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:

Raheem Dilgir
President (CARSP)
Transafe Consulting
Vancouver, British Columbia

Matthew Mulkern
Acting Vice-President (CARSP)
Sherbrooke, Québec
He completed his Masters of Science degree in Civil Engineering specializing in transportation at the University of New Brunswick.
Originally from Houston Texas, Matthew 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.
Matthew is a Professional Engineer with Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta, registered as an Ingénieur with the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec, and is also a member the Réseau des ingénieurs du Québec. Matthew is excited to work with fellow members that have a passion for transportation and roadway safety.

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.

Paul Boase
Treasurer (CARSP)
Transport Canada
Ottawa, Ontario
In 1987, 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 a number of 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 is responsible for research related to road user behaviour.
Current Affiliations include: Board of Director of the Canadian Association of Road Safety Professionals (CARSP). Member of the Road Safety Research and Policy Committee of the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators (CCMTA).

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.

Valerie Smith
Parachute Canada
Toronto, Ontario

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

Steve Reed
Biker Down North America
Steveston, British Columbia

Manan Gupta
Newcom South Asian Media Company (Road Today)
Toronto, 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 guest speaker on Rogers TV, Omni TV, Global TV, CBC Radio, Prime Asia TV, 5aab TV, Channel Y, Sikh TV, 101.3 FM radio, 1350 AM radio, 530 AM radio, and other multicultural channels.
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, Peel Police Media Excellence, CN Rail Safety Award, amongst others.

Robert Colonna
i-Mobile Driving Research Lab, Western University

Amit Arora, PhD

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).
