Karla Avis-Birch was born in Montreal to Trinidadian parents and with her sister lived there until moving to Toronto to pursue a career in engineering at Ryerson University. She is an alumni of NSBE Canada and upon completion of her Bachelor of Engineering in Civil Engineering, Karla started her first job at Smart Centres. She was a project manager, in construction, of big box building centres. During that tenure, she received her professional engineer’s licence from Professional Engineers of Ontario in 2001. After 7 years, Karla took on a new challenge at GO Transit where she merged her engineering skills with project management experience. During her 6 year span at GO Transit, she progressed from Project Financial Engineer to Senior Project Engineer to Manager Controls and Standards culminating into her recent promotion to Chief Project Management Programs and Systems. Within this role, Karla commands the development and quality control of design standards, as well as provide oversight and guidance for project controls. Karla believes in giving back to her community, and has been an executive board member of the TAIBU Community Health Centre since 2009 and mentors aspiring young leaders. Karla lives in the GTA with her husband Jeff, and two sons Jalen & Kaleb.