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.

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. 

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”).

Kelly is a recent graduate of the Planning program at the University of Waterloo. Her academic and professional practice has weighed heavily on transportation planning and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), which she uses to integrate into the development of efficient and accessible urban transport systems. She holds both public and private experience in conducting extensive feasibility studies, long-term strategic planning projects, service planning and facilitating stakeholder engagement within both the public transit and aviation field. 

In her free time, she enjoys cooking (and baking) up a storm, practicing guitar, or just hanging with her cat. Oh, did I mention she likes making maps?

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.  

Eric Gillespie is the former Director of Transit Services with Waterloo Region. He also also served as Manager of Finance and Administration and General Manager with the St. Catharines Transit Commission.  Eric has experience auditing internal administrative and operational processes. He has conducted compliance audits to compare actual service performance to contractual or legislative requirements. Eric was recognized with a Fellow Designation (FCPA), awarded to accountants for outstanding services to the profession, or whose achievements have earned them distinction and brought honor to the profession.  

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.

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.

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 is a 4th year undergraduate student at the University of Waterloo, enrolled in the School of Planning. Through her studies and past 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. 

Christina also takes the role of Infrastructure Team Lead on the University of Waterloo’s Hyperloop Student Design Team (Waterloop) and serves as a Director and Project Manager on the Canadian Hyperloop Conference. During her spare time, Christina enjoys being outdoors, trying new activities, and film photography!

Annika is a 3rd year undergraduate Planning student at the University of Waterloo. Annika has joined LTRT as a part of her co-operative education program to gain practical experience and insights on transportation systems . Throughout her academic career, Annika has been drawn to how new transportation technologies and designs can encourage the public to take alternative modes of transportation. During her time at LTRT, she aspires to learn more about innovative solutions that can make transportation systems more sustainable and accessible for all communities. 

Aside from school and work, Annika loves exploring the outdoors, street photography, and binging new shows!

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.