Full Name
Lija Bickis
Position/Title
Manager, Investigation Standards and Quality Assurance
Organization/Company
Transportation Safety Board of Canada
Speaker Bio
Lija Bickis
Lija is the manager of Investigation Standards and Quality Assurance in the Marine Branch at the Transportation Safety Board of Canada. As part of her role, Lija has represented Canada at the International Maritime Organization’s Working Group on Casualty Analysis. Prior to starting at the TSB, Lija worked in Marine Engineering (class management) at the Canadian Coast Guard, and in various roles within the Marine Safety and Security directorate at Transport Canada. Lija has a diploma in naval architecture from North Kent College, bachelors and masters degrees from Queen’s University, and a PhD from the University of Waterloo.
Michelle Gauthier
Michelle has been a Senior Human Factors Accident Investigator with the Transportation Safety Board since 2016. Michelle started her career as an HF design researcher for products to be used in safety critical domains including marine, aviation, first response and military. As a researcher and designer, Michelle focuses on improving how people interact with operational environments, procedures, and technology, working with engineers and developers to identify opportunities to design safer and more effective systems by aligning human capabilities with technical and environmental constraints. She now uses this approach to understand how people, operators, technology, and the surrounding environment interact as a system to uncover safety gaps that contribute to transportation accident and the ability to survive them. Michelle has an M.A. in Psychology from Carleton University specializing in Human Computer Interaction.
Melody Szabo
Mel is the Pacific Region Operations Manager at the Transportation Safety Board. She started with the TSB in June of 2024, spending almost a year as a Senior Marine Investigator before assuming the Manager position. Mel started her career in the Royal Canadian Navy spending 21 years as a Naval Technical Officer, where she gained extensive experience managing technical teams and operating, maintaining and designing marine systems on major warships and submarines. Her various postings enabled her to develop expertise in damage control, emergency response, and system safety. She obtained her MSc in Marine Engineering in 2012 and retired from the RCN in 2018. After retirement, Mel held Senior Marine Systems Engineer and Principal Safety Engineer positions as a Professional Engineer in the marine industry, providing marine systems engineering and safety engineering support to Defense and Commercial clients in ship system design, human and safety systems, and maintenance. She now applies her knowledge and experience to further marine transportation safety within the TSB.
Lija is the manager of Investigation Standards and Quality Assurance in the Marine Branch at the Transportation Safety Board of Canada. As part of her role, Lija has represented Canada at the International Maritime Organization’s Working Group on Casualty Analysis. Prior to starting at the TSB, Lija worked in Marine Engineering (class management) at the Canadian Coast Guard, and in various roles within the Marine Safety and Security directorate at Transport Canada. Lija has a diploma in naval architecture from North Kent College, bachelors and masters degrees from Queen’s University, and a PhD from the University of Waterloo.
Michelle Gauthier
Michelle has been a Senior Human Factors Accident Investigator with the Transportation Safety Board since 2016. Michelle started her career as an HF design researcher for products to be used in safety critical domains including marine, aviation, first response and military. As a researcher and designer, Michelle focuses on improving how people interact with operational environments, procedures, and technology, working with engineers and developers to identify opportunities to design safer and more effective systems by aligning human capabilities with technical and environmental constraints. She now uses this approach to understand how people, operators, technology, and the surrounding environment interact as a system to uncover safety gaps that contribute to transportation accident and the ability to survive them. Michelle has an M.A. in Psychology from Carleton University specializing in Human Computer Interaction.
Melody Szabo
Mel is the Pacific Region Operations Manager at the Transportation Safety Board. She started with the TSB in June of 2024, spending almost a year as a Senior Marine Investigator before assuming the Manager position. Mel started her career in the Royal Canadian Navy spending 21 years as a Naval Technical Officer, where she gained extensive experience managing technical teams and operating, maintaining and designing marine systems on major warships and submarines. Her various postings enabled her to develop expertise in damage control, emergency response, and system safety. She obtained her MSc in Marine Engineering in 2012 and retired from the RCN in 2018. After retirement, Mel held Senior Marine Systems Engineer and Principal Safety Engineer positions as a Professional Engineer in the marine industry, providing marine systems engineering and safety engineering support to Defense and Commercial clients in ship system design, human and safety systems, and maintenance. She now applies her knowledge and experience to further marine transportation safety within the TSB.
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