Remembering Einah Pelaez
Contributed by Luigi Casinelli, P.E., PTOE (M)
February 10, 2021
I cannot believe it is has been a year and a half since Einah passed. When I look back at her life, all I can think of is how lucky I was to be able to work with and befriend such an amazing person. Einah was always full of life, passion, empathy, and above all, always willing to help and mentor others. She was a leader at the workplace, in the industry, and within her local community.
Throughout life, Einah was consistently taking the initiative to help others succeed, take on assignments outside her comfort zone (and delivering), and being a mentor to not only folks within the traffic engineering field but professionals throughout the industry. From beginning a Toastmaster chapter in Westchester to getting involved in multiple professional associations, including concurringly serving as the 2019 President of the Society of Women Engineers NYC & Long Island Chapter and the 2019 President of ITE Met Section President. In 2018, when ITE announced the STEM initiative, she was the first to volunteer, take the lead, and help the ITE Metropolitan Section organize its first STEM. In 2019, even though she could not attend the event, she managed the event from her hospital bed. What was fascinating to me, as I talked with her, not only did she not care about her situation, but how she cared so much about others and wanted to make sure the event went well. She truly was a special person, not caring about herself than for others.
Outside of transportation, she was a wife, mother, and daughter, raising and managing multiple generations with her household. Within her local community, she volunteered countless hours through the POSSE foundation to help underprivileged students obtain college scholarships.
She was truly an ITE ambassador and was sought out as a trusted advisor, not only for work-related questions, but also for professional guidance and sometimes advice in life.
Interesting Facts
POSSE
Einah Pelaez dedicated an incredible amount of time to the Posse Foundation and developing the next
generation of engineers. The Posse Foundation identifies, recruits, and trains incredibly underprivileged
youth leaders from urban public high schools and sends these groups as "Posses" to top colleges and
universities in this country. Einah mentored these students on a regular basis to prepare them first for the interview process (Posse is very selective), then, if accepted, for the challenges that lay ahead for them when they enter college. Students in the Posse program are not just at college to learn their chosen major, and they are there to make a difference for the university. Einah was a Posse Scholar (recipient of the scholarship in 1995) and is an alumna of the Posse Foundation.
Mentoring
To help encourage women into the field of engineering, Einah spoke in front of over 100 professional women in Technology at GOOGLE New York headquarters to commemorate Women’s International Day.
She empowered other women by sharing the results of the research she conducted on “Women, The NewBreadwinners.” Ms. Pelaez mentored freshman and sophomore engineering students from Manhattan College. She often reviewed their resumes, gave them educational and career advice and accompanies them on field visits. But Einah did not stop there. She also helped design and start a NYC public high school dedicated to Engineering and specifically recruiting young women. This school is called BETA (Bronx Engineering and Technology Academy). She also spoke at BETA’s first commencement. A few years later, she meets a young lady who pursued Civil Engineering at Manhattan College because of she was inspired by Einah’s commencement speech.
When Einah passed, she remained our president for the year, but the executive board and committees banded together to take on additional roles to ensure business at the section remained smooth. We dedicated the following Past President's Night to honor her and her family, renaming our young transportation professional award to the Einah Reza M. Pelaez Young Professional Award. She was also posthumously awarded the Ivor S. Wisepart Transportation Engineer award. Her family was present to receive the award.