Tag Archives: recognition

IPMI Blog, Resources

U.S. Department of Transportation Announces Availability of $1.5 Billion in RAISE Grants

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The U.S. Department of Transportation has published a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for $1.5 billion in grant funding through the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) discretionary grant program. The popular program helps communities around the country carry out projects with significant local or regional impact.

RAISE discretionary grants, which were originally created under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act as TIGER grants, can be used for a wide variety of projects. Recent examples of funded projects include dedicated bus lanes in Baltimore, highway and bridge repair in New Mexico, dock replacements in Alaska, and a rail-to-trail project in Arkansas. Overall, USDOT has awarded $9.9 billion to more than 700 projects.

RAISE projects are rigorously reviewed and selected based on merit. Projects will be evaluated on statutory criteria of safety, environmental sustainability, quality of life, economic competitiveness and opportunity, state of good repair, partnership and innovation. New this year, under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, 2022 RAISE applications will also be evaluated on the criteria of mobility and community connectivity. The Department will assess projects for universal design and accessibility for travelers, as well as consider how proposals increase mobility for freight and supply chain efficiency.

At least $15 million in funding is guaranteed to go towards projects located in Areas of Persistent Poverty or Historically Disadvantaged Communities. Under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, RAISE expands the number of communities eligible for 100 percent federal share of funding, specifically those in rural communities, Areas of Persistent Poverty and Historically Disadvantaged Communities. To help reach this goal, the Department has launched a tool that will allow applicants to determine if their project location is considered as a Historically Disadvantaged Community. The tool is available here.

As was the case last year, the Department is encouraging applicants to consider how their projects can address climate change, ensure racial equity, and remove barriers to opportunity.

This year the Department is also encouraging applicants to consider how their projects can create workforce development opportunities. Applicants can be more competitive in the process if they are creating jobs with free and fair choice to join a union and good labor standards, creating jobs that underserved communities can access, or are supporting worker opportunities and training. Applicants are also encouraged to utilize registered apprenticeship and local and economic hire agreements. The RAISE program is one way the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law acts on President Biden’s promise to bring good-paying jobs to local communities.

Also new this year, the evaluation process has been updated for 2022 to provide more explicit detail to applicants.

The NOFO is available HERE. The deadline for applications is 5 p.m. EST on April 14, 2022, and selections will be announced no later than August 12, 2022.

 

IPMI Blog, Resources

Goodbye 2021 and Hello 2022: We LOVE IPMI’s Professional Recognition Awards!

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Great jobBy Kathryn Hebert

Happy New Year! I’m sure most of you are very happy to say goodbye to 2021 and looking forward to launching into 2022 with bright eyes, new opportunities, and a chance to get back to a more balanced daily rhythm.

Josh Cantor and I are very excited to again co-chair the Professional Recognition Awards Committee. These awards are very special, as they recognize and showcase individuals and organizations that have contributed enormously to our industry with incredible initiatives and innovations impacting our communities and organizations. There are so many ways to recognize these incredible individuals and organizations representing customer service, finance, frontline, human resources, innovation, leadership, marketing, management, operation, technology, and much more.

Many times, these jobs are thankless – peppered with complaints and innuendos. It is very important that we recognize these amazing people and organizations that have contributed so much. We learn from everyone. Each application is specifically considered no matter how big or small.

Here are a few important criteria points to keep in mind when submitting:

  1. Be an IPMI member in good standing
  2. Check spelling, grammar and presentation – the submission must be clear and concise and tell the story. Keep in mind, most of us evaluating do not know you and may not know your organization.
  3. We love action photos and videos of you related to your project/program.

I encourage all of you to look at your team(s), friends, colleagues, and yourself and submit a free application. We love giving out these awards; we learn so much from all of you. More information, criteria, application, dates and last year award winners at https://www.parking-mobility.org/awards/.

Kathryn Hebert is president and CEO of TPMConnect and a member of IPMI’s Board of Directors.

IPMI & Member News, Recognition & Awards, Resources

Member News: T2 Systems’ Thomas Wunk Honored with IPMI Chairman’s Award

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INDIANAPOLIS, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ –– T2 Systems, the largest parking technology provider in North America, announced that Thomas Wunk, T2 Vice President, received the 2020 Chairman’s Award from the International Parking and Mobility Institute (IPMI).

The annual IPMI Chairman’s Award is a professional recognition that honors an individual(s) who have made an impact and driven change benefitting the parking, transportation, and mobility industry.

Wunk is a Vice President and Industry Consultant for T2 Systems. He is a Certified Administrator of Public Parking (CAPP) and teaches a number of sessions for the IPMI CAPP certification process. A product of the State University of New York system, he is an active member of IPMI, and ASIS. Wunk has been in the parking control industry since 1973 and has designed and implemented parking control solutions all over the world.

“IPMI has advanced the parking and mobility profession over the years, and so has Tom both within T2 and the industry,” said T2 CEO Adam Blake. “We are proud to support them as they encourage professional development, research, advocacy and outreach. We thank IPMI for this recognition of Tom. He is very deserving of this award, and continually drives to improve how we use technology in our operations and customer engagements. Tom helped to launch our PARCS efforts several years ago, and has always made sure we are on the right path forward.”

After receiving the Chairman’s Award, Wunk was asked to provide a list of professional accomplishments to share. He instead opted to thank those who have helped him along the way, highlighting his gratitude for having great friends and family surrounding and encouraging him throughout his career. His acceptance of the award can be found on IPMI’s website.

About T2 Systems 
T2 Systems was founded in 1994 with one simple goal: make park­ing better. We immediately estab­lished a leadership position in the parking industry and continue to pave the way in new technologies that help our customers seamlessly manage parking, mobility, and transporta­tion services. Today, T2 provides the most com­prehensive solutions available to process transactions and leverage data to make informed decisions. Our unified parking management platform puts all the tools needed to be efficient and effective at our customers’ fingertips, with one place to manage their T2 solutions, including Permits, Enforcement, PARCS, Pay Stations, and more. With a strong track record of delivering projects that generate real return for our customers, and by delivering a quality experience for parking patrons, T2 continues to focus on helping our customers move their operations forward. For more information about T2, visit T2Systems.com.

Contact: Katherine Basaran, (317) 524-7412, katherine.basaran@t2systems.com

SOURCE T2 Systems

Recognition & Awards, Resources, Transportation & Mobility

2020 IPMI Chairman’s Award: Thomas Wunk, CAPP

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Tom-WunkThomas Wunk, CAPP

VICE PRESIDENT, PARCS SOLUTIONS
T2 Systems

I was asked to provide a list of work accomplishments, but that stuff is not important. Rather, I chose to point out just a few events and people that I look back on and cherish when thinking about my career in the parking industry. There are many, many more that I can list and should write a book, but for the sake of brevity:

To Dennis Cunning, who asked me to look at a broken lane at the Pier 40 location one cold December morning. I opened up the gate and a rat as big as a small hippopotamus came out. He looked up at me and wanted to know how long I was going to be (the rat, not Dennis).

To Bob Harkins and his sons for showing all of us what it is to love this country. To Bobby Brown, who exemplified travel expense management when he opted to sleep in a ticket dispenser box one evening instead of getting a hotel room.

To Kevin Austin and his mathematical conundrum discovery, when he glared down at a platter of 100 buffalo wings, stood, and shouted to the gods “Holy cow – how many chickens did it take to get this many wings?”

To Barbara Chance, who taught me the proper way to hunt waterfowl with a 3 wood and a Titleist.

To Peter Schneck, who showed that time travel was indeed possible. One morning we left a hotel in Monchengladbach and drove to Dusseldorf in a highly spirited fashion, a distance of 32 kilometers, and we arrived six minutes before we left.

To John Tencer and Mike Block, who demonstrated what extraordinary accomplishments could be had with a small team of dedicated and motivated individuals.

To Jeff Sparrow, who taught me never, ever lend anyone your cell phone.

But most of all I am grateful beyond words for my wife and family, who overlooked my many foibles as a husband and father, the missed events and late nights, the impromptu travel and the burned barbeque. It has been special beyond anything I could have imagined.

Recognition & Awards, Resources

2020 IPMI Chairman’s Award: John W. Nolan, CAPP

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John_NolanJohn W. Nolan, CAPP

MANAGING DIRECTOR OF TRANSPORTATION AND THE CAMPUS SERVICE CENTER Harvard University

My greatest joy in working as a managing director in the field of parking, transportation, and mobility has been the opportunity to greatly improve numerous organizations’ operations, enhance capital infrastructure outcomes, and provide multiple mobility programs that have improved the daily working lives of so many people.

I never could have accomplished as much as I have without the support and friendship of so many people within the IPMI family, the directors and managers who have supported me throughout the years, and certainly the trust placed in me and support given to me by Harvard, Georgetown, and MGH.

Before starting in this field 31 years ago, I realized how important education was in obtaining the knowledge, skillset and trust to move organizations forward in any field. My degrees in business and management from Merrimack College and Lesley University prepared me for this new field back then, however the education that would take me to the next level was being a graduate of the first CAPP class in 1994.

It was this educational foundation, association networking, vendor/consultant engagement, and strong work ethic that enabled me to be a solid leader and demonstrate a skill set that led to numerous engagements as owners’ representative or client executive for major capital garage and infrastructure projects and to serve as an operations and management consultant to many organizations.

I have always felt it was important to give something back to our industry that had helped me along the way and was honored to be selected to be a member of the IPI Board of Advisors, to be elected several times to the IPI Board of Directors and to serve as President of the New England Parking Council for over 10 years. However, my greatest joy has been to be a member and now Chairman of the William M. Voigt CAPP Golf scholarship outing, named after my mentor, that has enabled many individuals to achieve the goal of CAPP in order to advance their career as I did.

In closing let me say, I am very honored and grateful to receive this special recognition from the International Parking and Mobility Institute, but as I’ve indicated above, it’s because of a lot of help received from so many wonderful parking and mobility professionals, educators and family along the way. A big thank-you to all of them!

Recognition & Awards, Resources

2020 IPMI Lifetime Achievement Award: Kim Jackson, CAPP

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Kim JacksonKim Jackson, CAPP

DIRECTOR, PARKING AND TRANSPORTATION
Princeton University

My parking career started at Rutgers University in 1988, when I began working as the first assistant director for administration of the university’s parking department. I had an amazing mentor, Rita Molnar, the first woman president of IPMC (now IPMI), who got me involved in the association and taught me everything I know about the business. Here we are at a campus event.

Within a year Rita retired and I was promoted to director of parking and transportation—becoming the first person in the newly-created position—working in that capacity until 1994, when I left to become the director of technical services (DOTS) for IMPC, which later became IPI, which is now IPMI, answering members’ technical questions and planning seminar and conference meeting content. During my IMPC/IPI days I was promoted to director of professional development, assisting with the launch of IPI’s onsite frontline training, editing The Parking Professional magazine, IPI publications and conference management; then was named vice president of the association; and eventually became executive director of the association.

After 15 amazing years working for the association, it was time to return to the parking industry’s daily operations and to that end, I accepted a position at Princeton University as their first director of parking and transportation services. I became a member of the IPI Board of Directors in 2009, and was elected as Board Chair at the 2015 IPI Conference & Expo in Las Vegas.

A class of 2000 CAPP graduate and a Past Chair on the IPI Board of Directors. I have been truly blessed to be the “first” many time in this industry, to have been touched by SO many in the industry, to have given back when possible—within 32 short years I have had the unique opportunity to go full circle.

Recognition & Awards, Resources, Transportation & Mobility

2020 IPMI Professional Excellence Award – Innovation: David Wallace

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David WallaceDavid Wallace

SENIOR WEBSITE DESIGNER/DEVELOPER
Parking & Transportation Services, University of Arizona

David Wallace has been with the University of Arizona Parking & Transportation Services for over three years. He started as a website designer and developer, updating internal and external webpages. As a senior website designer and developer, he has designed and developed several programs and apps for different parking section heads that have improved efficiency tremendously in a wide variety of areas. The apps have reduced the need for paperwork and redundancy, helping better serve customers.

Paperwork is no longer required when officers go out to assist customers. Instead, the app on the officers’ tablets allows customers to sign the consent form electronically. Officers can now do boots and tows and provide motor assist without carrying around all the paperwork that was once linked to those tasks.

Wallace also created a program that tracks the equipment employees check out. This is also on a tablet that requires filling out only a few fields. Wallace recently created a check-in/out form for special events employees. The program logs the time employees sign in so they can get to their stations faster. Plus, it cuts down on the congestion of 80–100 employees trying to log in at the same time.

Wallace created an online shuttle request form for the Cat Tran Shuttles rental, again eliminating paperwork and improving speed. Another project he created was a program that bills a hotel that uses one of the university garages for their guests. The program is based on a contract with the hotel that stipulates that it pays extra for any spaces its guests use over 50. The new program tracks the guests’ ins and outs and bills accordingly.

Beyond these new developments, Wallace has also created several dashboards for the different parking sections. One allows that section’s employees to go to one spot for all their announcements, training, time reporting, and operational documents. It includes a section for supervisors to post daily briefings and tasks for employees. The dashboard includes a report that list trends and other stats.

Wallace has taken every task he has been given and created and improved upon each one. He has illustrated that he can find creative solutions to solve problems. Furthermore, he’s always available to lend a hand to his co-workers and has excellent listening skills, which are critical as he works with co-workers and supervisors to come up with the best solutions to the problems they are trying to solve.

Recognition & Awards, Resources

2020 IPMI Professional Excellence Award – Innovation: Jannette Benefee

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Jannette_BenefeeJannette Benefee

ASSISTANT MANAGER, PARKING AND TRANSPORTATION BUSINESS GROUP
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport

Jannette Benefee is at the forefront of innovation through use of business intelligence tools and facilitating development of new business solutions. She led the Dallas/ Fort Worth (DFW) International Airport Transportation Business Unit (TBU) in two critical innovative efforts recently. The airport is partnering with the U.S. Department of Energy on the Advancing Transportation Hub Efficiency Using Novel Analytics project. The objective of this three-year study is to leverage mobility data to optimize efficiency and reduce the cost of both passenger and freight movement at and around transportation hubs. Benefee has worked closely with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, providing input and ensuring that DFW provides accurate and applicable data to fit the needs of this project.

Benefee has also created and fostered the internal Transportation Business Intelligence (TBI) team, with the motto “Data that makes sense.” This team disseminates essential and usable data throughout the organization to optimize the customer experience and operational excellence. Collaborating with the DFW Information Technology Services business intelligence team, she has developed a custom training series that used actual parking information to enable trainees to internalize their training experience and expose them to reporting and data dashboards. This training created a group of “citizen analysts” consisting of staff at all levels and job descriptions. Each citizen analyst acts on behalf of his or her section to create data solutions and informational displays specific to the individual sections and provide section management the ability to quickly access information and identify trends.

During her first year on the job, she led TBU business intelligence efforts, collaborating with TBU leadership, IT, and finance to enhance and update the TBU business intelligence mobile dashboard and ensure the data integrity of its contents. This dashboard provides essential decision-making data to staff.

When a software update to the revenue control system created data gaps, Benefee identified the gaps and collaborated with IT to make corrections and re-map data tables and views. She also employed tactics to ensure the data needs of all sections of the TBU were addressed.

Benefee identified future data requirements and partnered with DFW IT to develop custom training for the parking and transportation team. Additionally, she collaborated with the TBU operations team to improve occupancy measurements and with DFW Intelligent Transportation System to build a mobile input screen to update and display lot occupancy information more efficiently. She also led the creation of a mobile app to display comparatives of DFW parking options and was able to resolve issues that prevented the curbside team from automating taxi dispatching and regulation.

Recognition & Awards, Resources

2020 IPMI Professional Excellence Award – Leadership: Hugo Contreras

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Hugo ContrerasHugo Contreras

SUPERVISOR
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport

Hugo Contreras joined Dallas/ Fort Worth (DFW) International Airport in March 2013 as a guest assistant in the Guest Transportation Operations section of what is now the Transportation Business Unit (TBU). After a year of service, he was promoted to ground transportation agent, and in June 2016, he became a quality agent in the Guest Contract Services section, where he was quickly promoted to Supervisor in May 2017.

In the supervisor role, Contreras has provided significant leadership. He supervises the evening and overnight shifts of quality agents, provides leadership of daily operations, and oversees a variety of special operations and projects. He oversees as many as 12 permanent employees and four contract employees. He also works closely with contract managers to incorporate DFW values and objectives into their dayto-day operations.

Contreras leads the infrastructure and construction, emergency response, communications, and career development committees within Guest Contract Services; he was the lead member of TBU’s Lifesaver Steering Committee (emergency response drills), a member of the Military Exodus Planning Committee, and a coach for Q1 FY20 Quarterly Department Meeting hosts.

He regularly collaborates with the TBU project manager to assess the operational impact of planned construction projects on Guest Contract Services’ business. This collaboration has included six major projects in the past year alone. In 2019, he reached beyond his assignment to provide leadership for the TBU Guest Services Section during a transitional period. Guest Services assists the public by providing customer service and transportation for aircraft hardstands, special events, and emergency response.

Contreras’ leadership skills are especially apparent when he is called on to mediate conflicts between employees. Contreras consistently motivates the team to perform at an optimal level, keeping safety and customer experience at the forefront. His focus on emergency operations has made him a key contributor to TBU’s emergency planning; he created the emergency operations protocols for Guest Contract Services.

Contreras also serves as a founding member of TBU’s Support Desk, where he helped establish procedures for department-wide collaboration in sharing information during routine and irregular operations. Contreras’s fluency in English and Spanish adds to his ability to connect and communicate effectively with customers and colleagues.

Recognition & Awards, Resources

2020 IPMI Professional Excellence Award- Marketing: Megan Smit

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Megan SmitMegan Smit

DIRECTOR OF MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS
PayByPhone

At heart, Megan Smit is a brand evangelist. As PayByPhone’s director of marketing and communications, she develops and maintains the North American marketing strategy to increase adoption, usage, and reactivation of users on a global scale. She has created a marketing presence from ground zero and is focused on growing PayByPhone’s monthly active users as the company’s coverage increases worldwide.

Smit challenges the status quo and forges long-term relationships with key partners, clients, prospects, and departments. When she joined PayByPhone, Smit created a full marketing department in a remarkably short amount of time. She used her experience and knowledge from building brands and experiences with global companies within Africa and Europe to scale a high-performance team with specific skill sets that include mobile growth, digital marketing, media and communications, operations, and strategic campaign management led by an aggressive growth strategy.

Smit introduced processes and agile frameworks that brought structure and scale to all projects and tasks that involved multiple departments, including product management and client management. This was new for the company and disrupted it in the best possible way. Most importantly, however, Smit achieved this while forging strong relationships with these stakeholders.

Her tireless efforts and expertise were recognized through four IPMI awards in two years that recognized innovative and creative campaigns.

Smit has presented on the industry on various stages around North America.