Each year, we are honoured to recognize many leaders who have served ITE and the transportation profession as well as emerging professionals. Here are the ITE Canada 2024 Excellence in Transportation Award and Scholarship recipients.
Outstanding achievement in the transportation profession and dedicated service to ITE Canada
Jen Malzer
Southern Alberta Section | City of Calgary
Over her 22-year career, Jen Malzer has served with passion and enthusiasm at every level of ITE, from the University of Manitoba Student Chapter, the Southern Alberta Section, and the Canadian District (where she served as President from 2015-2017) to—most recently—the ITE International Board of Direction (2018-2021). She most enjoys contributing ideas and helping build communities of practice. She led a foundational strategic plan for ITE Canada during her presidency and served as Co-Chair of the Women of ITE Sub-Committee along with positions on many other task forces and committees. She was also one of the founding board members of the Future Transportation Leaders Fund.
Her volunteerism in transportation transcends beyond ITE. She was a board member for Vélo Canada Bikes, served on an expert panel to advise Parks Canada on Sustainable Transportation opportunities within Banff National Park, and was on the steering committee for Walk21 Calgary.
In her day job as the Leader of Public Spaces Project Development at The City of Calgary, Jen supports a team reimagining mobility, parks, and recreation. She has led many complex projects like Flyover Park, LRT and BRT functional plans. Outside of work, Jen loves reading, travelling, and biking with her son, Scott, to school every day.
Recognizing exceptional voluntary contributions and dedication to ITE Canada
Ryan Martinson
Southern Alberta Section | Martinson Golly Ltd.
Ryan Martinson loves working with people—learning from their lived experiences, their concerns, and the possibilities they see for dignified, comfortable, and safe daily travel. Known by many for his creative use of comics to communicate complex transportation ideas, Ryan has formally chaired and been a member of committees at both the ITE Canada and International levels including the Technical Liaison Committee, the Sustainable Standing Committee, the Complete Streets Council, the Equity and Diversity Committee and Stem Committee. He has been involved in developing design guidance; leading training courses on street design; developing graduate courses related to sustainability and complexity; participating in research projects related to the built environment; and teaching and mentoring university students.
Recognizing members under 35 who have made an impact on the profession early in their careers
Destiny Piper
Saskatchewan Section | KGS Group
Destiny Piper, a transportation engineer with KGS Group, has a decade of progressive experience in transportation and exhibits leadership skills that make her worthy of this award. She has actively contributed to the ITE community from early in her career. Starting as the registration chair for the 2015 ITE Canada national conference in Regina, SK, she has since held key roles at various levels of the organization, including President of the ITE Saskatchewan Section and member of the ITE Canada’s Board of Directors. She is currently serving as ITE Canada’s Treasurer and Secretary.
The Young Leaders to Follow program highlights younger ITE members who may otherwise not be visible at the highest levels of ITE. The purpose of this program is to recognize individuals starting to make an impact on ITE at the chapter, section, or district or international levels and in their profession and to introduce these young members to the greater ITE Community. Congratulations to the three Canadians recognized as part of ITE International’s Young Leaders to Follow Class of 2024!
Destiny Piper
Saskatchewan Section
KGS Group
Mark Hearson
Manitoba Section
Stantec
Khelen Upadhyay
Greater Vancouver Section
City of Delta
In recognition of exceptional technical achievement in Canada’s transportation industry
Design Guide for Bus Stops Adjacent to Cycling Infrastructure
TransLink, B.C. Ministry of Transportation & Infrastructure, Urban Systems, Toole Design Group, Universal Access Design, and EAP Consulting Ltd
TransLink, in partnership with the B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MoTI), retained Urban Systems in association with Toole Design Group to create the Design Guide for Bus Stops Adjacent to Cycling Infrastructure to guide communities in British Columbia on how to effectively design bus stops adjacent to protected cycling infrastructure to meet the needs of people with disabilities while also being comfortable for cyclists of all ages and abilities. This Design Guide is the first of its kind in North America and addresses a significant knowledge gap in the profession.
The ITE International Transportation Achievement Awards recognizes significant achievement in several categories and ITE Canada is pleased to share the Canadian nominees we have put forward to be considered for these awards.
Citywide Elementary School Traffic and Safety Study
City of Burnaby
Design Guide for Bus Stops Adjacent to Cycling Infrastructure
TransLink, B.C. Ministry of Transportation & Infrastructure, Urban Systems, Toole Design Group, Universal Access Design, and EAP Consulting Ltd
Proactive Risk Mapping and Network Screening: Moving Beyond Blackspots
Martinson Golly Ltd. and City of Coquitlam
Livable Deep Cove – Gallant Avenue Renewal Project
Urban Systems and District of North Vancouver
Presented by Bunt & Associates
Recognizing contributions to transportation solutions by young professionals
Manpreet Singh
WSP | Northern Alberta Section
Manpreet is an EIT and works with WSP in Edmonton. He works with the Urban Design team, focusing on neighbourhood renewal which provides transportation facilities to older neighbourhoods in Edmonton. He also works with the pavement design team on projects throughout Alberta. He was the recipient of the ITE Canada Undergraduate Award in 2021. He is passionate about fostering connectivity using multi-modal facilities. Aside from engineering, he is a first aid instructor and an amateur pastry chef.
Awarded based on the quality of his technical paper on the Lansdowne Alley Renewal
Presented by WATT Consulting Group
Ian Christopher Roman
University of Calgary
Ian is an MSc student specializing in Transportation Engineering at the University of Calgary. He’s involved in the MITACS Accelerate program with Calgary Transit, researching public transit under the supervision of Dr. Alex De Barros. Post-graduation, Ian aspires to work in transportation or traffic engineering, utilizing his expertise to improve urban mobility and develop sustainable transportation solutions.
Awarded based on the quality and appreciation of interdisciplinary collaboration in his paper entitled “Charging Up Opinions: Unveiling Canadian Sentiments on Electric Vehicles (EVs) through Sentiment Analysis and Topic Modeling of Reddit Data“
Presented by Stantec
Parinaz Joneidi Shariat Zadeh
University of Manitoba
Parinaz is pursuing a Master of Natural Resources Management at the University of Manitoba. She earned a B.Sc. degree in Urban Development in Iran. Currently, she is collaborating with the town of Pinawa to develop green and sustainable infrastructures aimed at enhancing tourism and active transportation in the community. Her primary interest lies in Active Transportation, and she is keen on collaborating with other communities.
Awarded based on the quality of her paper entitled “A GIS-based evaluation of active transportation: Fort Garry Campus“
Grace Mulcahy
York University
Grace Mulcahy is a part-time Graduate Student at York University and also works full time as a Traffic Project Coordinator and Liaison Specialist at the City of Vaughan. Grace has over 3 years transportation engineering experience at both the local and regional levels of government. She is pursuing her Master of Applied Science with her thesis focused on active transportation level of service. She is currently registered as an Engineer-in-Training with the PEO.
Chosen from the winners of our regional student presentation competitions hosted by Sections across Canada
University of British Columbia
Steve Martin
Tarek Ghoul
Eric Seto
Youjia Liu (Alternate)
Excellence in a doctorate-level transportation program
Rulla Al-Haideri
Carleton University
Rulla is a Ph.D. candidate at Carleton University. Previously, she worked at Sharjah Research Academy and the University of Sharjah (UOS) in the UAE. Rulla earned her B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Civil Engineering from the UOS in 2011 and 2014. In September 2021, she embarked on her Ph.D. in Civil Engineering at Carleton, focusing on studying road user behaviour at roundabouts. She has received five other scholarships in 2024 alone.
Excellence in a master’s-level transportation program
Tristan J. Ford
University of British Columbia
Tristan’s research is focused on leveraging optimization and machine learning techniques to enhance public transit. He completed his BASc at UBC in 2019 and has experience working in both private and public sectors of public transportation. Tristan’s goal is to improve equitable access to efficient transportation options for folks within their communities and in doing so reduce congestion and environmental impacts.
Excellence in a transportation-related undergraduate program
Adriana Ceric
University of Waterloo
Adriana, a third-year Civil Engineering student at the University of Waterloo, is passionate about public transit, accessibility, and emerging technology. Throughout her previous internships, she contributed to the creation of accessible, multi-modal trip planning applications for transit agencies across North America. Currently, she serves as a Transportation Planning Intern at Stantec. In her spare time, she enjoys exploring transit systems worldwide and painting.
University of New Brunswick
After a slowdown of activity imposed by the pandemic, the UNB chapter, led by a group of enthusiastic student leaders, re-launched in the 2022-2023 academic year. In 2023-2024, that momentum has grown as they continue to serve the UNB transportation community by hosting many social and technical activities such as a pumpkin painting, participating at the Atlantic Section Fall and Spring Conferences, hosting technical presentations by practicing engineers, and a tour of the New Brunswick Department of Transportation Sign Shop.
University of Waterloo Student Chapter
Since last year’s recognition as the Student Chapter Momentum award winner by both ITE Canada and ITE International, the chapter has grown their membership and held large networking events including Elevate with the York and McMaster Chapters and a joint industry night with other UW Civil Engineering societies and design teams. They have formalized a leadership program to encourage team members to lead new events and have held community and K-12 outreach initiatives with groups on campus.
Southwestern Ontario Section
After a few years of inactivity, the section used 2023 to reconnect with their membership and “met them at home” by taking events out to them, rather than always hosting a dinner and presentation. The nearness was universally appreciated, and enhanced by interesting topics. They engaged and interacted with each other and by creating excitement and showing membership value to members; were able to nearly double their membership rolls in 12 months. Creative events such as a charter bus tour picking up participants from Waterloo to Windsor garnered great interest and offered networking alongside learning opportunities.
Manitoba Section
The Manitoba Section showed exemplary service to their membership in 2023. In addition to hosting the 2023 ITE Canada/CARSP Joint Conference, they held luncheons covering a wide range of content, including a joint networking event with the University of Manitoba ITE Student Chapter, and are utilizing member engagement survey results to develop upcoming priorities and plan next events. They also co-hosted a successful joint virtual event alongside fellow Prairie ITE Sections (Northern Alberta, Southern Alberta, and Saskatchewan) entitled Beyond the Horizon: Future-Proofing Transportation on the Prairies which attracted over 100 participants.
ITE Canada’s Annual Conference is our flagship offering, bringing together hundreds of transportation professionals and students to connect and advance the industry. This event would not be possible without the incredible work of many volunteers. We would like to recognize members of the 2024 Local Arrangements Committee from the Hamilton Section as well as the inaugural National Technical Program Committee.
These volunteers have spent countless hours ensuring the technical content and social events meet and exceed our expectations. We thank them for the time and effort they put into this conference and offer gratitude to their employers for supporting service to ITE Canada.
