John Valls, Vangie Chapa
CORPUS CHRISTI, TX—The Corpus Christi Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) Board of Directors elected John Valls as its chairman and Vangie Chapa as vice chairman.

Valls, appointed by the city of Corpus Christi, has served on the board for six years. He is the principal of Valls Consulting Group and a former member of the Texas Transit Association Board of Directors.

The board also swore in three new appointees—Lamont C. Taylor, representing Nueces County, Ray Hunt and Robert B. Garcia, both named by the Committee of Mayors—and two reappointed board members, Gil Hernandez and Angie Flores Granado.

Andrew Frohn, Thierry Prate, Kirk Hunt
NEW YORK, NY—Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB) announced the appointments of Andrew Frohn as a design quality assurance manager in the Honolulu office; Thierry Prate as a principal consultant in the Denver office; and Kirk Hunt as a technical manager in the Newark office.

Frohn will oversee the design quality assurance program for the Honolulu Rail Transit Project, a 20-mile, 21-station elevated rail system that will connect West Oahu to Honolulu. His more than 25 years of experience includes 20-plus years with MTA Long Island Rail Road, four of those years as director of corporate quality assurance.

Prate comes to PB from a management consulting firm in Paris and London, where he was a senior project manager working with public and private European rail clients. He has extensive experience as a strategic consultant specializing in international economics and finance for transport and rail projects with an emphasis on high-speed and regional rail.

Hunt is a field project manager for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority on the Dulles Corridor Metrorail project. He has 28 years of experience in the transit industry, working most recently on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s East Side Access Project in New York City.

Ron Paananen
DENVER, CO—Ron Paananen, P.E. former administrator and project director with Washington State DOT, has joined the Transportation Business Group of CH2M HILL. He is based in the company’s Washington, DC, office, working on the Anacostia Waterfront Initiative project that includes multiple transportation, land use, and economic development projects.

Paananen brings more than 32 years of experience with WSDOT and King County, WA, to CH2M HILL.