Board of Directors
The affairs of the Canadian Association of Road Safety Professionals are managed by an elected Board of Directors and the Executive Director of the national office.
2022/2023 Board of Directors
The members of the current board are:
Valerie Smith
President (CARSP)
Parachute Canada
Toronto, Ontario
Matthew Mulkern
Vice-President (CARSP)
Sherbrooke, Québec
Originally from Houston, Texas, Matthew Mulkern received his Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering along with a Canadian Studies Minor at the University of Maine in Orono, Maine. Additionally, Matthew received an Honours Bachelor of Arts in French as a Second Language at Bishop’s University in Lennoxville, Québec where he was a Killam Scholar with the Killam Fellowships Program. Finally, he completed his Masters of Science degree in Civil Engineering specializing in transportation at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, New Brunswick.
Matthew is a Professional Engineer with Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta, an Ingénieur with the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec, and a Road Safety Professional1 with the Transportation Professional Certification Board. Furthermore, Matthew is the past chair of the CARSP Young Professionals Committee and former president of the Canadian Road Safety Youth Committee.
Raheem Dilgir
Past President (CARSP)
Transafe Consulting
Vancouver, British Columbia
Paul Boase
Treasurer (CARSP)
Ottawa, Ontario
Paul Boase graduated from York University in Toronto with a BA in Sociology/Psychology in 1979. In 1982, he graduated from the University of Toronto with a Masters Degree in Psychology. Paul worked as a research consultant until 1986, when he joined the Ministry of Transportation and Communications Ontario as Assistant Research Officer, and in 1990, was promoted to Senior Research Analyst. In this capacity he worked on the annual collision statistics as well as several safety related projects such as graduated licensing, administrative licence suspension and photo radar. In 1999, Paul joined Transport Canada as Chief, Road Users where he was responsible for research and policy development related to road user behaviour.
Paul retired from Transport Canada at the beginning of 2024.
Current Affiliations include: Board of Director of the Canadian Association of Road Safety Professionals (CARSP).
Doug Beirness
Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction
Ottawa, Ontario
Dr. Beirness has published many papers and given numerous presentations on his work at national and international conferences and workshops. In addition, he has presented to both Parliamentary and Senate Committees on alcohol and drug-impaired driving issues.
He has served on numerous working groups and committees, including a term as the Chair of the Transportation Research Board Standing Committee on Alcohol, Drugs and Transportation and is currently a member of the Canadian Society of Forensic Science Drugs and Driving Committee.
He has been recognized by the International Association of Chiefs of Police Drug Recognition Expert Section as a DRE Ambassador, and is the recipient of the Haddon Award from the International Council on Alcohol Drugs and Traffic Safety. He was recently presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Canadian Association of Road Safety Professionals.
Pierro Hirsch
Virage Simulation
Montréal, Québec
In 2006, Pierro became Research Director at Virage Simulation, a Montreal-based designer and manufacturer of car and truck simulators and developer of customized training programs. There he applies his experience, knowledge, and passion for crash injury prevention towards the development of innovative applications of driving-simulator technology for the training and evaluation of drivers of all ages and experience levels, from novices to professional and emergency vehicle drivers to the population of aging drivers.
Brian Jonah
Independent Road Safety Research Consultant
Ottawa, Ontario
Brian retired from the Road Safety Directorate of Transport Canada in November 2008 where he had been the Director, Road Safety Programs responsible for collision data collection and analysis, including collision investigations, road user and road infrastructure research, the development of road safety related strategy and programs, and communications with the public.
He has worked over the past 42 years on road safety research, vehicle safety regulation, and policy and program evaluation, with particular emphasis on impaired driving, seat belt use, distracted driving, risky driving, and young drivers.
He is a founding member and past president of the Board of CARSP. He has been a member of several Transportation Research Board Committees including those on impaired driving and occupant protection.
Christine Wickens
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)
Toronto, Ontario
Dr. Wickens has been involved with CARSP since 2001, when she attended and presented at her first CMRSC conference as a York University graduate student. Throughout her graduate program, Dr. Wickens conducted research on driver anger and aggression, roadway stress, and aberrant driver behaviour. In 2009, she received the top student paper prize for her work linking attributional theory to driver anger and aggression.
After completing her PhD in social and personality psychology, she received post-doctoral fellowships from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the CAMH. These fellowships allowed Dr. Wickens to expand her research interests to include alcohol- and drug-impaired driving and the impact of mental health disorders on driver behaviour and roadway safety. In 2015, Dr. Wickens and her colleagues at CAMH received the Dr. Charles Miller award for the top research or evaluation paper submitted to the CARSP annual conference.
Dr. Wickens routinely presents at peer-reviewed national and international meetings, with her CV listing close to 50 collaborative presentations at academic conferences. She has also published extensively in peer-reviewed journals including Accident Analysis and Prevention, Transportation Research Part F, Traffic Injury Prevention, and the Journal of Safety Research.
Michael Turpin
Transport Canada
Arnprior, Ontario
Manan Gupta
Road Today
Brampton, Ontario
Manan hosts informative series on numerous radio and television channels in Hindi and Punjabi languages covering issues impacting the industry and community. He has appeared as a media commentator on Rogers TV, Omni TV, Global News, CBC TV/Radio, Al-Jazeera, Prime Asia TV, Channel Y, Sikh TV, 101.3 FM radio, 1350 AM radio, 530 AM radio, amongst others.
Manan is a committed volunteer and regularly offers his time for campaigns like Ontario Ministry of Transportation Road Safety Challenge, Operation Red Nose, etc., and serves on the board of many organizations including Ontario Safety League, Road Connections Safety Group, and South Asian Trucking Association of Canada. His volunteering efforts and contribution towards safer communities have been recognized through prestigious industry and government awards including the Ontario Ministry of Transportation Road Safety Media Excellence Award, Ontario Volunteer Service Award, arrive alive Drive Sober Media Tribute Award, Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal, Peel Police Media Excellence, CN Rail Safety Award, amongst others.
Robert Colonna
i-Mobile Driving Research Lab, Western University
Amit Arora
Vikas Ravada
Vikas is currently working as a Senior Traffic Engineer with the City of Regina and leading a dynamic team in delivering Citywide Traffic Signals & Expressway Lighting – Capital and Operation programs as well the traffic data management program. He assists the City’s Road Safety Vision though his expertise in managing projects on traffic Calming, Network Traffic Safety Screening, and Red Light Camera operations. Vikas takes immense pleasure in working with diverse stakeholders in resolving challenges, optimizing programs, and promoting safer transportation networks for all modes of travel.
Pascal Verville
Pascal has spent his entire professional career at Transport Canada since joining the Transportation of Dangerous Goods (TDG) Directorate in 1997. For most of this career at TC, Pascal was responsible for leading the regulatory program for gas cylinders in Canada during which time he acquired significant experience in the evaluation of regulations and the development of safety standards to promote public safety in the transportation of dangerous goods. Among his duties, he performed several on-site inspections of gas cylinder manufacturing facilities and participated in the development of safety standards for the design and testing of gas cylinders by working on national and international standardization committees and working groups.
During his time at TC, Pascal also worked as an emergency response advisor at TC’s Canadian Transport Emergency Centre (CANUTEC) and as a senior engineer within the Aviation Security Directorate where he managed engineering research studies and projects related to new security technology equipment for explosives detection.
Pascal is currently the acting Chief of the Collision Investigations & Research Division within the Motor Vehicle Safety Directorate at TC where he manages a network of multi-disciplinary research teams located across Canada who are mainly responsible for conducting investigations of real-world motor vehicle collisions. Pascal’s current areas of interest include vehicle crashworthiness, crash avoidance technologies, occupant injury/prevention, vulnerable road users and the development of best practices for heavy vehicle event data recorders (HVEDR).
Liraz Fridman
Dr. Liraz Fridman is the Road Safety Supervisor for the City of Guelph. After graduating from her PhD program at York University she completed two postdoctoral fellowships jointly at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute in Calgary in the areas of injury prevention and speed management. Her passion for equity, injury prevention, and road safety led her to a role in municipal government where she developed the first Community Road Safety Strategy which is now being adopted using a Vision Zero framework in Guelph.
Umayangga Yogalingam
Umayangga is a public health professional and Manager of Knowledge Translation and Programs at Parachute, Canada’s national injury prevention organization. Umayangga manages injury prevention programming and initiatives in youth road safety. Umayangga is also the project lead of the For Young Drivers, Young Drivers initiative at Parachute which aims to effectively address the issue of road fatalities among young drivers by partnering with young Canadians aged 15 to 24 to build a framework and tools that will guide the engagement of young drivers and their passengers in Parachute’s and partners’ road safety initiatives. Umayangga also oversees the Canadian Youth Road Safety Council, a diverse, national youth advisory committee of twenty youth aged 15 to 24 years old.
Umayangga has worked in the non-profit and public health sector for over a decade. She brings several years of experience in community engagement, qualitative research, knowledge mobilization and youth health. Umayangga is passionate about equity in injury prevention, meaningful youth and community engagement, and using creative and innovative strategies to improve road safety for Canadians. Umayangga sits on the HealthyDesign.City advisory committee, advising on the development of digital tools that provide information about the health effects of Canadian communities’ built environment. Umayangga holds a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Toronto and an Honours Bachelor’s degree in Mental Health Studies from the University of Toronto.
Aparna Krishan
Aparna’s current role involves the planning and functional design of capital roadway infrastructure projects that are centered on the safe accommodation of active travel modes, vulnerable road users, and people of all ages and abilities. Her work in road safety has fueled her passion for designing safer and more sustainable infrastructure. This includes her work throughout Canada’s National Parks, where Aparna has conducted rural and urban road safety reviews of over 1,000 km of major roadways.
Aparna has carried out extensive evaluations of historical collision records and has spear-headed processes to identify collision-prone locations and develop corresponding site-specific mitigation measures. Her experience also includes the research and application of safety performance functions and collision modification factors, as well as the design of safety improvement methodologies. Her work has encompassed both rural and urban projects throughout British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and the Northwest Territories.
Joanna Domarad
Peter Kehoe
Peter first began volunteering at CARSP as part of the Young Professionals Committee (YPC) back in May 2021 as the Social Media & Communications Director. He has since resigned from this position but still serves as the Managing Editor for CARSP’s Safety Network Newsletter.
Todd Snooks
I started my policing career with Peel Regional Police in April of 1997 before transferring to York Regional Police (YRP) in 1999, where I continue to serve. I have been engaged in many areas of policing throughout my career, including uniform front line duties, Forensics, as a Scenes of Crime Officer, Regional Coordinator for York Region Crime Stoppers Program, Dive Supervisor of YRP Underwater Recovery Unit, and as Youth Coordinator in YRP Community Services Bureau. I was seconded to OPP for a three-year term in ViCLAS (Violent Crime Linkage Analysis System) as a serial crime behavioural analyst, and then spent two years in YRP Peer Support Mental Health Unit. I have been a member of York Region Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) Team for more then 20 years and was Team Lead for 5 years. I transferred into the Road Safety Bureau in 2019 as an Enforcement Officer and Breath Tech.
In 2021, I became the Road Safety Bureau’s Programs and Partnerships Coordinator, and in my role I sought out new partnerships with leading organizations in Road Safety; this led me to join CARSP that same year. In my current policing position I am a committee member to numerous Road Safety Committees that include partners such as The Region of York and its nine municipalities, CAA, MTO, York Region School Boards, Metrolinx, Public Health, Arrive Alive, MADD York Region, Parachute Canada, etc. My position engages me with all levels of government, other Ontario policing services, and other road safety focused agencies in data collection and sharing, education, enforcement, and engineering through collaborative building and implementing of Road Safety programs, initiatives, and social media campaigns.
During my career I have been thankful to be the recipient of the York Region Character Award, the Bud Knight Youth Officer of the Year Provincial Award, and the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) Youth Initiative Award.
Outside of policing, I have been engaged in the community my whole life. One of my most memorable is my role as a former Big Brother (20 years) and board member (3 years) for Big Brothers Big Sisters of York Region. Currently, I am in my second term as an elected Municipal Councillor in my home Town of Uxbridge, ON. In this leadership role, I have chaired or been a Council Representative on numerous committees and boards including, Road Safety Sub-Committee, Parks and Recreation Committee, Dog Park Committee, and I am currently on the Business Improvement Area (BIA) Board, Heritage Uxbridge Committee, and Chair of Council’s Planning and Development Committee.
Newly elected to CARSP in 2023, I am looking forward to serving to the best of my ability in this capacity with a focus of improving Road Safety for all users.