2024 NYNJ Infrastructure Forum Agenda

Richard (Rich) Schaefer
Senior Vice President, Capital Programs,
NJ TRANSIT

Rich Schaefer accepted the position of Senior Vice President of Capital Programs in August 2023. In this role, he is responsible for directing the capital programming process by allocating resources to specific capital projects and pursuing state and federal grant opportunities. He directs the planning and design for construction, repair, renovation and/or rehabilitation of NJ TRANSIT facilities and infrastructure system wide, as well as oversees project management from preliminary engineering through construction close-out, directing the program development and implementation of NJ TRANSIT’s Environmental Services functions for remediation. Additionally, he supervises establishment of engineering and architectural standards and policies corporate wide for NJ TRANSIT, directs the design and development for rolling stock and equipment purchases, and leads the strategic direction of the Capital Programs group through implementation of the 5-year capital plan and 10-year strategic plan to meet short and long-term goals and objectives.
Previously, Rich served as Chief Engineer of Design and Environmental for NJ TRANSIT, leading the capital planning effort, in-house architectural and engineering design services, the Environmental & Energy Group, and the standards & Quality Group. A structural bridge engineer by discipline, he has over 25 years of diversified experience designing and building infrastructure projects in the northeast region and nationally varying from simple overpass replacement to complex cable supported bridge rehabilitation. He has extensive experience building and implementing capital programs with a focus on buildable solutions that make the most of the dollars spent. Rich also serves as an adjunct professor at NJIT where he teaches a master’s class in bridge design. Rich is a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of New Jersey and holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Palmina Whelan
Capital Program Director
The New Terminal One at JFK

Palmina Whelan has successfully managed over $6 billion in capital programs at major aviation hubs including New York John F. Kennedy and Dallas-Fort Worth. With more than 25 years of experience, she brings significant expertise in overseeing complex aviation and infrastructure projects and a strong track record in collaborating with a myriad of stakeholders to deliver successful programs. As Capital Program Director of The New Terminal One at JFK, she leads the planning, design and construction management of a new $9.5 billion international terminal, the nation's largest single-asset project financing. Palmina is a prominent advocate for the construction industry and for the advancement of women in infrastructure. She serves on the boards of the Construction Management Association of America and the Women Builders Council.

Phillip A. Washington
Chief Executive Officer
Denver International Airport;Co-Chair the Equity in Infrastructure Project

Phillip A. Washington is the Chief Executive Officer at the Denver International Airport, the country’s 3rd busiest airport and the world’s 7th busiest airport by passengers. He previously served as CEO of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority from March 2015 to May 2021, where he oversaw the largest modern public works program in North America. Following his retirement from the U.S. Army in 2000, where he held the highest non-commissioned officer rank of Command Sergeant Major, Phil advanced within the Denver Regional Transit District and served as its CEO from 2009 to 2015. Phil co-chaired the Biden/Harris Infrastructure Policy Committee in 2020 and 2021 and later led the Transportation Transition Teams as Captain. In August 2023, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg appointed Phil to serve on the Advisory Committee on Transportation Equity.

Lourdes Zapata
MTA Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer
Metropolitan Transportation Authority

Lourdes Zapata serves as the MTA Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer, after leading the South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation, locally known as SoBro.
As the MTA’s CDIO, Zapata is charged with ensuring equitable access to economic opportunities for Minority and Women Business Enterprises (MWBEs) and eliminating barriers to their participation in obtaining MTA contracts and supporting equal opportunity for MTA employees.
Prior to joining SoBro, Zapata was appointed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo as Chief Diversity Officer for the State of New York, where she was engaged in policy and program development to increase the participation of women and people of color in all areas of State government. She also served the State as Executive Vice President of the Division of Minority and Women’s Business Development at Empire State Development. Her responsibilities included the development and oversight of statewide MWBE procurement policy as required by Article 15A of the Executive Law. She oversaw the Division’s certification, compliance and business development activities, and worked with State Commissioners and the Legislature on matters affecting the MWBE community. Her public service also extends to her earlier tenure as Community Development Director for the City of Newburgh in Orange County.
Born and raised in the Bronx, Zapata received her Master’s Degree in Public Administration from New York University and her Bachelor’s Degree from Hood College in Frederick, Maryland.

Zoe Baldwin
Vice President, State Programs,
Regional Plan Association

Zoe Baldwin works to expand the efforts of the Regional Plan Association (RPA), an independent, not-for-profit regional growth planning organization that focuses on improved quality of life, community resilience and economic competitiveness of a 31-county New York–New Jersey–Connecticut area that also builds support for a stronger, more connected region. She also leads research, planning, and advocacy activities in her home state of New Jersey.
Zoe has more than 20 years of experience in public policy at the state and federal levels. Before joining RPA, she was Director of Government Affairs for the Utility & Transportation Contractors Association where she advocated for increased federal and state investment in water and transportation systems, and for greater transparency and efficiency in public procurement. Zoe also served as Projects Director for U.S. Senator Cory Booker and as Senior Specialist for Transportation and Environment for U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg, and had roles as in infrastructure policy as the New Jersey Advocate for the Tri-State Transportation Campaign and as the Legislative Director for NJ State Senator Loretta Weinberg.

Jonson Berman
Senior Associate and Sustainability Lead
Suffolk Technologies

Special Guest

Jonson Berman is an early-stage investor at Suffolk Technologies. He works on early-stage investments, with a focus on companies creating better, faster, and cheaper solutions that are also more sustainable.
Prior to Suffolk Technologies, Jonson spent 5 years at a multi-billion family office where he focused on venture capital and sustainable infrastructure investing. While there, he also started and helped raised the firms first dedicated Climate-Tech venture fund. Jonson started his career at scrappy management consulting firm, OGx. He had the chance to work on transformational projects for a large public transportation agency focused on how they made technology investments.
Jonson holds a BA Physics and a Minor In Molecular Engineering from the University of Chicago. While at UChicago, Jonson kept his community caffeinated as an on-campus barista, published research on quantum electronics in Nature, and was a member of the Varsity Crew team.

Yvi McEvilly
Assistant Commissioner
Design-Build Unit, New York City Department of Design and Construction (NYCDDC)

Lunchtable Host

Yvi McEvilly is the Assistant Commissioner of the Design-Build Unit at the New York City Department of Design and Construction (NYCDDC). She is a licensed landscape architect and expert in delivering capital projects in New York City’s complicated construction environment with 19 years of experience managing public projects from multiple vantage points within the private, non-profit, and government sectors. At NYCDDC, Yvi leads the agency’s program for alternative project delivery and is expanding the design-build portfolio for public buildings and infrastructure. Prior to NYCDDC, Yvi was a Vice President at New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) where she supervised a $500+M portfolio of waterfront, public building, open space, and infrastructure projects. Before NYCEDC, she was Director of Design at the environmental non-profit New York Restoration Project and a project manager at Ken Smith Landscape Architect. In 2023 she completed the rigorous Coro Leadership New York program. She holds a B.S. in Architecture and a M. Arch from the University of Virginia.

Parth Doshi
Managing Director and Partner
BCG New York

Lunchtable Host

Parth is a Managing Director and Partner in BCG’s New York office, and leads the Infrastructure and Transportation business with Public Sector clients in the US. He brings deep expertise in operational topics for transportation agencies, leading recent work with multiple NY/NJ transportation agencies at both the state and local levels. He has worked in BCG’s New York, Chicago, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur offices, and holds degrees in Finance, Management and Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania.

Macky McCleary
Partner
BCG Boston

Special Guest

Macky McCleary is a Partner in BCG’s Boston office, and a leader in their Energy, Utilities and Climate & Sustainability practice areas. His primary focus is delivering large-scale transformations involving infrastructure development, grid modernization, utility business models, smart cities, clean tech & renewable energy. Prior to BCG, Macky led Rhode Island’s Division of Public Utilities and Carries, overseeing regulations on water, electricity, and sewer systems; served as the Deputy Commissioner for Environmental Quality for the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection; and co-founded a start-up clean energy and green building development company, EmPower Solar. He has a BA and Masters in Architecture from Yale.

Wendell R. Stemley
President
National Association of Minority Contractors

Lunchtable Host

Wendell Stemley is president of the National Association of Minority Contractors (NAMC) and the founder and CEO of Black IPO Inc., a construction management and engineering firm based in San Diego. As President and CEO, he has been instrumental in fostering business relationships between minority businesses and major corporations on mega projects throughout the country, generating billions of dollars in completed projects. He has been a member of the National Association of Minority Contractors for over 25 years, serving as its national pesident for five terms. As an Emeritus national director of the 53-year old trade association, he is an outspoken advocate for the concerns of minority-owned construction contractors.
Previously, Wendell was employed by TRW Space Systems Group, which provided consulting services to the U.S. Air Force Ballistic Missile Office at Norton AFB; General Dynamics and Boeing Military Aircraft Co., one of the principal designers for the buildout of the European Repair Test Station Facility, NATO Support Group, in Brussels, Belgium. He also was executive vice president and COO of Myriad Industries Inc., working with investment bankers on the company’s private placement and recapitalization in 1992 when it became a publicly traded company. At the time, Myriad was only the fifth African American firm listed on the NASDAQ exchange. Wendell received the NAACP California A. Phillip Randolph Activist Award in 2013.
He obtained a BS degree in Engineering from Southern University and is an Alumni of the Minority Business Management Executive Program at Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth University. He is a long-term tenured member of the Construction Management Association of America.

Cathy Sheridan
President
Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority

Cathy Sheridan has over thirty years of experience in the transportation industry and is currently the President of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, the largest bridge and tunnel authority in the United States. She manages nine iconic bridges and tunnels, linking the boroughs of New York City, and is implementing Manhattan’s congestion relief zone, the first of its kind in the nation. In 2023, TBTA broke records for traffic and revenue, with almost 1 million daily vehicle crossings and over $2.5 billion in revenue, all while reducing collisions and increasing enforcement of toll evasion. Cathy began her career at the New York State Department of Transportation as a seasonal construction inspector and rose to Chief Engineer of the New York State Thruway Authority and New York State Canal Corporation. As Chief Engineer of the Thruway Authority, she was an executive advisor for the $4 billion Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge design-build project. She joined the MTA at Construction & Development in 2019, and in 2021 became C&D’s Chief of Staff, where she was influential in the successful advancement of the MTA’s unprecedented $55 billion 5-year capital program and the opening of Grand Central Madison. Cathy is a Professional Engineer in New York State. She earned a Master of Science in Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Music from Boston University. She also served in the United States Army as a Combat Engineer, reaching the rank of Captain. Cathy is a proud member of The Moles. In 2022, Crain’s New York Business named her one of 40 Notable Women in Construction, Design, and Architecture, and in 2023, she was named Woman of the Year by WTS of Greater New York.

Rizwan Baig,
Chief Engineer
The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey

Rizwan holds a Bachelor and a Master of Engineering in Civil and Transportation Engineering; and is a licensed Professional Engineer in the States of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. In 1990, Rizwan began his career with the Port Authority as a Junior Engineer, and now serves as the Chief Engineer.
He is responsible of assuring the state of good repair of all Agency assets. He oversees the delivery of high-quality and cost-effective planning, architectural and engineering design, construction, and asset management services in support of the Agency’s Capital Program, while ensuring the structural integrity, life safety, and code compliance of all Agency facilities.
Throughout his career, Rizwan has demonstrated strong leadership ability by motivating staff and aligning resources to achieve project success, with a passion for envisioning creative and innovative engineering solutions, while creating a respectful, collaborative, and responsive workplace culture of belonging. As a proven transportation industry leader, he spearheaded coalition building with all business lines (Aviation, TBT, Ports, WTC, and PATH) and regional partners to ensure that critical Agency projects are planned and constructed in the most effective manner.

Jamey Barbas,
Project Director, Mario Cuomo Bridge, New York State Thruway Authority | Commissioner, Gateway Development Commission

Jamey Barbas, PE is the Project Director, charged with replacing the Tappan Zee Bridge in New York with the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge – one of the largest bridge projects in the US, on behalf of the New York State Thruway Authority.
A transformative senior executive with a career in the design and construction of major structures, she has held executive leadership positions in several international consulting firms. Her industry experience includes leadership of the strategic, operational and technical aspects for the delivery of major structures projects. A registered professional engineer with 35 years of experience in bridge and tunnel management, design, construction and inspection, she has special expertise on complex and long span bridges.
Barbas’ experience includes a number of award winning, domestic and international projects. She has led the inspection, design and construction support services for the reconstruction of the Williamsburg Bridge in NYC - one of the largest bridge reconstruction projects ever undertaken in the U.S. and led the design of the major bridges of the AutoRoute 30 project in Montreal, Canada - one of the largest P3 bridge projects in North America.
Barbas is a native New Yorker, graduate of Barnard College and the Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. An author of numerous technical papers, Barbas was named by Engineering News Record as one of their top Newsmakers of 2004 for her work in providing an emergency solution to a failing historic suspension bridge. She was also recognized as one of ENR’s top Newsmakers of 2020 for devising an innovative strategy that helped avert the shutdown of a New York City subway line with significant cost savings and schedule reduction.
She is Commissioner of the Gateway Development Commission and has served in various organizations, such as Bridges to Prosperity, a non-profit organization that provides footbridges in rural communities to increase access to schools, health care and market. She served as the Special Advisor for Infrastructure to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Barbas is the recipient of several engineering and leadership awards, including ASCE’s prestigious John B. Jervis Award for 2018 and the Thomas Egleston Medal for distinguished engineering achievement.

Maria Lehman
U.S. Infrastructure Market Leader, GHD | Vice Chair, President’s National Infrastructure Advisory Council | President Emeritus, ASCE

Maria Lehman, P.E, NAC, F.ASCE, ENV SP,. is GHD’s Infrastructure Market Leader for the United States, as well as a Principal and shareholder and serves on the company’s U.S. Board of Directors. Maria was the former Vice President for Critical Infrastructure for Parsons, COO and Acting Executive Director of the New York State Thruway Authority and Commissioner of Public Works for Erie County, NY. She has over 40 years of diverse, increasingly responsible, multi-disciplinary technical and leadership experience, both in the private and public sectors, and in traditional and alternative delivery. She received her BS in Civil Engineering at the State University of New York at Buffalo, Magna Cum Laude, and is a licensed Professional Engineer in several states.
She has served as Project Executive, Program and Project Manager, and Project Engineer on more than 700 projects which required everything from scoping, planning, environmental studies, preparation of plans, specifications, and estimates, construction management and operations and maintenance; ranging in size from $10,000 to $3.9 billion, with specific focus on surface transportation.
Maria is the 2023 President of the American Society of Civil Engineers, with over 164,000 members in 177 countries. She is also the Vice Chair of President Biden’s National Infrastructure Advisory Council.
Maria has won numerous national, statewide and local awards including and the ASCE President’s Medal, National Edmund Friedman Young Engineer Award, State University of New York at Buffalo’s School of Engineering Alumna of the Year, New York Governor’s Award for Excellence in Business and the New York State Society of Professional Engineers Engineering Manager of the Year. In 2022, Maria was inducted into the National Academy of Construction.

Jaidev Sankar
Vice President of Infrastructure Project Delivery
Capital Delivery Group at Amtrak.

Jaidev (Jay) Sankar is Vice President of Infrastructure Project Delivery within the Capital Delivery Group at Amtrak.
Jay has a 30-year career in heavy civil and transit project delivery. He has been fortunate to have been part of the teams that delivered the Boston Central Artery/Tunnel project, Tren Urbano in San Juan Puerto Rico, the Second Avenue Subway project in New York and the Penn Station Access project.
His Infrastructure project Delivery team manages and supports the delivery of:

• Portal North Bridge
• Hudson Tunnel Program including Hudson Yards Casing and Systems Projects
• Major NY Projects including the East River Tunnels Rehabilitation Project
• Susquehanna River Rail Bridge and Connecticut River Bridge
• Frederick Douglass Tunnel Program in Baltimore
• Infrastructure Renewal Program including key projects to maintain the railroad in a State of Good Repair

James Morrison,
Senior Technical Advisor
Gateway Development Commission

James A Morrison is currently Senior Technical Advisor for the Gateway Development Commission overseeing all technical aspects of the Hudson Tunnel Project, which will replace the 113 year old rail connection between New York and New Jersey, which also links the Northeast Corridor between Washington D.C. and Boston, with two new tubes that cover four and a half miles each, and fully rehabilitate the existing tunnel.

Jim brings over 40 years of engineering and construction experience incorporating a broad range of projects including transit, tunnels, bridges, dams, hydroelectric, marine construction highways, deep excavations, transportation, water/sewer systems, and environmental management. As a leader, Jim has managed all aspects of project execution and delivery, with strong expertise in design-build projects. Jim has led expert technical review teams, design teams, quality review teams, forensic evaluation teams, expert panel review teams responsible for both quality assurance and forensic troubleshooting, and actively participates on Dispute Review Boards.

Jim most recently served as Vice President and Engineering Chief for STV Inc., assisting in the development and expansion of STV’s geotechnical and tunneling practice throughout North America.

As CEO and Managing Director of ILF-USA, Jim was responsible for all aspects of ILF business with offices in Reston VA, Traverse City MI, Denver CO, and Seattle WA. He also served the ILF Corporation as technical practice lead for tunnels and hydropower projects thorough North America. Jim negotiated and led the successful acquisition of ILF-USA assets by COWI in 2018 and served COWI as a vice president and technical lead.

As Engineering Services Manager for Kiewit, Jim worked extensively with Kiewit Senior Management on the development and execution of a broad range of projects and was responsible for creating a team of 75 engineers providing engineering support for construction operations, and development and oversight of consultant engineering teams for alternate delivery projects. He also served as Corporate Geotechnical Manager, advising senior management on risk related matters, disputes resolution team coordination, and design-build team development. Jim was also responsible for developing corporate policy for the design and execution of temporary structures used in construction, and training future leaders though Kiewit University on design policy, temporary structures, geotechnical risk management, and other elements.

Jim has served as a member of dispute resolution boards on several major tunnel construction projects across North America and as an expert witness on a variety of projects including pipelines, marine work, government facilities construction, and transportation earthwork projects

Jim has written numerous technical papers and has presented keynote addresses to technical conferences around the world. Current publications include Contributing author for the 3rd edition of ASCE Geotechnical Baselines for Construction released in 2023. He has served as President for Deep Foundations Institute (DFI) and both the Cleveland, Ohio Section and Northwest Michigan Branch of ASCE.