WORLD CLASS CITIES 2015

NETHERLANDS TRANSPORTATION LEADERSHIP STUDY TOUR:BIKES AS A TOOL FOR BETTER CITIES

September 7-12, 2015List of Delegates

>> MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE

Roshun AustinPresident / CEO, The Works Inc.

Roshun Austin is Chief Operating Officer of St. Andrew African Methodist Episcopal Church and the President/CEO of The Works, Inc.

In her current role, Ms. Austin oversees the daily operations of the congregational and community outreach/support of the St. Andrew Enterprise and the Works, which employs 90 individuals and consists of a charter school, childcare center, a farmer’s market, a community life center and gym. The Works, Inc. is a community development corporation serving South Memphis, Tennessee and the Greater Memphis area, dedicated to the holistic renaissance of the community through the provision of services in areas of housing, economic development, education, and advocacy.

Manny BelenDeputy Director of Engineering, City of Memphis

Manny Belen is currently serving as the Deputy Director in the Division of Engineering at the City of Memphis.

In this role, Manny is charged with planning, directing, coordinating and administering all activities relating to engineering and its impact to the community, as well as oversight of new policies, implementation and enforcement of standards.

Suzanne CarlsonTransportation & Mobility Project Manager, Mayor’s Institute for Excellence in Government

Suzanne Carlson is the Transportation and Mobility Project Manager at the Mayor’s Institute for Excellence in Government in Memphis. In this role, she works to improve transportation choices for residents, including commute access to jobs and services.

Suzanne’s priority areas are employer programs, transit service, parking management, and walking and bicycling. Previously, she managed the pedestrian program and complete streets project delivery for the Chicago Department of Transportation as a consultant with Milhouse Engineering. She also served as Director of Environmental Affairs at Chicago Public Schools and was director of a community bike shop. Suzanne has a Masters in Public Administration.

Sylvia CrumExecutive Director, Revolutions Bicycle Cooperative

Sylvia Crum loves to ride her bicycle, but it hasn’t always been that way. As a kid, she was a clumsy rider, and as an adult, bicycling just never seemed like much of an option. But in her mid-thirties, Sylvia started riding around Memphis, with a small child in tow, and when one child became two, she couldn’t wait to get the newborn out on a bike, too. The opportunity arose to attend United Bicycle Institute, in Oregon. And while there, the Crums bought their first cargo bike outfitted for a family.

In August 2014, Sylvia ramped up her involvement in the Memphis cycling community by becoming the first paid director of Revolutions Bicycle Cooperative, a community shop founded in 2002 and headquartered in the basement of First Congregational Church.

Sylvia’s preferred type of riding is for transportation. She likes to ride to the park and library, with her kids, or to one of Memphis’ new breweries or the grocery store. To help others learn how to ride this way, Sylvia added “Women’s Bike Chats,” slow group rides, and Bike to Dinner rides to Revolutions’ calendar of events.

A graduate of Bryn Mawr College, Sylvia is also certified as a Professional Bicycle Mechanic by United Bicycle Institute. She’s lived in four states and three countries, and though she still loves to travel, she and her family love that they found Memphis for their permanent home!

Dwayne JonesProject Manager - Prevailing Wage Office, City of Memphis Dwayne Jones currently works for the City of Memphis as the Project Manager for the Prevailing Wage Office. He also owns a construction company focusing on energy-efficient building of cottage homes and microhomes for the homeless, and travels to Ghana, Togo, India, and Haiti to support orphanages and clinics.

Dwayne has a BS in Architectural Engineering, an MS in Business Management, and is preparing to complete his doctorate in Organizational Leadership in the spring of 2016.

Mark NealPrincipal, Shelby County Schools

Through education, Mark Neal seeks to impact his community by connecting inner city youth with opportunities and exposure to broaden their perspective on life. He is currently the Principal of Melrose High School, which is located in the Orange Mound community of Memphis and historically known as one of the oldest African-American communities in the USA.

Mark started teaching in fall of 2000 after graduating from the University of Tennessee at Martin with a B.S. in Education. His passion for education led him to Shelby County to work with students from non-affluent backgrounds. He worked for eight years as a World Geography Teacher and athletic coach before transitioning into school administration.

John Paul ShafferLivable Memphis Program Director, Community Development Council of Greater Memphis

John Paul Shaffer is the director of Livable Memphis, a program of the Community Development Council of Greater Memphis. Livable Memphis’ programming and advocacy work supports more equitable transportation and land use policies, and greater public participation in planning. In 2010, John Paul was part of a team that designed and painted the city’s first “temporary” cycle track, now being constructed as the Hampline. He was also instrumental in bringing the Better Block concept to Memphis, which has evolved into the MEMFix program (community-driven prototyping for neighborhood revitalization) and is managed by Livable Memphis. He volunteers with Revolutions Community Bicycle Coop, Walk Bike Memphis, and the Food Advisory Council for Memphis and Shelby County. John Paul holds an undergraduate degree in Jazz Studies from the University of New Orleans and a Masters in City and Regional Planning from the University of Memphis, and serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bike Walk Tennessee. A life-long student of music, art, food, politics, and civic engagement, he enjoys playing music, reading, the outdoors, walking and riding his bike!

Sara StuddardProject Manager, Explore Bike Share

Sara is the Project Manager of Explore Bike Share, a project of Doug Carpenter & Associates. Explore Bike Share is a community-driven effort committed to developing a bike share program specifically for Memphis that can unlock new opportunities and truly advance the city on multiple fronts – including transportation, tourism, health, environment, and culture – with a network of safe, affordable, and accessible bicycles.

With a background in community development, creative placemaking, project management for the arts, biking and local food, Sara became passionate about the local food economy during her time with Memphis Bioworks Foundation and BioDimensions (connecting local farmers to business opportunities). Previously to Explore Bike Share, she managed creative placemaking and programming for the Broad Avenue Arts District and the Water Tower Pavilion (WTP), an active 1945 loading dock turned into a weekend performance space that hosted 30 free events in 2014. She also helped lead a crowd-sourcing campaign for The Hampline, working with community members to raise $75,000 to support the funding of a two-lane protected bike lane.

Outside of her work with Explore Bike Share, Sara enjoys her role as board chair of the Cooper-Young Community Farmers Market, biking and eating her way around town, and supporting the Memphis art community.

Kyle WagonshutzBicycle & Pedestrian Manager, City of Memphis

Kyle was hired in 2010 to serve as the first City of Memphis employee dealing exclusively with issues related to bicycling and walking. Since that time, Memphis has seen a dramatic improvement in the conditions for riding a bicycle with the completion of more than 100 new miles of bike lanes, trails and protected cycle tracks – resulting in a 500% increase in cycling and a 35% reduction in bicycle-involved crashes.

From 2006 to 2013, Kyle served as the Director of Revolutions Community Bicycle Shop, a non-profit bicycle shop focused on teaching bicycle repair and providing affordable bicycles. Through this experience, he began working to organize neighborhood leaders and advocate for increased bicycle accommodation from the City of Memphis as a part of their total transportation strategy. In 2012, Kyle was honored as the “Young Professional of the Year” by the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals for his work and leadership in Memphis.

Kyle continues to serve as the Vice President of Bike Walk Tennessee, a state-wide advocacy group focused on improving conditions throughout the state of Tennessee for active transportation through education, policy and grassroots campaigning.

Mike BasarichManager of Cycling Infrastructure, Saris Cycling Group

Mike uses bikes to mark key moments in his life: his youth (his first new bike, a black Trek 820), his college years (a 10-speed road bike), his time as a legislative aid in Washington DC without a car (a used Peugeot), several years working with the US Forest Service (a mountain bike), and his return home to Wisconsin in 2008 (a triathlon bike).

Now, with a garage full of bikes, Mike is dedicated to ensuring safe, accessible places to ride through his role managing sales, advocacy and government affairs for Saris Cycling Group. Saris is a U.S. manufacturer of cycling infrastructure products. His work in public policy as well as cycling infrastructure aims to help cities overcome challenges to providing better transportation options to their residents and visitors.

>> U.S. BICYCLE INDUSTRY LEADER

Curtis ThomasDeputy Executive Director, The Works Inc.

Curtis Thomas is Deputy Executive Director for The Works, Inc., a community development corporation pursuing holistic revitalization in South Memphis. He began working in that community as an undergraduate and transitioned to a full-time role with The Works after completing a graduate degree in City Planning.

Curtis has managed housing and commercial development projects, as well as a resident-led comprehensive neighborhood plan in collaboration with partners across South Memphis. His focus on food access and the built environment’s role in health & neighborhood transportation access has led to the creation of a farmers market /green grocer that offers healthy cooking classes, design work to improve major streets in South Memphis for pedestrians and cyclists, and a partnership with the City of Memphis to support residents in the planning and design of a new greenline.

Curtis also serves as Board Chair for the Memphis Community Development Council/Livable Memphis trade association; as a board member for a local funding intermediary, Community LIFT; and on the board of the Health, Educational & Housing Facility Board, a housing finance agency that issues tax-exempt revenue bonds and uses other incentives to encourage development of affordable housing in the City of Memphis.

Zach VanderkooyInternational Programs Manager, PeopleForBikes

Zach’s unofficial job title is “Importer of Bicycle Magic.” He leads PeopleForBikes’s efforts to cross-pollinate ideas among the world’s most innovative cities, including the World Class Cities 2015 summer-long study tour series. Zach orchestrates international and domestic professional exchange events, inspiring and sharing best practices among U.S. cities and with their European peers. He has led more than 200 city officials, staff and professionals on fact-finding expeditions to the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Spain and Sweden.

Zach’s experience is grounded in the built environment, with a background in urban planning and design. He values getting more people on bikes not as a goal in itself, but as a simple, cost-effective tool to improve the social and physical landscapes of our cities. A Portland, Oregon native, Zach is a graduate of Cornell University and the National Outdoor Leadership School. He earned a master’s degree in urban planning from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

>> TRIP STAFF

Martha RoskowskiVice President of Local Innovation, PeopleForBikes

In her role as PeopleForBikes VP of Local Innovation, Martha directs the Green Lane Project. She and Randy Neufeld of the SRAM Cycling Fund dreamed up the Project based on their conviction that protected bike lanes are an essential and missing element in the U.S. design toolbox. Since 2012, her work has been to catalyze innovation and support implementation of next-generation bicycle infrastructure in U.S. cities.

“My forte is in bringing people together and making things happen,” says Martha. Prior to running the Green Lane Project, she managed the City of Boulder’s innovative GO Boulder program to make it easy to bike, bus and walk. She led the America Bikes campaign in Washington, D.C. from 2002 to 2004, focused on the reauthorization of the transportation bill. That effort created the $800 million federal Safe Routes to School Program and coined the term “Complete Streets.”

Ronnie HarrisVisionary Lead, Go Bronzeville

Based in Chicago, Ronnie is an experienced urban mission strategist, and has devoted his life to seeing people flourish within the context of global cities.

As the founding member of PaulsJourney, Ronnie helps to provide progressive alternatives of hope for those marginalized by historical, socio-economic constructs, through innovative avenues of development, partnerships and community initiatives. Other major projects, many of which are hyper-local community-led efforts, include GoBronzeville, which promotes transportation options in a Chicago South Side neighborhood; the I Am Campaign, which combats human trafficking; and Transit Future, which seeks to expand public transit in Chicago. Ronnie is presently pursuing a PhD in Community Learning and Development at the University of Aberdeen.

Meredith GlaserTrip Leader, PeopleForBikes

Meredith Glaser is the in-country study tour coordinator for PeopleForBikes’ tours in the Netherlands. Originally from California, she completed masters degrees in Public Health and Urban Planning at UC Berkeley, with a focus on sustainable and active transportation planning, and moved to the Netherlands in 2010. Meredith works as an urban planning and mobility consultant on both a freelance basis and on international projects with Copenhagenize Design Co. Previously, she worked as an urban strategy consultant with Rotterdam-based company Stipo, focusing on bottom-up urban planning, temporary use, co-creation, and placemaking. She has co-authored a book called “The City at Eye Level” (2012) with a 2nd edition to be published later this year and also blogs for Amsterdam Cycle Chic.

Meredith regularly collaborates with local Dutch municipalities on cycling projects and workshops, hosts international delegations for cycling and mobility study tours, and has co-developed several university-level curricula on the topics of mobility and urban cycling. She also holds a guest appointment at the University of Amsterdam’s Department of Social Sciences. Meredith lives in Amsterdam with her husband, baby daughter, 4 bikes, and no car.

Kate PowlisonSenior Marketing + Communications Manager

As a member of the PeopleForBikes staff since 2008, Kate has witnessed the evolution of bike advocacy in the U.S.

In her current role as Senior Marketing + Communications Manager, Kate focuses on sharing bicycling stories from communities across the country with PeopleForBikes’ million-plus individual supporters. This will be her second study tour, and she is eager to experience the evolution of the program since its inception more than five years ago. That first trip taught her that no matter how educated on the topic you are, there is no substitute for experiencing bicycling in a world-class city first-hand.

At home in Boulder, Colorado, Kate is an avid bike rider and enjoys everything from bike commuting to long recreational rides and races.