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The BTA's Wonderful Staff
Scott is a nine-year BTA veteran. Joining the BTA staff in 1998, Scott developed the organization’s Safe Routes to School program, including the BTA’s award winning Bicycle Safety Education curriculum. Scott went on to then serve as the Policy Director and Lobbyist from 2002-2007, where he helped pass state, regional, and local legislation promoting increased and safer cycling. Scott authored the BTA’s Blueprint for Better Bicycling and presents regularly on bicycle planning, non-profit management, and politics. Scott stepped-up in July, 2007 to become the BTA’s Executive Director with the expressed goal of partnering and growing the bicycle movement across all sectors. Scott holds a Masters degree in Urban and Regional Planning from Portland State University, and Bachelor’s of Political Science from the University of Albany, New York. A firm believer in stylish and practical cycling, Scott is a proponent of wool clothes and leather saddles.
A native Portlander, Heather Andrews strives to ensure her fair city will become a worldwide bicycling superpower. She has lead rides for Slug Velo and been involved with promoting bicycling in Milwaukie, along with facilitating a lot of other pedal-powered fun. At the BTA, she is the person to call with membership questions or concerns. In addition to extensive involvement preparing for the 2007 Alice Awards and Auction, she has experience with several performing arts organizations, as well as a stint in developing interpretive museum exhibits. Nothing is more enjoyable to Heather than showing off her nerdiness, usually involving very obscure topics. In her spare time, her Australian Shepherds are almost always prodding her to play frisbee.
Jordan joined the BTA staff in the spring of 2008 as a Bike Safety Education Instructor and is now working on a variety of outreach and education projects with our Safe Routes to School program. Hailing from Beaverton, Jordan discovered years ago that it's easy to commute by bike accross the metro area with a little multi-modal help from a friend named MAX. While attending the University of Oregon as a journalism student, Jordan went on to become a proverbial bike fanatic, enjoying rides and also tinkering on beater bikes. Jordan's intrepid spirit is calling him to next take a bike excursion through South America. Stay tuned for his updates from south of the border.
LeeAnne Fergason LeeAnne is a recent resident of Portland. Growing up in Texas, she merrily moved away to New York City for a few years after college. In New York she gave up her car and learned about the exciting world of bike commuting, walking and public transportation. Following the big city, she took a 6 month, 1700 mile hike on the Appalachian Trail. In a round about way, this led her to Tucson, AZ where she worked as a crew member for the Southwest Conservation Corps. She then joined their staff as a recruiter, hiring all new crew members, providing field support and organizing their community outreach work. In Tucson she also taught and worked as a teacher’s aide for a 3rd and 4th grade class at Satori Charter School. LeeAnne joined the BTA staff and the Safer Routes to School program in August of 2007. She is excited about this opportunity to work in Portland’s innovative education and bike community with such an enthusiastic organization. She loves exploring her new digs with her partner, Jon-Paul, and Mika (the dog), and with reading, hiking, eating tasty food…and biking, naturally.
Emily Gardner Emily is a semi-recent transplant to Portland, having moved here in 2004 to work on the annual Providence Bridgepedal event series. She joined the BTA staff in November 2006 as the new Policy Advocate. Her professional experience includes event management, community organizing, education in a variety of contexts, and advocacy on a broad range of issues. Growing up in the Midwest, Emily was raised in what could be described as a “couch potato” environment, which included generous amounts of MTV-watching, snacks and lounging. Since moving to the Pacific Northwest, she has discovered a love for cycling, and has undergone a significant “gear evolution” since she discovered that her Pee-Wee Herman style cruiser and yellow rubber rainsuit were perhaps not the most practical choices for bike commuting. In her free time Emily enjoys a plethora of leisure activities including kickball, tae kwon do, kite flying and bowling.
After volunteering in the office in support of the National Walk+Bike to School Day, Joel joined the staff in the fall of 2007 as a Bicycle Safety Education instructor. Now a Coordinator for the BTA’s Safe Routes to School program Joel hands out “I biked” stickers to third graders and helps wrangle the bike fleet for the BTA’s school programs. After work Joel is usually way too busy with self-employment as a bike bag maker, theater, music and trying to fit in all those bike repairs he has put off for way too long.
Gretchen joined the BTA in January 2007. She is a former development coordinator for Western States Center and the First Unitarian Church who learned the development ropes working on campaigns. She moved to Portland in 1998 from the Midwest to work on a New Party campaign and can hardly imagine living anywhere else (though admittedly dreams of somewhere drier come winter, and ultimately plans to end up in the Bend area). Gretchen loves to cook and talk sustainable food, runs her own small catering business, (Maggie’s Green Gourmet, if you're in need), and has been working toward her Master's degree in Chinese medicine and acupuncture. She enjoys biking and hiking, is passionate about backpacking, and is a devotee and soon-to-be tour guide of the Japanese Garden.
Lillian brings diverse experience in community organizing, bicycle education, and vegan pastry baking to her Americorps position at the BTA. After running bicycle classes out of her living room in Cincinnati, she tired of fighting for bicycle equality in a city filled with Hummers and left for the shining beacon of bicycle commuting in the Pacific Northwest in 2006. In her "spare time" Lillian volunteers with the public library and other local groups, grows food, cooks food, preserves food, and tries to understanding the finer points of refinancing as part of Portland Collective Housing co-op. After her Americorps term, she plans to return to school to finish her degree in Environmental Engineering/Developmental Studies and her masters in Library and Information Sciences. Her current pet project is acting as co-organizer for the 5th Annual Tour De Coops. She has never owned a car and has moved her house in a bicycle trailer more times than she can count.
Angela Koch joined the BTA in May 2007 as the Safe Routes to School Director. Angela oversees the BTA's classroom education programs including the city of Portland's Safer Routes to Schools curriculum as well as the BTA's own Safe Routes programs throughout the state. Having earned a fine arts degree from Western Carolina University, Angela gained valuable experience working as a designer in many east coast cities before moving to Portland in 2000. Once she found her way to this great city of bikes and roses, she established the world’s first kids’ café, Peanut Butter & Ellie’s, based on her dedication to healthier lifestyle choices for kids. She eventually left the café to focus more directly on her own children and now bike commutes as often as possible with her daughters Ellie and Libby.
After never going home from the roadtrip that dropped him in Portland in 2006, Carl has become thoroughly enveloped by Portland's rich bike culture and is involving himself with just about everything bikey the city has to offer. Despite rumors to the contrary, however, it is true that Carl has spent some time not riding a bicyle. He took a break from his bikes at Middlebury College while studying sledding, skinny-dipping, cheese and architectural history, but a semester in Copenhagen brought him back to his old bikey habits. While living on an island in the St. Lawrence River, he commuted for a few summers by kayak to architecture, construction and environmental advocacy jobs. Recently, though, Carl spent the summer delivering alternative transportation resources by bike as part of the City of Portland's Smart Trips individualized marketing campaign and is now very happy to now be part of the Safer Routes to School team.
Scott joined the BTA in November 2006. He studied public policy at the University of Oregon and later was elected to the Eugene City Council and later to the Lane County Commission. Before he joined the BTA staff, Scott had been a substitute teacher for Kindergarten through 8th grades and supervised the after school intramural program at Glencoe Elementary School. It is safe to say that Scott really likes bikes. He commutes by bike, does errands with his trailer, and enjoys training rides on the weekend, tours in the summer, and community rides through the year. Scott spent ten years repairing and selling bikes and now maintains his own repair shop in his basement where he repairs bikes for his family and neighbors. He volunteers in his children's schools, as well as for several other community projects such as Downspout Disconnect, Community Cares school clean-up and the Boy Scouts. Margaret and Scott live in East Portland and have two children in Portland Public Schools.
Lynne joined the BTA in early 2007 as a member of the Safe Routes to School Team. Hailing from Toronto and then Vancouver, Canada where she taught special needs students, in her spare time Lynne developed the provincially sanctioned bike safety program, Bike Smarts and delivered training for teachers throughout British Columbia. With this experience, and her entrepreneurial sprit, Lynne went on to author an animated, interactive CD-ROM, CycleSmart, to give young riders initial information and opportunities to experience and practice safe riding skills. Lynne loves seeing children learn and continue to seek ways to be active, healthy and safe in their community. Shortly after moving to Portland, Lynne became Statewide Coordinator of Community Traffic Safety for ACTS Oregon where she learned the importance of understanding multi-modal needs, in cities of all sizes, rural, urban and suburban by developing school and community travel plans. She continues to spread these values as the BTAs Curriculum and Statewide Programs Manager.
Stephanie has been an active participant in local bike culture since first moving to Portland in 2001. She holds a particular fondness for the Breakfast on the Bridge crew, the annual spring Bunny on a Bike Ride, and the wacky bicycle events coordinated through Shift. Stephanie has been a bike commuter since she finally got brave enough to remove her training wheels at age eight. During the summer of 2003 she biked from Portland, OR to Brooklyn, NY. Previous to joining the Safe Routes to School Team in March 2007, Stephanie served as assistant director at St. Francis Dining hall, worked as a landscape gardener, and led bike tours for teenagers. When not working or biking, Stephanie enjoys cooking, gardening, camping, reading, and playing old time banjo. She is also excited to be working on the international Towards Carfree Cities Conference that Portland will be hosting in 2008.
Michael O’Leary grew up biking to elementary school in Eugene back in the 1970s on a red and chrome Schwinn Typhoon. A fifth-generation Oregonian and a resident of Southeast Portland for over 11 years, Michael has previously worked as an organizer in both the labor and environmental movements, and he claims to have never missed his opportunity to vote in a special, primary or general election. Now after having taught Bike Safety Education and the Share The Roads traffic safety class, Michael is helping keep the BTA’s wheels spinning true as the Office Manager. Currently Michael is faithfully keeping his brake pads in optimal adjustment and is working on doing a better job of stretching before and after his rides.
Kristie joined the staff in November 2005, bringing more than ten years of fundraising, writing, editing, graphic design, legislative, environmental and political organizing experience to her role as chief revenue raiser for the BTA. She landed in Oregon in 1996, where she’s been living happily ever after. Kristie is insanely fond of golden retrievers. Look for her on the Parisian commuter bike she won at the 2008 Alice B. Toeclips Awards Dinner and Auction. She's the one with the dog hair finely woven into her clothes and the bubbly laugh.
Michelle Poyourow Michelle has worked with local elected officials and nonprofits in the Portland region since 2003 and designed and implemented Metro's original “Get Centered” tours of regional urban centers. While she was trained as a biologist and worked most recently as an economist, she also has experience managing communications efforts, web sites, volunteers, and publications. She joined the BTA staff in March 2006 and is our lead advocate on transit and planning issues and also manages our adult bicycling education programs. When she's not at work, Michelle loves to dance, eat, sit on committees and get misty eyed over how much she loves Portland.
Tom came to the BTA in March of 2006 as a volunteer and then became an intern on the Bicycle Boulevards Campaign where he helped to develop, administer and review an online survey and assisted with field work in Davis, CA, Berkeley, CA, Eugene, OR, Seattle, WA, and Vancouver, BC. Tom continued to volunteer in the office between classes at PSU following his internship and started working part-time as the Safe Routes To School program assistant following an internship with Alta Planning + Design. Tom completed his bachelor’s degree in community development in the spring of 2007. He enjoys hiking with his wife and dog, racing cyclocross and volunteering as a board member for Bikes To Rwanda. Tom and his wife Samantha welcomed their first child to their family in April, 2008.
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Jordan Bailey 
Stephanie Noll 
Karl Rohde
Stephen Wissow
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