Community Manatee County

MANATEE COUNTY – Sage Kamiya, Manatee County Deputy Director of Traffic Management, was recently named Transportation of the Year by the Florida Chapter of the Institute of Transportation Engineers, an international educational and scientific association of transportation professionals.

Kamiya received the Edward A. Mueller Transportation of the Year Award, the profession’s top honor among a 1,000 member section that includes Florida and Puerto Rico. He was also elected as chapter secretary for 2013. Both distinctions were announced at the group’s annual awards banquet in Bonita Springs this week.

“Sage is really an up-and-comer,” said chapter president Robert Fulp. “He’s well-deserving of this award because of his contributions to the chapter and to Manatee County. He contributed a significant amount of personal time to the chapter … and he’s very resourceful in helping our local arrangements committee, which helps us organize summer and winter meetings.”

Larry Hagen, a civil engineer who chairs the section’s awards committee, said Kamiya was selected for his active participation and leadership within the group.

“Sage has been working hard, contributing and participating in meetings, showing up ready to help and mentoring others,” Hagen said. “He’s showing himself to be a good leader and mentor to those up and coming in the profession.”

Kamiya was recently promoted to the Deputy Director of Traffic Management, a division of Manatee County Public Works. He manages multiple traffic divisions, including traffic operations, traffic engineering and design, the county’s Traffic Management Center and transportation planning.

“It' great to have one of our own be honored,” said Chad Butzow, Deputy Director of Operations for Manatee County Public Works. “This proves what we already knew about our team we have put together around our ATMS project.”

He was instrumental in developing and launching Manatee’s new Advanced Traffic Management System, a project that won 2012 Project of the Year honors from the Suncoast Branch of the American Society of Civil Engineers. Kamiya graduated from Florida State University in 1996 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering. He earned a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of South Florida in 2006.

The Edward A. Mueller District 10 Transportation Engineer of the Year Award was established in 1980 by the Florida Section to recognize outstanding contributions to the Florida Section and to the transportation profession.

“I’m very honored to receive the award because it’s good to hear from your peers that they think you’re a solid professional,” Kamiya said. “The idea that it was a group of peers who appreciated what you’d done was an honor to hear.”

Kamiya has nearly 17 years of both public and private engineering experience with focus on transportation planning and traffic engineering. As secretary of the group, Kamiya aims to communicate with younger members of the organization and to look for innovative ways to reach membership.

For more information on Manatee County Government, visit online at www.mymanatee.org or call (941) 748-4501. You can also follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/manatee.county.fl and on Twitter, @ManateeGov.