Outstanding Student of The Year 2005: Clifford Price

Clifford Price

Clifford Price is pursing a Ph.D. in transportation at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). He completed his master’s degree in transportation engineering, also at NJIT, in 2004 while working full-time with the New Jersey Turnpike Authority in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Cliff earned a bachelor of science in civil engineering from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Following this, he obtained a master’s degree in civil engineering/water resources from Villanova University in Villanova, Pennsylvania. He started his career as a consultant working in such areas as municipal, sanitary, and highway engineering. As a consultant, Cliff has been involved in transportation studies and conducted numerous roadway design projects ranging from local single-lane highways to multi-lane arterials and interstate systems.

After over 25 years as a consultant, Cliff joined the New Jersey Turnpike Authority’s Operation Department where he has been employed for several years. In his current Turnpike position of Assistant Traffic Engineer, Cliff is responsible for roadway signing, vehicular flow, and traffic safety on one of the most heavily traveled roadways in the country.

The National Center for Transportation and Industrial Productivity is proud to select Clifford Price as its 2005 Outstanding Student of the Year.

Outstanding Student of The Year 2004: Keir Opie

Keir Opie

Keir Opie is completing a Masters in Transportation at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). He began his graduate studies while working full-time with the International Intermodal Transportation Center (IITC) and the National Center for Transportation and Industrial Productivity (NCTIP), both research efforts housed on the campus of NJIT in Newark, NJ. In his current position of Principal Transportation Engineer, he is responsible for the technical aspects of the centers’ traffic simulation, regional demand modeling, and traffic analysis research projects.

Keir earned a Bachelors of Applied Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Waterloo, in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. He began his career as a student traffic and transportation engineer for regional transportation authorities in Brampton and Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and for Transport Canada at Toronto Pearson International Airport. After completing his undergraduate studies, he moved to the United States and worked for several years as a transportation engineer with a consulting firm in northern New Jersey before joining NJIT’s research centers.

Mr. Opie’s research interests are traffic simulation and regional demand modeling. He is currently involved in research efforts to develop a TRANSIMS prototype in New Jersey for USDOT and to develop multiple simulation models for the New Jersey Department of Transportation. Recently, he provided critical components of NJIT’s freight planning study for the northern New Jersey MPO, the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority. He has also taught several training courses for departments of transportation and private consulting firms in the traffic simulation software package Paramics.

The National Center for Transportation and Industrial Productivity is proud to have Keir Opie as its 2004 Outstanding Student of the Year.

Outstanding Student of The Year 2003: Kelly Leone

Lazar Spasovic, NCTIP; Kelly Leone

Kelly Leone is completing a doctorate in transportation at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. She began her studies while working full time with the Federal Aviation Administration as the Technical Lead for explosives and weapons detection systems integration in the former Aviation, now the Transportation, Security Research and Development Laboratory in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Today, she is a Division Manager in the Transportation Security Administration Office of Operations Policy, where she is developing national standards, policies and guidance for security measures in the maritime and land transportation modes. Ms. Leone began her career over 18 years ago in the transportation industry working on improving the U.S. National Airspace System, in addition to, the German civil aviation system in Frankfurt, Germany. Her pursuit of a PhD in Transportation is a natural extension of her formal training and dedication to improving the transportation system. Ms. Leone’s goals are to conduct and promote research that improves our understanding of security measures and to add to the knowledge base for planning, implementing and conducting security screening in all transportation modes. Her article, titled, “Measures of Effectiveness for Passenger-Baggage Security Screening” was published in the Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board (2003). Her earlier education consists of a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science, Seton Hall University, 1985, and a Masters of Aviation Science and Management from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, 1994, graduating Summa Cum Laude. Ms. Leone has lectured at various conferences on security, and is a licensed private pilot.

Outstanding Student of The Year 2002: Cheryl Allen-Munley

J. Richard Capka, Federal Highway Administration; Cheryl Allen-Munley; and Ellen Engleman, Research and Special Programs Administration, USDOT

Cheryl Allen-Munley is completing a doctorate in transportation at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. She began her studies while still Jersey City's Director of Transportation and New Jersey Transportation Planning Authority board member. Her purpose was to acquire the formal training in traffic engineering and transportation planning in order to apply a theoretical framework with to perform capital programming decisions and improve traffic operations. In 1999, she became a full time student with funding from a Presidential Scholarship. Ms. Allen-Munley has completed all of her course work with a 4.0 GPA.. Her goal to promote bicycling as an alternative mode of transportation is the inspiration for her doctoral research the "Development of a Multivariate Logistic Model To Predict Bicycle Route Safety In An Urban Area." Her earlier education consists of a Bachelors of Science in Civil Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1978 and a Masters of Business Administration in Finance from Columbia University School of Business, 1983. Examples of her leadership include her service to the Regional Transportation Advisory Committee (Vice-Chair), Ellis Island, New Jersey Commission (Chair), NJIT Women in Transportation Seminar (Secretary).

For the press release on the U.S. Department of Transportation 12^th Annual University Transportation Center Student of the Year Awards, please visit http://www.dot.gov/affairs/rspa0103.htm

Outstanding Student of The Year 2001: Jakub Rowinski

Jennifer L. Dorn, Federal Transit Administration; Jakub Rowinski; Mary E. Peters, Federal Highway Administration, and Ellen Engleman, Research and Special Programs Administration, USDOT

Jakub Rowinski has been designated by the National Center for Transportation and Industrial Productivity (NCTIP) at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) as 2001 Outstanding Student of the Year.

Mr. Rowinski began his graduate studies at NJIT in the fall of 1998. He received an M.S. in Transportation in August of 1999 and is continuing studies toward his Ph.D. degree. Concurrently, he has been employed since May 2001 as a transportation engineer with NJIT’s International Intermodal Transportation Center (IITC).

Travel demand modeling, geographical information systems (GIS) and intermodal freight transportation are some of the areas that have been investigated by Mr. Rowinski. His research results have been presented at major international and national conferences including the Transportation Research Board (TRB), Transportation Research Forum (TRF), Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), and National Conference for Undergraduate Research (NCUR). He has co-authored several papers, including a significant NCTIP study, Mobility and the Costs of Congestion in New Jersey, which was widely distributed and has been used to further public policy debate in New Jersey.

At IITC he has been involved with the Ten Year Plan to Remove Barrier Tolls on the Garden State Parkway project and various transportation analyses in the area of Port Newark/Elizabeth.

An active member of TRF, Mr. Rowinski has also served as president of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Student Chapter and the Graduate Student Association’s transportation program representative.

Mr. Rowinski received a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Lafayette College in May of 1998. At Lafayette, his advisor was Dr. Maria Boilé, who received the 2^nd Ph.D. degree in transportation granted by NJIT in 1995.

Outstanding Student of The Year 2000: Kenrick C. Layne

Kenrick C. Layne; Mortimer Downey, Deputy Secretary of Transportation

Kenrick C. Layne received an award as NCTIP Outstanding Student of the year at the 80th Annual Transportation Research Board meeting in Washington, D.C. in January 2001.

Mr. Layne was chosen to represent NCTIP as Outstanding Student of the Year by the faculty because of his industriousness and seriousness of purpose as a transportation student, and because faculty believe he will be part of the transportation leadership in the 21st Century.

Layne, who arrived at NJIT after a ten-year career in the construction industry, was granted a master's degree in Transportation Engineering in May, 2001, and plans to return to NJIT to pursue a Ph.D. with a specific interest in transportation management.

He received his bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Guyana in 1994. Upon his arrival in the United States, he pursued studies in environmental engineering towards a career in transportation. His master's research involved the application of automatic control theory to freight transportation, especially in New Jersey. Layne spent a semester working on an NSF-sponsored project to develop a control strategy for freight movement using the simulation model CORSIM to simulate the roadways at Port Newark and Elizabeth. Prior research involved using vehicle count data in traffic management.

Having worked in almost every capacity of the construction industry, Layne looks forward to being able to apply that experience to the field of transportation. He is currently employed as a consultant.

Outstanding Student of The Year 1999: Lida Mazaheri

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Richard Slater; Lida Mazaheri

Currently a traffic engineer with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ), Mazaheri plans to pursue Ph.D. studies in transportation. She is a member of Alpha Epsilon Lambda, NJIT’s graduate honor society, and also has served on the organization’s Executive Board. 

At PANYNJ since January 1999, Mazaheri was recently appointed traffic engineer in charge of New York’s LaGuardia Airport, where she is responsible for ensuring the safe and orderly flow of vehicular and non-vehicular traffic throughout the airport on a daily basis. Her many projects have included roadway and bridge signage improvements, and projects for both John F. Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia, including an airport vehicular traffic study, a traffic impact study for a new air terminal, a roadway network/frontage analysis, an assessment of future airport traffic flow conditions, design of pedestrian wayfinding signs, and pedestrian safety. 

Active in professional organizations, Mazaheri is the newsletter editor for the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Metropolitan Section of New York and New Jersey, where she also has organized and assisted with the ITE monthly meetings and represented ITE at National Engineers Week. She has been an active member of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America; ITE, and the Women’s Transportation Seminar. 

Mazaheri received her bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. She presented a paper, “Evaluation of Maintenance Approaches in Lincoln Tunnel,” at the January 2000 TRB meeting. Mazaheri resides in Wayne, NJ.

Outstanding Student of The Year 1998: Lucie Thiebaud

Lucie Thiebaud; Mortimer Downey, Deputy Secretary of Transportation

Since her arrival in the United States from Haiti more than ten years ago, a long list of achievements and honors have accrued for Lucie Thiebaud. To these she adds NCTIP’s designa-tion as 1998 Student of the Year. The award was presented at the 78th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) in Washington D.C. in January 1999.

Ms. Thiebaud’s list of accomplishments began in high school, where she was named to Who's Who Among American High School Students¸ received the Distinguished Scholar Award, a four-year scholarship towards undergraduate studies, and the Edward J. Bloomstein Scholarship. As an NJIT undergraduate, she achieved recognition in Who's Who Among Students in American Colleges, the Estrin Leadership Award, and a Community Service Merit Award; was chosen for the Housing Scholar Program, named Scholar Athlete and Undergraduate President of the Year for Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority in the North Atlantic Region.

During her time in the master's program, Thiebaud served as president of the student chapter of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America, was an active member of the Institute of Transportation Engineers and helped organize the initiation proceedings for a Women's Transportation Seminar’s NJIT chapter. She was involved with the Society of Women Engineers, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Black Association of Student Engineers, the National Society of Black Engineers, and the Haitian Student Association, and was inducted into Alpha Epsilon Lambda, NJIT's Graduate Honor Society. She continues as an active member of several of these organizations.

"My journey into the transportation planning industry has been such an enlightening experience that keeps on triggering different aspects of my yearning for knowledge. Furthermore, enjoying my work and having a constant challenge make my growth in the industry easier and more interesting," she says.

Thiebaud received her Master's Degree in Transportation Engineering in 1998, and her bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering in 1995, both from NJIT. She is currently employed with the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority, a metropolitan planning organization responsible for thirteen of the twenty-one counties in New Jersey, as Senior Transportation Planner for Modeling Applications. She plans a 1999 return to NJIT to pursue a doctorate in the area of operation management, which basically examines management of the processes and resources that produce products and deliver services. Her long-term goal is to combine her learning experiences with teaching basic transportation planning and network modeling.