Election Details
As a nonprofit, Bike East Bay is overseen by a volunteer board. This board is comprised of people elected by Bike East Bay members each year.
Who elects the board? Bike East Bay’s own members! Any member can vote this year by attending and making their votes heard.
In addition we will be voting on some changes to our bylaws, which guide how our organization operates. Click here for details on the revised bylaws the board is recommending for adoption by our membership at this meeting.
For this year’s member meeting and election we’re thrilled to feature special guest speaker Elly Blue, author of Bikenomics, from Portland. Come to Sports Basement in Berkeley for pizza, drinks, and 20% off your purchase, plus the chance to win a U-lock in the raffle.
Bike East Bay’s Annual Member Meeting and Election
When: Wednesday Dec. 7th, 6:30pm-8pm. The vote will be over by 7pm, so please don’t be late!
Where: Sports Basement in Berkeley, 2727 Milvia Street
Who: Bike East Bay members. (Make sure you’re current to vote!)
What else: Food provided prior to election. After the election, drinks and a toast will kick-off our member meeting program. RSVP to let us know you are coming!
How do we vote? As an official meeting of the Bike East Bay membership, Roberts Rules of Order officially rule and our current Board Vice President will preside. You’ll get to hear about each candidate, and then you’ll have the chance to vote on the slate of candidates.
What are the issues? There are lots of considerations for deciding on board members. Board members need to be strategic thinkers, networkers, fundraisers, management consultants, and community organizers. In order to give Bike East Bay members an insider’s perspective on the challenges facing our organization and what it will likely take to be a good board member, the board of directors does an analysis of candidates and suggests a slate each year. Then, it is up to the membership to decide who will be on the board through the vote.
Recommended Slate
Bike East Bay’s Board of Directors voted unanimously for the recommended slate of directors below, for the 2017 board. The board’s priority this year was to find individuals who would help Bike East Bay to:
- Bridge the diverse communities of people who bike in the East Bay,
- Fundraise to support our advocacy work and staff,
- Contribute leadership and active participation to the board.
In filling the open seats, we also seek to move the implementation of our strategic plan forward. All candidates on this year’s recommended slate are returning board members. We made an open call for new board members this fall but did not receive any applicants. We are excited about this slate of engaged and seasoned board members to lead us into 2017.
The board recommended slate for 2016 is:
- Alden Mudge (Chair)
- Corinne Winter
- Curtis Buckley
- Frank Castro
- Glenda Barnhart
- Jessica de Jesus
- Kristi Marleau
- Morgan Kanninen
- Nancy Warren
- Rick Rickard (Vice Chair)
- Rolland Jurgens (Treasurer)
- Sahar Sharazi
- Sandra Hamlat
- Tom Willging (Secretary)​
Candidate Statements
Alden Mudge (Berkeley, Chair)
I joined the Bike East Bay board in August 2014, and it would be privilege and honor to continue to serve in 2017. Before joining the board, I volunteered for Bike East Bay/EBBC for a number of years, doing everything from data entry to writing, to promoting Bike to Work day activities, to standing at BART stations urging voters to increase funding for bike lanes and public transportation. I cycled and fundraised for Team EBBC during Climate Ride 2012. As a cyclist, I commute roughly 5,000 miles a year as a personal commitment to reducing greenhouse gases for environmental sustainability. I also have a long, successful career in nonprofit management and fundraising that I believe will help Bike East Bay grow and prosper to the betterment of our community. I am committed to seeing Bike East Bay succeed making cycling safe and pleasurable for all riders, and I would appreciate your support.
Corinne Winter (Berkeley)
Corinne is passionate about bicycle advocacy and other transportation, housing, land use, and environmental justice issues. She is immediate past chair of the Board of TransForm. In 2011, Corinne was honored as one of 100 Women of Influence by the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal, received the 2014 LIVE award from TransForm for her dedication and leadership, and has received commendations for her work from both the County of Santa Clara and the City of San Jose. Corinne spent nearly 10 years as Executive Director of Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition. She now runs her own consulting business, Winter Associates, focused on fostering agency and business collaboration, community and government outreach, and building consensus for transportation and housing projects. Corinne brings skills in the areas of nonprofit governance, executive leadership mentoring, and transportation policy along with a solutions-focused approach.
Curtis Buckley (Berkeley)
I am an enthusiastic bike rider and active in the East Bay biking community. I have served on the board of Save the Bay from 2005 until 2011 and believe I have developed a skill set from working with this very effective advocacy group. My time with Save the Bay taught me a few valuable lessons for being a good board member. Show up at scheduled meeting and events. Do my home work. Take every opportunity to speak with other about our mission. I was also able to contribute significantly to their fundraising efforts.
I have made a personal goal to see biking in the Bay Area approach 15% of daily traffic. I believe that helping to advance the goals of Bike East Bay is an effective way to help me reach that goal. I would be so honored to be elected a member of the board. Thank you.
Frank Castro (Oakland)
I am finishing up my first year serving on the Bike East Bay Board. I feel that I have so much more to contribute to this wonderful organization and would be proud to be reelected to the Board. I am an avid cyclist and I participated with the Bike East Bay team on the 2014 Climate Ride. I currently serve as the Chair of the 2017 Grizzly Peak Century (I was also Chair for the 2015 and 2016 GPC Centuries) I will continue to bring a high level of enthusiasm to the Bike East Bay Board.
Glenda Barnhart (Oakland)
Glenda is co-owner of Bay Area Bikes in Oakland and Bay Area Bike Rentals in Jack London Square. A life-long cyclist, Glenda has held business management roles in local government and ‘retired’ from a career in mobile technology to pursue her joint passions of cycling and promoting the health and environmental benefits that come from a bicycle. Glenda has been an Bike East Bay member since moving to the East Bay in 2008 and is a co-producer of Pedalfest, the annual celebration of the bicycle in Jack London Square.
Jessica De Jesus (Richmond)
I would be honored to be part of Bike East Bay’s Board of Directors to make the East Bay a much more bike-friendly and bike accessible area for commuters, bike enthusiasts, and families. I have been an East Bay resident for 7+ years, an ardent recreational cyclist in years past, occasional bike commuter, and now proud new mama in search of the best child bike seat option to tote around my 24-month old daughter. Professionally, I have 16+ years of fundraising and event planning experience, as well as two years of serving on the SF Bicycle Coalition’s Board of Directors. I hope to take all that I have learned and experienced to help Bike East Bay to the next rung up the ladder and keep our streets safe for the full spectrum of cyclists – from die-hard racers to our tiniest tots with training wheels.
Kristi Marleau (Dublin)
Kristi lives in Dublin and happily joined the board in 2014. She uses her cargo bike and folding bike as her primary transportation, has two boys who ride to school every day, and has a husband who commutes to Livermore by bike. Having a biking family has given her a passion for seeing that the bicycling conditions in the Tri-Valley are the best that they can be. She is the Safe Routes to Schools parent champion at her sons’ elementary school and hopes to encourage the next generation to take up biking by organizing school events that encourage active transportation. For her day job, Kristi works from home as an evaluation consultant with an MS in statistics from UC Davis. She spends her time designing surveys, building databases, and analyzing data for a wide variety of organizations.
Morgan Kanninen (Oakland)
Grateful to serve on Bike East Bay’s board since 2010, I see the bicycle as a tool for solidarity and community health. I am committed to making our transportation system more just and accessible. Growing up Fremont, I biked to school over train bridges and through abandoned lots in order to cross the suburban labyrinth. I know that neighborhoods all over the counties of Alameda and Contra Costa could be a lot safer and easier for people to get around by bike, bus, and foot. Public spaces especially need to be safe for the most vulnerable members of our society. I believe we can make cities work for everyone if we stand together. My background as an urban planner and as a teacher has shown me that everyday advocates are needed to demand equitable planning decisions and that anyone can learn the technicalities that are required. In 2009, I co-founded a collaborative workshop in East Oakland, where cyclists of all ages learn to repair and build bikes in both Spanish and English, and it is now run by the Original Scraper Bikes Team. Since then, I have been working in the background to increase the Bike East Bay board’s capacity to work equitably with people from all backgrounds. I would be honored to spend 2017 doing what I can to make Bike East Bay even better at bike advocacy.
Nancy Warren (Oakland)
I am a regular bike commuter from Oakland to San Francisco (cross on BART, keep riding!) and a regular recreational rider as well and see the issues that make Bike East Bay VERY necessary, i.e. dangerous roads, inattentive drivers and lack of integrated city planning. As a 55+ woman I am also concerned that cycling seems very much perceived as a young man’s or young person’s activity and less attention is given to older people in general and older women in particular and their riding needs/habits. From the perspective of those demographics, I am routinely the only one of myself I see and would like very much to bring in a wider demographic. I have experience writing grants, working on grassroots campaigns and as a strategic planner/strengthener of organizational capacity. I also have a background in evaluation (my current paid job) which includes crunching data and mapping data, both of which could be useful to board projects.
Rick Rickard (Oakland, Vice Chair)
Rick joined the board in 2003 and has served as Treasurer since 2006. He served as Acting Executive Director from April 2010 until January 2011. He rode his bike to school as a child and re-entered the world of bicycling about 20 years ago as his ankles and knees gave out from running. Now he splits time between recreational and utility riding⎯to the tune of about 150 miles per week. Rick represents Bike East Bay on Oakland’s Measure DD Community Coalition, overseeing implementation of the 2002 bond issue that funds major improvements to Lake Merritt and the Bay Trail in Oakland. He also serves on the East Bay Regional Park District Park Advisory Committee. He earned an engineering degree from the US Naval Academy in 1965, and an MBA from the Haas School at UC Berkeley in 1972.
Rolland Jurgens (Walnut Creek, Treasurer)
I am seeking re-election to Bike East Bay’s Board of Directors, where I currently serve on the Finance and Governance Committees. I have been in the accounting and auditing profession for 20 years, and am a licensed CPA in the state of California. As an active racer in the masters category, I appreciate the importance of safety on our roads. My financial acumen and governance experience, along with a strong commitment to safe cycling, make me a great fit for Bike East Bay and its mission.
Sahar Sharazi (Oakland)
Sahar Shirazi is a senior planning advisor at the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research in Sacramento. With a systems thinking approach and a goal of policy implementation, she focuses on the intersections of sustainability, land use, transportation, and equity. Prior to joining OPR, Sahar was a policy analyst for the Office of the Secretary at US DOT, under both Secretary LaHood and Secretary Foxx. Despite the excitement of her experiences in DC, Sahar was ecstatic to return to California, where she had lived since immigrating to the US at age 5. After living in DC and traveling to see bicycle infrastructure improvement projects around the country, Sahar has an understanding of the potential the East Bay has to become a world class biking community. Her goal is to make it safe, easy, and convenient for everyone to use bikes around the Bay Area, improving our communities and our environment.She currently lives in Oakland, where she cooks giant meals, plays with her 2 cats, and goes on lazy bike rides.
Sandra Hamlat is a Sustainability Program Manager whose interests include the protection of natural areas and revitalization of urban areas throughout California, especially in terms of climate change mitigation and adaptation planning. She sees making bicycling easy and affordable for all residents as a critical path to creating sustainable communities. She has worked for private and public environmental organizations throughout California on a variety of projects dealing with planning, composting, recycling, and land conservation. Sandra is also a board member of the American Planning Association Northern Section.
Tom Willging (Oakland, Secretary)
I have had the pleasure and privilege of serving on Bike East Bay’s board since the spring of 2012. During that period I have been secretary and have cobbled together, if that’s the right word, the 2012 bylaw changes as well as the 2016 round that’s up for a vote. For the 1st Biketopia in 2012, I compiled a 40-year history of the East Bay Bicycle Coalition, spanning the period before it was rebranded as Bike East Bay.
I am enthused about cycling and pleased to be able to work with a dynamic and growing organization like Bike East Bay. I live in Oakland and am proud to be active in the (Oakland) VeloRaptors Cycling Club. In the spring of 2013, I co-captained Bike East Bay’s team in the California Climate Ride. I have also been active in the Measure BB and Telegraph bikeways campaigns. Currently, I serve on Bike East Bay’s Governance, Fundraising and Membership, and Advocacy Committees.