Welcome new board members!
Please join us in a hearty “Hello! Hi! Welcome!” to our three new board members, Olivia Rebanal, Tom Gainer, and Jennifer Pratt. These three dedicated community health and transportation advocates join our existing board of six members and will help us continue to fulfill our mission of broadening access to bicycling and its benefits.
Olivia joins us with ten years of financial experience, having worked as a small business lender and financial manager for state and city agencies, with a special emphasis on housing, economic development, and waste management programs. She also has six years of experience volunteering to organize the urbanMamas community. She says that of the work urbanMamas does “one of our common conversation themes is to promote family cycling as accessible and attainable for families of all kinds… [we] regularly discuss the trials, tribulations, successes, and joys of living as a car-lite family.”
Olivia and her family have participated in a number of the Community Cycling Center’s youth and adult programs, so she is very appreciative of our educational work. She looks forward to working towards broadening access to cycling among people of all backgrounds.
Tom has been a transportation advocate for 15 years. He’s been on the board of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance and the Lloyd District Transportation Alliance, and a member of numerous transportation advisory committees. His great experience and commitment to bicycling make him a fantastic asset to the Community Cycling Center. He has joined the board “because I am passionate about making bicycling safer and more widely used.” We’re lucky to have him!
Jennifer brings a wealth of non-profit experience to us. She was an organization and community development consultant for ten years, and was a member of the TACS Executive Transition Services team, stepping in as an interim E.D. for non-profits in need. She now works with Oregon Primary Care Association, a statewide non-profit that supports Community Health Centers around Oregon, and is a strong advocate for public heath.
Jennifer loves bikes and the feelings of freedom and independence they offer. She is excited to work with us because, as she says “I want [Portland to] not only to lead the nation in bike lanes and bike boulevards but in bike health – in all the ways “health†can be interpreted… I have a sense that the Community Cycling Center could be the heart of this effort – both at the heart of it and the voice of those who often lack one.”
We’re overjoyed to build our organizational leadership with all of the experience and insight these new board members will provide.