#ITEMSLS
Speakers
Click the pictures below for a short biography.
Dr. Peter Savolainen
Associate Professor @
Iowa State University
Career Panel
Dr. Peter Savolainen is an Associate Professor in the Iowa State University (ISU) Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering. Prior to joining ISU, he developed an internationally recognized research program in traffic safety and operations at Wayne State University. During his academic career, Dr. Savolainen has served as principal investigator (PI) or co-PI on $8.9 million (personal share of $3.5 million) worth of externally funded research through competitive grant awards from agencies including the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), and the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning (OHSP). This research has led to the publication of more than 50 peer-reviewed articles in refereed journals and conference proceedings.
Garrett Burchett
Manager @
Mississippi River Distilling Company
Career Panel
Garrett Burchett is a native of Harlan, Iowa. In 2003 he received his B.S. degree, Community and Regional Planning from Iowa State University. Garrett continued at Iowa State working at the Center for Transportation and Education until 2005 when he earned his M.S. degree in Transportation. He then moved to Dallas, Texas working as a land use and transportation consultant for Kimley Horn and Associates. In 2010 he “retired” from planning to become the Owner and Manager of the Mississippi River Distilling Company in LeClaire, Iowa. What started as a crazy idea grew into an opportunity that has taken his products to twenty-six states and three foreign countries. Garrett currently operates the company with his brother Ryan, also an alumni of Iowa State.
Jeff Roemer
Project Manager @
EXP
Technical Session Presenter
Jeff Roemer is a Project Manager with over 35 years of experience with transportation consulting throughout the Midwest who develops strong client relationships, encourages team efforts and solves tough problems. His expertise includes project management and design of urban and rural transportation facilities; business development, implementation of project cost controls, and guiding multi-office teams. His clients include several state Departments of Transportation, Tollway Authorities, County Highway Departments, and municipalities.
He combines his wide ranging experience with a real-world common sense approach to identify, develop, and implement solutions for complex projects. On numerous projects he has successfully gained consensus with elected officials, key stakeholders, and public stakeholders through active listening, establishing the problem to be solved, and communicating the serious nature of the problem to be addressed.
John Corbin
Trans. Research Implementation Specialist @
FHWA
Technical Presenter
John has led the creation of transportation system management technology programs formerly as the Director of Traffic Operations for both the Wisconsin and Iowa Departments of Transportation. He currently serves as a Transportation Research Implementation Specialist with the USDOT Federal Highway Administration. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Transportation Engineers, an active Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and has been a committee and panel leader within the Transportation Research Board throughout his career.
Kenneth Voigt
Senior Traffic Engineer @
Ayres Associates
Technical Presenter and Ethics and Politics Panel
Ken has nearly 50 years of experience in conducting traffic safety studies, roadway operation analysis, traffic calming, and neighborhood street system design. He has led numerous focus group sessions to build consensus and to develop a context-sensitive design approach to projects. One of his most challenging projects was building consensus for improvements along the East Washington Avenue Corridor in Madison.
Ken teaches a course on environmental impacts of transportation systems at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; he has also taught a traffic control course at UW-Milwaukee and intersection design and traffic impacts of land development courses for the University of Wisconsin Engineering Extension. Ken’s experience on large, complex corridor management projects ranging from capacity improvements to ITS applications, along with his common-sense approach to traffic management, provides insight into solving clients’ traffic problems. His public involvement skills make a real difference in how projects are received.
Brian Willham
Senior Traffic Engineer @
City of Des Moines
Brian Willham has performed a wide variety of work including transportation planning and design, traffic modeling in various software packages, traffic signal system design, construction and purchasing, preparation of various types of funding applications, CIP planning and development, and various forms of group leadership.
Much of his work and passion involves improving transportation systems and options for all modes of travel for people from all walks of life. He is currently involved in a major downtown Mobility Study and an aggressive initiative to enhance walking and biking to schools with local Public Health, School Board, and MPO leaders.
Technical Session Presenter
Dr.Amber Manning-Ouellette
Lecturer @
Iowa State Leadership Studies
Technical Session Presenter
Dr. Amber Manning-Ouellette joined the Iowa State University leadership studies faculty in fall 2015. She teaches a variety of leadership classes at Iowa State. She also advises students in the Leadership Studies Program and taught for the Catt Center’s 2016 global leadership study abroad program in Stockholm, Sweden.
Manning-Ouellette served as the director of enrollment management for the Southern Illinois University Carbondale College of Business, focusing on the recruitment and retention strategies of undergraduate business students. She also coordinated over 90 sections of first-year seminar courses, and served in various teaching positions. She co-coordinated the first annual women’s leadership conference at SIU Carbondale, which focused on increasing women in STEM, business and agriculture fields.
Shawn Leight
Vice President/COO @
CBB
ITE International President
Closing Speech
Shawn Leight is a passionate leader who works every day to improve communities by forging relationships and advance forward thinking solutions. Shawn engages with transportation professionals internationally to develop a vision for future transportation systems that will improve our lives and our planet. Shawn is Vice President at CBB Transportation Engineers + Planners where his technical strengths are transportation planning, modeling, and freeway operations. He has been a part of several innovative projects, such as the New I-64 Project in St. Louis; which won the 2010 AASHTO Best Transportation Project award. As an adjunct professor, Shawn has instructed over 250 students in traffic engineering and transportation planning. Shawn serves on several boards and committees for professional organizations that support the transportation industry. Shawn’s work in the St. Louis region has been featured on KMOX Radio and St. Louis Public Radio, as well as in St. Louis Magazine and the Riverfront Times.
John Davis
Senior Traffic Engineer @
Ayres Associates
Student Activities Chair @
ITE Midwestern District
Announcements
John Davis joined Ayres in 2007, bringing 25 years of traffic engineering experience. He is the manager of the traffic engineering group. John dedicated more than 20 years to serving the traffic Pisions in large metropolitan areas. His project experience includes traffic control design and operations, geometric design, traffic impact studies, traffic control evaluations, traffic incident management, and freeway operations. John has demonstrated his commitment to moving the traffic engineering profession forward as a fellow of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) since 1998 and as a member of ITE since 1981. John has served ITE in various elected and appointed capacities and is currently serving as the Midwestern District Director to the ITE International Board of Direction and as the chair of the ITE Collegiate Traffic Bowl Committee.
Paul Trombino III
Director @
Iowa Dept. of Transportation
President @
AASHTO
Keynote Speaker
Paul Trombino was appointed director of the Iowa Department of Transportation in 2011. Prior to this position, Trombino worked at the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) for 17 years. At the WisDOT he held several positions, serving as director of the bureau of transit, local roads, rails and harbors; regional operations director of the highway division; director of statewide structures; and manager of highway bid lettings. Before coming to WisDOT, Trombino spent four years in the finance and banking industry in Chicago and Washington, D.C.
Trombino holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Michael Sanderson
President/CEO @
Sanderson Stewart
Ethics and Politics Panel
Leadership Workshop
Michael Sanderson is President and Chief Executive Officer of Sanderson Stewart, an award-winning planning and design firm with employees in Montana, North Dakota, Idaho and Colorado. Sanderson Stewart was recognized in 2014 as America’s Small Business of the Year by the US Chamber of Commerce, and has twice been recognized by the Zweig Group as a “Best Firm to Work For” in the architecture and engineering industry.
Michael is an ITE Fellow having served for nearly 20 years as an elected leader at all levels of ITE, including a term as International Director. During his term on the International Board of Direction, Michael helped to organize and launch LeadershipITE, ITE’s premier leadership development program. Michael is currently ITE International Vice President – Elect.
Michael holds BS and MS degrees in Civil Engineering from Montana State University. He also holds a Masters of Business Administration degree from the University of Montana, and he has studied executive management and leadership at the Harvard Business School. Michael lives in Billings, Montana with his wife, Sara, and his children, Quinn Rose and North Henry.
JoNette Kuhnau
Traffic Operations Engineer @
Kimley-Horn
Career Panel
JoNette Kuhnau is a Traffic Operations Engineer with Kimley-Horn in St. Paul, Minnesota. She works in traffic operations analysis and design, traffic safety and pedestrian studies, and interstate access studies, and has gained a reputation as one of the leading go-to traffic signal and light rail experts in Minnesota. Her education includes a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Iowa State University, and a Master's in civil engineering from Penn State. She has been named one of Engineering News-Record (ENR) Midwest’s “Top 20 Under 40” in 2015.
Marsha Bomar
Executive Director @
Gwinnett Village
Ethics and Politics Panel
Leadership Workshop
Ms. Anderson Bomar founded Street Smarts in 1990 and Data Smarts in 1993, growing them to more than 120 employees and annual revenues of almost $20 million. She also created the Street Smarts Foundation as one vehicle for the firm’s philanthropic activities. The most significant accomplishment of the Foundation was the endowment of the Mentor and Mentee program within Women in Engineering at Georgia Tech. In 2010, she sold the firm to Stantec, an international consultancy.
Ms. Anderson Bomar is an International Past President and Fellow of the Institute of Transportation Engineers, and is past Chairman of the Institute's Technical Council Design Department, Policy Committee, and Transportation Planners Council. Marsha is also featured as Extraordinary Woman Engineer in ASCE publication entitled, Changing Our World, True Stories of Women Engineers, by Sybil E. Hatch, Copyright 2006, (page 88) and has served as President of the ASCE Transportation and Development Institute.
Rebecca Szymkowski
Traffic Supervisor @
Wisconsin DOT
Ethics and Politics Panel
Rebecca Szymkowski works for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WiDOT) as a traffic supervisor within the Bureau of Traffic Operations and has been with the DOT for over nine years. Prior to this position, she was the State Traffic Safety Engineer for the DOT. Rebecca now supervises the Traffic Analysis and Safety Unit, which focuses on policies and guidelines related to safety engineering and speed management, intersection operations and intersection control evaluations, traffic modeling and simulation, traffic incident management, and emergency transportation operations. Prior to joining WisDOT, she worked in the private sector at several engineering consulting firms.
She received her engineering degree from Marquette University and her Masters in Business Administration from UW-Madison. She is a registered Professional Engineer (PE) and Professional Traffic Operations Engineer (PTOE). She is also currently the Midwestern District ITE Vice President.
Updated: 9/15/16
Dr.Amber Manning-Ouellette
Lecturer @
Iowa State Leadership Studies
Technical Session Presenter
Dr. Amber Manning-Ouellette joined the Iowa State University leadership studies faculty in fall 2015. She teaches a variety of leadership classes at Iowa State. She also advises students in the Leadership Studies Program and taught for the Catt Center’s 2016 global leadership study abroad program in Stockholm, Sweden.
Manning-Ouellette served as the director of enrollment management for the Southern Illinois University Carbondale College of Business, focusing on the recruitment and retention strategies of undergraduate business students. She also coordinated over 90 sections of first-year seminar courses, and served in various teaching positions. She co-coordinated the first annual women’s leadership conference at SIU Carbondale, which focused on increasing women in STEM, business and agriculture fields.
Jeff Roemer
Project Manager @
EXP
Technical Session Presenter
Jeff Roemer is a Project Manager with over 35 years of experience with transportation consulting throughout the Midwest who develops strong client relationships, encourages team efforts and solves tough problems. His expertise includes project management and design of urban and rural transportation facilities; business development, implementation of project cost controls, and guiding multi-office teams. His clients include several state Departments of Transportation, Tollway Authorities, County Highway Departments, and municipalities.
He combines his wide ranging experience with a real-world common sense approach to identify, develop, and implement solutions for complex projects. On numerous projects he has successfully gained consensus with elected officials, key stakeholders, and public stakeholders through active listening, establishing the problem to be solved, and communicating the serious nature of the problem to be addressed.
Brian Willham
Senior Traffic Engineer @
City of Des Moines
Technical Session Presenter
Brian Willham has performed a wide variety of work including transportation planning and design, traffic modeling in various software packages, traffic signal system design, construction and purchasing, preparation of various types of funding applications, CIP planning and development, and various forms of group leadership.
Much of his work and passion involves improving transportation systems and options for all modes of travel for people from all walks of life. He is currently involved in a major downtown Mobility Study and an aggressive initiative to enhance walking and biking to schools with local Public Health, School Board, and MPO leaders.
Kenneth Voigt
Senior Traffic Engineer @
Ayres Associates
Technical Presenter and Ethics and Politics Panel
Ken has nearly 50 years of experience in conducting traffic safety studies, roadway operation analysis, traffic calming, and neighborhood street system design. He has led numerous focus group sessions to build consensus and to develop a context-sensitive design approach to projects. One of his most challenging projects was building consensus for improvements along the East Washington Avenue Corridor in Madison.
Ken teaches a course on environmental impacts of transportation systems at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; he has also taught a traffic control course at UW-Milwaukee and intersection design and traffic impacts of land development courses for the University of Wisconsin Engineering Extension. Ken’s experience on large, complex corridor management projects ranging from capacity improvements to ITS applications, along with his common-sense approach to traffic management, provides insight into solving clients’ traffic problems. His public involvement skills make a real difference in how projects are received.
John Corbin
Trans. Research Implementation Specialist @
FHWA
Technical Presenter
John has led the creation of transportation system management technology programs formerly as the Director of Traffic Operations for both the Wisconsin and Iowa Departments of Transportation. He currently serves as a Transportation Research Implementation Specialist with the USDOT Federal Highway Administration. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Transportation Engineers, an active Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and has been a committee and panel leader within the Transportation Research Board throughout his career.
Dr. Peter Savolainen
Associate Professor @
Iowa State University
Career Panel
Dr. Peter Savolainen is an Associate Professor in the Iowa State University (ISU) Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering. Prior to joining ISU, he developed an internationally recognized research program in traffic safety and operations at Wayne State University. During his academic career, Dr. Savolainen has served as principal investigator (PI) or co-PI on $8.9 million (personal share of $3.5 million) worth of externally funded research through competitive grant awards from agencies including the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), and the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning (OHSP). This research has led to the publication of more than 50 peer-reviewed articles in refereed journals and conference proceedings.
Garrett Burchett
Manager @
Mississippi River Distilling Company
Career Panel
Garrett Burchett is a native of Harlan, Iowa. In 2003 he received his B.S. degree, Community and Regional Planning from Iowa State University. Garrett continued at Iowa State working at the Center for Transportation and Education until 2005 when he earned his M.S. degree in Transportation. He then moved to Dallas, Texas working as a land use and transportation consultant for Kimley Horn and Associates. In 2010 he “retired” from planning to become the Owner and Manager of the Mississippi River Distilling Company in LeClaire, Iowa. What started as a crazy idea grew into an opportunity that has taken his products to twenty-six states and three foreign countries. Garrett currently operates the company with his brother Ryan, also an alumni of Iowa State.
JoNette Kuhnau
Traffic Operations Engineer @
Kimley-Horn
Career Panel
JoNette Kuhnau is a Traffic Operations Engineer with Kimley-Horn in St. Paul, Minnesota. She works in traffic operations analysis and design, traffic safety and pedestrian studies, and interstate access studies, and has gained a reputation as one of the leading go-to traffic signal and light rail experts in Minnesota. Her education includes a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Iowa State University, and a Master's in civil engineering from Penn State. She has been named one of Engineering News-Record (ENR) Midwest’s “Top 20 Under 40” in 2015.
Marsha Bomar
Executive Director @
Gwinnett Village
Ethics and Politics Panel
Leadership Workshop
Ms. Anderson Bomar founded Street Smarts in 1990 and Data Smarts in 1993, growing them to more than 120 employees and annual revenues of almost $20 million. She also created the Street Smarts Foundation as one vehicle for the firm’s philanthropic activities. The most significant accomplishment of the Foundation was the endowment of the Mentor and Mentee program within Women in Engineering at Georgia Tech. In 2010, she sold the firm to Stantec, an international consultancy.
Ms. Anderson Bomar is an International Past President and Fellow of the Institute of Transportation Engineers, and is past Chairman of the Institute's Technical Council Design Department, Policy Committee, and Transportation Planners Council. Marsha is also featured as Extraordinary Woman Engineer in ASCE publication entitled, Changing Our World, True Stories of Women Engineers, by Sybil E. Hatch, Copyright 2006, (page 88) and has served as President of the ASCE Transportation and Development Institute.
Michael Sanderson
President/CEO @
Sanderson Stewart
Ethics and Politics Panel
Leadership Workshop
Michael Sanderson is President and Chief Executive Officer of Sanderson Stewart, an award-winning planning and design firm with employees in Montana, North Dakota, Idaho and Colorado. Sanderson Stewart was recognized in 2014 as America’s Small Business of the Year by the US Chamber of Commerce, and has twice been recognized by the Zweig Group as a “Best Firm to Work For” in the architecture and engineering industry.
Michael is an ITE Fellow having served for nearly 20 years as an elected leader at all levels of ITE, including a term as International Director. During his term on the International Board of Direction, Michael helped to organize and launch LeadershipITE, ITE’s premier leadership development program. Michael is currently ITE International Vice President – Elect.
Michael holds BS and MS degrees in Civil Engineering from Montana State University. He also holds a Masters of Business Administration degree from the University of Montana, and he has studied executive management and leadership at the Harvard Business School. Michael lives in Billings, Montana with his wife, Sara, and his children, Quinn Rose and North Henry.
Paul Trombino III
Director @
Iowa Dept. of Transportation
President @
AASHTO
Keynote Speaker
Paul Trombino was appointed director of the Iowa Department of Transportation in 2011. Prior to this position, Trombino worked at the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) for 17 years. At the WisDOT he held several positions, serving as director of the bureau of transit, local roads, rails and harbors; regional operations director of the highway division; director of statewide structures; and manager of highway bid lettings. Before coming to WisDOT, Trombino spent four years in the finance and banking industry in Chicago and Washington, D.C.
Trombino holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
John Davis
Senior Traffic Engineer @
Ayres Associates
Student Activities Chair @
ITE Midwestern District
Announcements
John Davis joined Ayres in 2007, bringing 25 years of traffic engineering experience. He is the manager of the traffic engineering group. John dedicated more than 20 years to serving the traffic Pisions in large metropolitan areas. His project experience includes traffic control design and operations, geometric design, traffic impact studies, traffic control evaluations, traffic incident management, and freeway operations. John has demonstrated his commitment to moving the traffic engineering profession forward as a fellow of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) since 1998 and as a member of ITE since 1981. John has served ITE in various elected and appointed capacities and is currently serving as the Midwestern District Director to the ITE International Board of Direction and as the chair of the ITE Collegiate Traffic Bowl Committee.
Shawn Leight
Vice President/COO @
CBB
ITE International President
Closing Speech
Shawn Leight is a passionate leader who works every day to improve communities by forging relationships and advance forward thinking solutions. Shawn engages with transportation professionals internationally to develop a vision for future transportation systems that will improve our lives and our planet. Shawn is Vice President at CBB Transportation Engineers + Planners where his technical strengths are transportation planning, modeling, and freeway operations. He has been a part of several innovative projects, such as the New I-64 Project in St. Louis; which won the 2010 AASHTO Best Transportation Project award. As an adjunct professor, Shawn has instructed over 250 students in traffic engineering and transportation planning. Shawn serves on several boards and committees for professional organizations that support the transportation industry. Shawn’s work in the St. Louis region has been featured on KMOX Radio and St. Louis Public Radio, as well as in St. Louis Magazine and the Riverfront Times.
Rebecca Szymkowski
Traffic Supervisor @
Wisconsin DOT
Ethics and Politics Panel
Rebecca Szymkowski works for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WiDOT) as a traffic supervisor within the Bureau of Traffic Operations and has been with the DOT for over nine years. Prior to this position, she was the State Traffic Safety Engineer for the DOT. Rebecca now supervises the Traffic Analysis and Safety Unit, which focuses on policies and guidelines related to safety engineering and speed management, intersection operations and intersection control evaluations, traffic modeling and simulation, traffic incident management, and emergency transportation operations. Prior to joining WisDOT, she worked in the private sector at several engineering consulting firms.
She received her engineering degree from Marquette University and her Masters in Business Administration from UW-Madison. She is a registered Professional Engineer (PE) and Professional Traffic Operations Engineer (PTOE). She is also currently the Midwestern District ITE Vice President.
Jennifer Lillo
K-12 Program Assistant @
InTRANS
K-12 Outreach
Jennifer Lillo is the K-12 Program Assistant with the NSF Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals (CBiRC) and the Institute for Transportation (InTrans) at Iowa State University. She manages programs and workshops for K-12 students and teachers interested in science and engineering fields. This past summer, she facilitated a leadership and professional development workshop for high school students, coordinated a 3-week modeling workshop for high school physics teachers, and assisted in delivering 7 additional programs in June and July. In this role, Jennifer has also implemented a new bridge-building initiative for 7th-12th grade students in partnership with the IA DOT and spearheads three Ready, Set, Build! bridge competitions each year.
