The Voice - Summer 2021 - 24

NEWS & EVENTS
President's Volunteer Award Winners
OSPE was pleased to announce the recipients of the President's
Volunteer Award, three individuals who have gone above
and beyond in effecting positive change for the engineering
profession in Ontario. The 2021 Professional Engineers Award
is being awarded to:
Professional Award Winner: Emily Thorn Corthay, P.Eng.
Emily joined the OSPE Board in 2016 and brought with her a
passion for the profession, along with more than 15 years of
experience in energy engineering. In addition to taking on a
role as a member of the OSPE's Audit and Finance Committee,
Emily immediately took on the role of Chair of the Energy Task
Force, which has consulted with all political parties on a regular
basis regarding electricity price reform and reducing emissions,
helping to advance the reputation of engineers with policy
makers.
Emily Thorn
Corthay,
P.Eng.
now tackled in-between meetings by separate groups, each with
a team lead. As a result, sub-committees were created, such as
Artificial Intelligence, Data Governance, 5G and Autonomous
Aircraft.
Emanuel has helped drive events such as: Smart Cities at
Cisco's office, a Panel Discussion at SpinMaster in downtown
Toronto on " Engineering, Innovation, and Creativity: The Past,
Present, and Future of Engineering " where he was a panelist, and
" The Future of the Drone industry " at the Downsview Aerospace
Innovation & Research (DAIR) Hub. OSPE is truly grateful for
Emanuel's tireless contributions to the engineering community.
Young Professional Award Winner: Vanessa Raponi, EIT
At the beginning of her undergraduate degree at McMaster,
Vanessa created a student group on-campus to support LGBTQ
students called McMaster EngiQueers. The three pillars of this
organization were to:
facilitate social connection, increase
professional development, and advocate & educate external
bodies. By her final year of schooling, this had evolved into a
national not-for-profit organization named EngiQueers Canada,
which connected 32 engineering universities across 9 provinces
with similar groups impacting thousands of students.
Emily is the founder & president of Thorn Associates, an
energy and carbon management consulting corporation. She is
a co-founder and chair of the Board of Directors of StepUp, an
organization dedicated to breakthrough energy management
performance through improved gender equity, and past director
of Energy Optimization and Management at Hatch.
We are thankful to have such a dedicated, active and
knowledgeable volunteer supporting OSPE.
Professional Award Winner: Emanuel Corthay, P.Eng.
Emanuel Corthay has led many aspects of the OSPE Research
and Innovation Task Force, initially as a member and then as
Associate Chair. He has consistently showed initiative in many
ways since he joined the Research and Innovation Taskforce.
Emanuel
Corthay,
P.Eng.
Vanessa
Raponi,
EIT
Vanessa helped to personally create several of these groups
across the country and acted as president and advisor of EQC for
four years. Throughout her undergrad, she traveled across the
country presenting at conferences ranging from ESSCO, CFES
and EWB student-led conferences, to Engineering Change Lab,
NCDEAS, NSERC and Universities Canada professional and
executive focused conferences.
Since graduating, Vanessa has continued this perpetual
advocacy for marginalized people by engaging in events
approximately once a month, including most recently speaking
at the Ontario Science Centre, at the international DiscoverE
Global Marathon, and supporting the Canadian Undergraduate
Chemistry and Physics conferences separately.
Vanessa began working with OSPE in 2017 when she provided
He started by working with the Task Force Chair to streamline
the work of the group by creating tracks and subcommittees to
maximise members' engagement in areas of interest. Work is
24
THE VOICE June 2021
an opinion piece as her first contribution to The Voice magazine
and Society Notes blog. In February 2018, she joined the OSPE
EDI committee, and continued to volunteer directly with
OSPE until September 2020. Vanessa's passion and energy
are unparalleled, and her spirit of volunteerism is respected
immensely.
The Voice - Summer 2021

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