We’re excited to welcome six new members to our board. Here are their candidate statements: 

Bob Bodnar

It would be a privilege to serve as a board member. I’ve lived in East Oakland for 14 years. I would work for more bike paths in East Oakland, and better connections with the rest of Oakland and the east bay.

I am a government attorney, member of a truck route study committee for East Oakland, and chairman of our local neighborhood council (NCPC). We permanently closed a problem liquor store, planted trees, and reclaimed a neglected traffic island, installing boxes with native plants. This required fundraising, donations and discounts, and work with nonprofits. I recently obtained a grant to add a mosaic tile feature. It will have a bike-related theme—green bike lanes pointing the way to neighborhood destinations.

Riding my bike has played a role too, as I see so much more when I ride. And it provides an opportunity to engage the community.

Doria Robinson

I am a passionate life long cyclist. I grew up in Richmond riding bikes as a child to move between my grandmother’s house, the church, my friends and my after-school programs while my mom who was raising us alone focused on work. Cycling freed me and my brother from being confined to our block, which was becoming increasing more violent as the crack and gang epidemic crushed our once close-knit neighborhood. I rode my bike from Richmond to Berkeley to high school work and back through my teens, keeping costs down so I could pay my way through private school. As a college student I began to explore touring on the East Coast and after college was auto free for 7 years in San Francisco before I gave birth to my twins and had to figure out how to keep rolling with 2 babies in tow. At 11 years old my twins and I are now a cycling family and I continue to be deeply committed to promoting cycling in Richmond and the greater Bay Area especially but nor exclusively for women and low income people of color.

I am the co-founder of Richmond SPOKES. Wanting so much to bring Richmond cyclists together to advocate for cycling infrastructure, I invited Brian Drayton to Richmond to start a bicycle non-profit that would cultivate youth leadership in this field. I was also a member of the organizing committee for the 1st Oakland Clitoral Mass. I bring a lifetime of cycling as a non-spandex wearing cyclist as well as my 5 years of experience as an Executive Director of a Richmond based non-profit, Urban Tilth. I also bring the experience of working on 3 boards and advocating for various types of infrastructural changes from urban creek day lighting to guiding the creation of urban agriculture ordinances. I am grateful for the work of East Bay Bicycle Coalition and would value the opportunity to help continue this important work. Cities are reflections of our culture and our culture is changing. Collectively more and more people in the Bay Area are looking for a healthier, more connected, more environmentally responsible and honestly a more FUN lifestyle. Bicycles and bicycle infrastructure are central to this new vision of American cities. This is EBBC time to shine and I would love to help.

Jim Van Dyke

I believe in the EBBC mission of bike advocacy and am passionate about infecting communities with a passion for seeing the benefits of alternative transportation. I enjoy the EBBC board interaction and have a vision for repeating the success we are now enjoying in Pleasanton. I believe we can create a template or franchise-like model to promote everyday cycling within each of the 33 East Bay communities, with trained and motivated individuals leading the change from within each one.

Kristi Marleau 

Using my cargo bike as the primary means of transportation for myself and my two boys and having a husband who commutes from Dublin to Livermore by bike has given me a passion for seeing that the bicycling conditions in the Tri-Valley are the best that they can be. I am the Safe Routes to Schools parent champion at my son’s elementary school and hope to encourage the next generation to take up biking by organizing school events that encourage active transportation. In my non-mom role, I am an evaluation consultant with an MS in statistics, designing surveys, building databases, and analyzing data for a wide variety of organizations, and would be happy to put those skills to use for the benefit of EBBC.

Maggie Smith

Maggie is a research administrator at UC Berkeley and a daily bike commuter. Originally from San Leandro and now a resident of Berkeley, she’s excited to see the East Bay’s bike infrastructure continue to grow and improve getting more cyclists out on the road. Maggie recently returned to the bay area from Portland, Oregon where she earned her Master’s Degree in Public Administration & Natural Resource Management and became an expert in the use of rain gear. For their honeymoon, she and her husband biked from Portland, where they met, back to their native bay area. Maggie is excited to put her grantwriting, event planning, financial and administrative skills to work for EBBC’s advocacy and community outreach efforts. Bikes provide the funnest way to get around, but they are also a powerful tool for alleviating environmental problems, improving public health, and engaging us in our communities and our surroundings.

and Rolland Jurgens

My recent meetings with Renee Revera and Rick Rickard from East Bay Bicycle Coalition confirmed my desire to seek a position on EBBC’s Board because I am committed to doing what is right for the community, our environment, and the healthy lives of our members. I have been in the accounting and auditing profession for 18 years, am a licensed CPA in the state of California, and also a member of USA Cycling and an avid cyclist. My financial acumen, experience dealing with for-profit boards, along with a strong commitment to safe cycling, makes me a great fit for EBBC and its mission. State and local governments can do more to provide the benefits of cycling to our community and I am excited about the opportunity to assist EBBC’s in these efforts. I would appreciate your nomination to the Board.

 

Returning to the board from 2013 are: 

Christ Fleckner

Glenda Barnjart

Jenny Oh Hatfield

Bill Pinkham

Kristin Tennessen 

Morgan Kanninen 

Raymond Pajek 

Rick Rickard

Sandra Hamlat

and Tom Wilging. Their bios are available here