviour, satisfaction, and well-being.
Chosen from the winners of our regional student presentation competitions hosted by Sections across Canada
