our people

Rosalie works to improve accessibility and the experience of people with disabilities. She is a power wheelchair user with 9 years of experience working in various disability organizations. Rosalie has worked as an information and referral specialist, helping people with disabilities find community supports. Through her work counseling people with disabilities to find and keep meaningful employment, she learned best practices and standards in accommodation and accessibility from a cross disability perspective. Rosalie is bilingual (French-English) and does regular media interviews speaking on issues that affect the disability community both locally in Manitoba, and nationally.

As a strategist and creative, Kaila (she/her) possesses a broad skill set informed by her background in the worlds of theatre, film, television, and cellular science. She combines her experience working directly with disabled students at the University of Toronto with her lived experience as a neurodiverse, Queer, Black millennial woman to provide insight to a variety of organizations on justice, equity, diversity, and accessibility (JEDI&A) policies and practices. She is also a writer and former member of the LTRT Accessibility Advisory Group.

Elizabeth is a researcher, educator, advocate, and scholar. She has a vision impairment and relevant experience working as a consultant, Community Engagement Lead, and an Inclusive Hiring Project Coordinator. Elizabeth sat on the Education Standards Committee for the Ontario Government, where she advised on Educational Policies pertaining to students with disabilities. She is currently working towards her Doctorate at Western University in the school of Occupational Science.

Natalie Rose (PhD., M.Sc.OT) is a passionate disability and accessibility consultant with 10+ years of experience in accessibility, disability, research and teaching. Natalie has taught disabilities studies at the graduate and undergraduate level and has worked in the post-secondary environment supporting students with disabilities who require academic accommodations. She combines her knowledge of global best practices for accessibility, with a focus on learning directly from people with disabilities, in order to address barriers in the built and social environment.

In her spare time, Natalie enjoys quilting, board games and doting over her husband’s service dog Rush. 

 Oskar Westin is a digital accessibility leader and advocate, Oskar helps teams to understand and meet their goals, to provide accessible products and services. Oskar is also the co-organizer of #a11yTO, a volunteer-driven Toronto-based group that actively promotes digital inclusion for the design and development community. With nearly 20 years' experience in the digital industry, having worked with agencies and clients within the private and public sectors, Oskar provides flexible-by-design structure and process to allow team members to do their jobs to the best of their ability. 

Evan (M.Pl) draws upon a wide array of experience, having worked across Canada as an urban planner in a variety of areas including development permitting, strategic policy development, healthy community planning, municipal planning services, and transportation.
With a penchant for strategic analysis, stakeholder engagement, and policy work, Evan strives to create interesting, transit-oriented communities that are vibrant, connected, and sustainable while being reflective of local values.

Outside of work, one may find Evan cooking, playing video games, watching movies, attempting some home renos, or hanging with his wife and their dog, Scully (AKA “Gillian Anderson As Agent Dana Scully Brown”).

Reeya is a 4th year undergraduate Planning student at the University of Waterloo. As part of her co-operative education program, she has gained prior experience in both the private and public sectors focusing on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for risk management and operations of infrastructure systems. With LTRT, Reeya will be supporting various transit projects and gains practical insights in transportation systems and emerging transportation technologies. Throughout her academic career, Reeya has been curious about the intersectionality of transportation systems, urban design, and social justice. She intends to apply her learnings to advocate for accessible and sustainable transportation solutions for socially equitable communities.  

When she’s not working, Reeya is typically found binging new shows, playing word games, and thinking about her next cup of coffee! 

Pia is passionate about making communities more sustainable and resilient and sees transit as an integral piece of the puzzle. Harnessing her systems-level critical thinking skills and her strong stakeholder engagement skills, Pia works with transit agencies to enhance their services for the future of mobility. She brings valuable experience working with transit agencies to design and implement technology upgrades and improve business processes. Pia holds a BASc and a MASc in Civil Engineering from the University of Toronto and recently completed UITP-CUTA’s online course on Electric Buses for North America.

Outside of work, you’ll find Pia upcycling old textiles, singing, and potentially doing both at the same time. 

John Ford has enjoyed a career in public transit in excess of 35 years, including 25 years as Director of Transportation and Planning and Senior Manager with London (Ontario) Transit. John has extensive experience in business plan development, project management, strategic analysis, service analysis/design and promotion of transit locally and nationally (as Chair of CUTA’s Communications and Public Affairs Committee). In recognition of John’s contribution to public transit, he was awarded CUTA’s Lifetime Achievement Award and is a member of the CUTA Hall of Fame. John draws from his experience to provide public transit consulting services and insight into common challenges faced by transit agencies as they plan their business in a financially constrained environment.  

Ben (M.Pl) is a dedicated urban planner who specializes in transit planning. He brings transit agency experience and a reputation for innovation, analytical skill, and strong leadership on transit network, service and infrastructure planning projects. Ben has led and contributed to a wide variety of transit related projects including work on network design and service planning, scheduling, stops and infrastructure, community engagement and fare strategy. 

Similar to his professional life, Ben’s personal life is spatially oriented and filled with curiosity. He loves active exploring, including hiking, biking, diving, paddling and skiing. A love of people is also central to his curiosity and you can often find him in informal social spaces such as coffee shops.

Matt is an experienced transit planner with over six years’ experience analyzing, planning, and implementing solutions to improve public transit services both within agencies and as a consultant supporting them. Matt holds a degree in Civil Engineering and a Certificate of Applied Geography and GIS. He has expertise in transit technology, on-demand transit, service planning, innovative transit strategies, scheduling and service design. 

Matt’s love of urban planning and transportation extends well beyond his workplace. He is an avid rail buff and is in the drawn-out processes of building his own model railway. When he isn’t geeking out over trains, Matt is gearing up for the next game of dodgeball or volleyball or planning out the next campaign for his table-top gaming group.

Aislin O'Hara is a Certified Professional Consultant on Aging with 12 years of experience executing customer facing initiatives for public transit. Aislin was the Project Lead - Customer Experience for TTC Wheel-Trans. At the TTC, Aislin led the implementation of a new eligibility structure, updated customer policies, and implemented a Travel Training Pilot Program. As a Project Advisor for the Region of Peel's specialized transit service (TransHelp), Aislin led working groups with other regional transit providers. 

Janany has 6 years of transit experience and brings expertise in analyzing technology and business solutions to address the impact to transit operational and organizational strategies. She combines experience in Transportation Planning, organizational design and change management to guide agencies to set and achieve a modern vision for their services. She holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) with a specialization in organizational design and is a Prosci® Certified Change Practitioner. 

When she’s not working to transform public transit, Janany is a sci-fi buff, loves spending time with her friends, and enjoys photographing nature’s beautiful moments. At home, she enjoys reading books and is currently authoring her own time-travel novel.

Sandhya is Civil Engineering student at the University of Toronto and is currently completing her Professional Experience Year (PEY) Co-op at LTRT. She supports the team primarily in transit projects, and provides assistance through research, writing, analysis and other tasks. 

Throughout her undergraduate journey, Sandhya has become more and more interested in the intersectionality of transit systems and infrastructure with community development, social justice, sustainability, and equity goals, and she is excited at the prospect of making her own small contribution while working for LTRT! In her free time, Sandhya enjoys drawing, going to the gym, making jewellery, and exploring downtown Toronto!

Lorna Stewart brings 20-years of senior leadership experience for both conventional and specialized public transit services. She led Edmonton Transit's specialized transit service, (DATS - Disabled Adult Transit Service) and Community Relations for the conventional service. More recently, she completed a one-year term with TransLink in Vancouver as the Manager of Access Transit Planning to implement its Custom Transit Service Delivery Review and Fare Gate Access program. Her expertise is in strategy, policy, operations, and IT. Lorna was the inaugural chair of CUTA’s Accessible Transit Committee and championed the creation of the Canadian Code of Practice for Determining Eligibility for Specialized Transit.  

Christina Sugiura is a recent graduate from the University of Waterloo’s School of Planning. Through her studies and cooperative work terms, Christina has developed a deep interest in the way transit networks function and particularly the way they play a role in the day-to-day lives of individuals. She is devoted to learning about ways to enhance transit services and systems that can work towards improving cities and towns for all. She is currently completing her Master of Engineering in Cities Engineering and Management from the University of Toronto. In her spare time, Christina enjoys being outdoors, trying new activities, and film photography! 

Mitch Underhay is an experienced project manager, bilingual facilitator, and creative thinker. Mitch worked as a project manager in international renewable energy development, guiding large wind energy projects in 10 jurisdictions and two countries. His experience navigating different levels of government led him to work for the Toronto Transit Commission. At the TTC Mitch worked in the CEO’s office to plan and execute the public and stakeholder engagement for policy, routing, and construction projects. He focused on improving the accessibility of the system and the Wheel-Trans Transformation Program, to integrate TTC's specialized transit service with its conventional network.