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.
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.
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.
Recognizing members under 35 who have made an impact on the profession early in their careers
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.
The Young Leaders to Follow program recognizes individuals starting to make an impact on ITE at the Chapter, Section, District or International levels and in their profession. Congratulations to the three Canadians recognized as part of ITE International’s Young Leaders to Follow Class of 2026!
Karalee Bloch
Manitoba Section
Manitoba Department of Transportation & Infrastructure
Kelsey Waugh
Toronto Section
CIMA+
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.
Guildford Way Complete Street
ISL, DMD & Associates Electrical Consultants Ltd. and City of Coquitlam
Vision Zero Guelph: Action Plan for Safe Streets
City of Guelph
Shaping neighbourhoods: 2025 update of Edmonton’s Complete Streets Design and Construction Standards (CSDCS)
CIMA+, Martinson Golly
Real-time Decision Support for Transit Headway Management
Toronto Transit Commission (TTC)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Monetary scholarships and awards made possible by generous donors and the Future Transportation Leaders Fund.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Bradley Carver
Victress Philemon
Sambhav Goyal
Kelly Zhang (Alternate)
ITE Canada’s Annual Conference is our flagship offering, bringing together hundreds of transportation professionals and students to connect and advance the industry. We would like to recognize members of the 2026 Local Arrangements Committee from the ITE Vancouver Island Section, the National Technical Program Committee from across Canada, and many additional volunteers who made the conference possible.
Nick Armstrong
City of Victoria
Bruce Beames
Stantec
Kenneth Bulahan
JSF Technologies
Dan Casey
Urban Systems
Andy Kading
City of Victoria
Nadine King (Chair)
WATT Consulting Group
Steve Martin
WATT Consulting Group
Hana Stoer
Bunt & Associates
+ many event volunteers
Amy Do (Chair)
Parsons
Breanna Jackson (Vice-Chair)
Associated Engineering
Erica Bayley
Paradigm Transportation Solutions Ltd
Omar Shams
City of Hamilton
Ken Wimble
WSP Canada
Garrett Donaher (Past Chair)
viaris engineering
+ NTPC Associate Members
These volunteers spent countless hours ensuring the technical content, tours, events, and facilities at the Victoria 2026 conference exceeded our expectations. We thank them for the time and effort they put into this conference and offer gratitude to their employers for supporting their service to ITE Canada.
