Neighbors in the news: LCDOT promotes two employees to assistant engineers

• The Lake County Division of Transportation has promoted Kevin Carrier and Jon Nelson to serve as assistant county engineers. Together, Carrier and Nelson will help lead LCDOT's mission to provide a safe, efficient and innovative transportation system.

Carrier, who most recently served as the director of Planning and Programming, will serve as the assistant county engineer for LCDOT's Capital Program. He will be heavily involved in the planning, design and construction of LCDOT's transportation projects.

Carrier brings significant experience coordinating preservation, modernization and expansion projects, as seen in Lake County's Five-Year Transportation Improvement Program, and working with federal, state and local partners and communities.

Nelson assumes the role of assistant county engineer for LCDOT's Operations, after most recently serving as engineer of traffic. Nelson's expanded role means he will be primarily working with LCDOT's Traffic, Maintenance and Information Services divisions.

Nelson has vast leadership experience and knowledge of transportation operations at the local and national level. He has been awarded APWA's National Engineering and Technology Manager of the Year and was granted the Institute of Traffic Engineers past president's award for his regional contributions to the traffic engineering community.

"Kevin and Jon have demonstrated a strong commitment to delivering LCDOT's mission, and day-after-day they have shown the leadership, knowledge, and skills required to manage our capital program and the complex assets on the highway system that need to be maintained," said Shane Schneider, LCDOT director and county engineer.

"We are excited about the opportunity to expand their roles and the leadership they will bring to the extraordinary teams we have serving the public at LCDOT."

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Alex Stathakis, adviser for the Maine South High School newspaper Southwords, was recently honored by the Kettle Moraine Press Association with the KEMPA Nancy Becker Newspaper Adviser of the Year Award.

Annually, at the Fall Scholastic Journalism Conference business meeting of KEMPA, the organization honors Advisers of the Year. Advisers may be nominated by their publication staffs, their administrators or their peers.

Nominations describe the impact the adviser has had and/or accomplished that sets that person apart in the minds of the nominators.

"I was so honored to have even been nominated for the award, and hearing the kind words that colleagues and alumni shared with the committee was extremely moving," says Stathakis.

In addition, at the conference, Stathakis won the All-KEMPA award in the 2021-2022 publication critique.

"Last year was the first year back after COVID and I am extremely proud of the staff's ability to navigate the publication process and effectively use InDesign to produce a newspaper that earned the press association's highest honor," Stathakis says.

KEMPA is the organization that supports scholastic journalism in schools in Illinois and Wisconsin.

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Congratulations to Monty Monterroso, who was named 2022 Volunteer of the Year by the Prospect Heights Natural Resources Commission (NRC).

Monterroso, a longtime Prospect Heights resident, has been volunteering with the NRC for almost two years. He is a regular at the NRC's workdays, seed collections and at special events. He always has time for extra work on the big projects, including the Fourth of July float and the Solstice Garden.

Monterroso has been a real asset to the commission in 2022, and well deserving of the honor.

• Submit your 'Neighbors in the News' items to ntwohey@dailyherald.com.