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PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

Who's Doing What in the Industry

Helfer, who succeeds the retiring Diana Sun, previously was senior director of civic engagement for the National Academy of Public Administration, manager of strategic planning for the U.S. Government Accountability Office and director of Easter Seals Project ACTION.

RICHMOND, VA—Jennifer DeBruhl has joined the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation in the newly created position of chief of public transportation. DeBruhl joins DRPT after service to both Virginia DOT and FHWA, working most recently as deputy district administrator for VDOT’s Richmond District.

WASHINGTON, DC—The Eno Center for Transportation recently honored Phillip Washington, APTA immediate past chair and chief executive officer of Los Angeles Metro, with the Wilbur S. Smith Award for Service to Eno.

At the same event, Mort Downey, president of Mort Downey Consulting LLC, received Eno’s Lifetime Achievement Award as the longest-serving deputy secretary and chief operating officer in DOT’s history.

AMES, IA—Cody Barrett has joined HNTB Corporation as a senior designer and developer based in Ames, primarily serving the Iowa DOT. He previously was a GIS coordinator for Warren County, IA.

AUSTIN, TX—Sabino (Pio) Renteria, a member of the Austin City Council, has been named by the city to serve on the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board of Directors, succeeding six-year board member Ann Stafford.

Renteria chairs the city’s Housing and Community Development Committee and is vice chair of the Planning and Neighborhoods Committee and a member of the Audit and Finance Committee. He was a member of the Community Development Commission for 14 years, serving eight years as its chair.

WASHINGTON, DC—The Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) has named Robert E. ­Skinner, former executive director of the Transportation Research Board (TRB), to the ITS Hall of Fame for his contributions to the intelligent transportation systems profession.

Skinner worked 30 years for TRB, part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, beginning as senior program officer in 1983 and becoming executive director in 1994. Prior to joining TRB, he was a vice president of Alan M. Voorhees and Associates.

RICHMOND, VA—Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe has named Keith T. Parker, general manager/chief executive officer of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, to the Boards of Visitors at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). Parker earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from VCU and received the university’s “Alumni Star” award in 2015.

McAuliffe charged the board members to use their knowledge and experience to foster innovation at their institutions, to keep the burden of tuition as low as possible and to emphasize access and completion for every student.

NEW YORK CITY—WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB) has named Nasri Munfah a senior vice president and director of global tunneling. He previously served PB from 1970-2004 as a vice president, senior technical manager and senior engineering manager and has more than 30 years experience in tunneling and underground engineering and project management experience in transportation, public transit and underground engineering.

Also, WSP | PB named Jorge A. Chaves ­Dominguez president and Asdrubal Montenegro chief financial officer of its Latin America region, overseeing offices in Colombia, Chile, Peru, Mexico and ­Trinidad and Tobago.

Chaves has more than 30 years of experience, most recently working as general manager of Schrader Camargo, an engineering firm based in ­Cundinamarca, Colombia.

Montenegro has worked for companies including DuPont, BHP Billiton, Schlumberger and Halliburton for more than 20 years.

The firm also announced the appointments of Wynne Davis as a senior rail and transit specialist in its Washington, DC, office; Rik Lor a senior engineering manager in the firm’s Transit and Rail Technical Excellence Center, based in San Francisco; and Ryan Davis a contract manager in the Los Angeles office.

Wynne Davis has more than 18 years of rail and transit industry experience, most recently as program manager for FRA’s High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail Program and earlier as a management consultant for a global consulting firm and a transportation officer in the U.S. Army.

Before joining the firm, Lor was a deputy project manager at the Regional Transportation District in Denver, responsible for managing the agency’s Eagle P3 and North Metro Rail projects.

Ryan Davis comes to WSP | PB following a 20-year career as an officer in the Navy’s Civil Engineer Corps, most recently serving in Tokyo as a staff engineer officer responsible for four Government of Japan-funded construction programs for U.S. military installations.

KANSAS CITY, MO—HNTB Corporation has announced these recent appointments:

James Parsons joined the firm as a director of national transit programs and vice president, based in Seattle. He has more four decades of transportation experience, serving most recently as transit rail market sector lead for the western U.S. for another consulting firm. For APTA, he co-chairs the Environmental Subcommittee and Major Capital Investment Planning Subcommittee and serves on several committees.

Aaron Marx, based in Los Angeles, is project manager, PTC systems. His 15 years of experience in design, PTC and signaling include working for another consulting firm as deputy project manager for Caltrain PTC CBOSS.

David Nolle, senior project manager-rail and transit systems based in Dallas, works with clients nationwide on PTC and ITS projects. He has almost three decades of experience as a systems engineer in the transportation and telecommunications industry.

Martha Bogle has joined the firm as leader of the bridge inspection practice and associate vice president in New Jersey, based in the firm’s Parsippany office. Her responsibilities will include inspections of rail and public transit bridges. She has more than 18 years of experience in the design of new bridges, rehabilitation of existing bridges and bridge inspection.

Also, HNTB announced the appointment of Fred Craig Jr. as business development leader and vice president, based in Washington, DC. His more than 35 years of expertise include public-private partnership project development experience, strategic planning, business development and client relations in the public and private sectors.

WASHINGTON, DC—Patricia (Patty) Lee has been named general counsel of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. She is a Harvard Law School graduate with 26 years of public and private legal experience. She is a former trial attorney with the Justice Department, was a partner at Holland & Knight and held senior legal roles at Northrop Grumman and Cable & Wireless USA Inc.

ALLENTOWN, PA—Cordelia ­Miller of Bethlehem has become the first African-American to chair the Lehigh and Northampton Transportation Authority (LANTA) Board of Directors. She succeeds Michelle Griffin Young, who chaired the board since 2014.

Miller, a retired director of emergency services for the Lehigh Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross, has served on the LANTA board since 2008 and as its vice chair since 2014.

Holly Edinger, director of community and government affairs at Sacred Heart Hospital, will serve as vice chair; Beck Bradley, executive director of the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission, secretary; and retired business executive Fred A. Williams as treasurer.

LOS ANGELES—Keolis Transit America has promoted Ryan Adams, vice president of strategy and corporate development for the past three years, to senior vice president of strategic development. Adams is a graduate of the Leadership APTA Class of 2015.

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