CITE 2019 Excellence in Transportation Awards MEMBER RECOGNITION H. ROBERT BURTON DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD Jeannette Montufar Manitoba Section
Dr. Jeannette Montufar is Founding Partner and CEO of MORR Transportation Consulting and Co-Founder of TRAINFO, a technology startup based in Winnipeg. For nearly fifteen years, she was professor in civil engineering at the University of Manitoba, during which time she published over 200 technical papers and reports on various topics associated with transportation engineering and planning making her a well-recognized trailblazer in the field, particularly as it relates to road safety and active transportation. Outside of engineering, Dr. Montufar has served as Special Advisor to the Minister for the Status of Women in Manitoba and currently serves as inaugural Board Chair of Efficiency Manitoba with a mandate to develop, implement, and operate the required operational infrastructure for the successful performance of the new Crown Corporation on energy efficiency. Throughout her career, Dr. Montufar has made the empowerment of students in transportation engineering one of her priorities. Through her leadership, commitment, and dedication, several students have become rising stars in transportation engineering in Canada. Her contributions to engineering education were recognized in 2012 by the Transportation Association of Canada with the Educational Achievement Award and in 2017 by ITE with the Wilbur Smith Distinguished Transportation Educator Award. Dr. Montufar has also been passionate about empowering women in engineering. She has consistently leveraged her internationallyrecognized reputation as a transportation engineering expert to promote and encourage women to enter the profession and has also personally dedicated considerable efforts to establish supports through The Hummingbird Education Fund, which she created to provide financial support to women who want to pursue engineering as a career. In 2018, Engineers Canada recognized her contributions to the advancement of women in engineering with the national award for the Support of Women in the Engineering Profession. Dr. Montufar has been an active member of several professional organizations including ITE, where she has been a devoted member for over 20 years. She served on the Executive Committees of the Manitoba Section and the Canadian District. She is the founder and current advisor of the University of Manitoba Student Chapter which, under her leadership, has received CITE’s Student Chapter Award 15 times in the last 17 years and the International award twice. Because of her extensive commitment to CITE, Dr. Montufar received CITE’s Outstanding Volunteer Contribution Award in 2014. In 2016, Dr. Montufar was inducted as a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering for her contributions to the engineering profession. 9
TRANSPORTATION TALK | SUMMER 2019
Jeannette with past Burton Award receipients in attendance at CITE 2019 Ottawa (L-R): Jan Voss, Alf Guebert & Dave Richardson Every year, CITE bestows its most prestigious honour, the H. Robert Burton Distinguished Service Award, named after a man who dedicated much of his life to the transportation profession. Bob Burton spent his entire career practicing and promoting traffic engineering. A founder of the original Canadian Section in 1951, he was still attending CITE Toronto Section meetings right up to his death at the age of 101 years. CITE recognizes members who have shown these same qualities and demonstrated a notable career in the field and a record of service with CITE with this award.