All transportation, all the time.

It seems Karen Aspelin’s schedule lists something related to transportation engineering practically every working day in 2025.

Some days she’ll be traveling across the country to fulfill her responsibilities as the international president of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE). Or meeting with public clients as a senior specialist for Olsson’s Transportation team. It’s not unusual to find her presenting to a gathering of college engineering students about why they should consider a career in the transportation discipline.

“When I was a little kid, I liked to play with Matchbox cars. For some reason, that really hooked me.

It's hectic, but she loves it. After all, serving as ITE president marks the culmination of 30 years of involvement and leadership in the organization.

"ITE has always felt like a place where I belonged,” she said. “I’ve made so many professional connections and friendships through the organization. Professionals helping professionals with the challenges we all face in our daily work. It’s a community, almost like a family.”

Founded in 1930 and branded as “A Community of Transportation Professionals,” ITE’s 18,000 members work in nearly 80 countries. The organization promotes education, research, technical resources, professional development and the career advancement of its members, who work in engineering, planning, consulting, academics, technology, and research.

Ironically, Karen had never considered engineering when she embarked on her career journey. As a high school student, she fleetingly thought of studying architecture in college, but decided to pursue mathematics at the University of Virginia. After one semester, she decided to give engineering a try.

“When I learned about civil engineering, I finally figured out how I could apply my love of math,” she said.

Her first job was in environmental engineering, but she decided to explore other disciplines. A friend told her about the transportation engineering program at Texas A&M University, and she enrolled. Immediately she knew it was what she was meant to do.

“When I was a little kid, I liked to play with Matchbox cars with these little tracks and a playset of a city. For some reason, that really hooked me. In grad school when I realized this was a career, you could get paid to design streets and traffic systems, I was all in!”

Karen joined ITE in 1994, shortly after she started her first job as a consulting transportation engineer in Las Vegas. Although she was fortunate to have worked with a great professional mentor, ITE provided an instant connection to others who shared a passion for transportation. And the members were more than willing to share their knowledge, as well.

Over the years, her career led her to New Mexico and now to Colorado. And she transitioned from being a member of ITE to volunteering for roles that required a deeper commitment – chairing annual district meetings, serving as a district officer, and joining leadership ranks at the international level. She served as international vice president in 2024.

During her one-year term as president in 2025, Karen’s responsibilities include writing a regular column for the ITE Journal, attending business and regional district meetings, speaking at conferences, and emphasizing the organization’s top initiatives like improving safety and recruiting the next generation of professionals.

“Workforce development is one of the biggest challenges facing our industry,” she said. “It’s something all of us in the profession need to work on together.”

Of course, she always encourages others to join ITE. The organization offers members lots of educational resources and training webinars, and Karen said the group’s listserv, the online ITE Community, alone is worth the cost of annual dues.

“If you have a project or run into a problem you’ve never encountered before, throw it out to the ITE community and you’ll get dozens of responses,” she said. “People really want to help each other. It saves a lot of time and wasted effort.”

During her years with ITE, Karen has helped lead the creation of a K-12 STEM outreach committee. The committee has since created resources that equip members so they can easily lead hands-on activities with students.

“Going back to when I was in college, I didn’t know what I wanted to do because I didn’t know transportation engineering was even a career,” she said. “Even today, many students don’t know what we do. We have to get on their radar before they start making career decisions.

“We help make our communities better. What could be better than that?”