Board of Directors
Phillip Bender, Secretary (Board Member since 2009)
Phil, an environmental lawyer and founder of Bateman Seidel PC’s Pittsburgh office, grew up on BMX bikes in the wilds of the San Francisco Bay Area, graduated to a 1953 Columbia tandem during college in Portland, Oregon, broke a bunch of mountain bikes around the Pacific Northwest in his 20s, commuted on a variety of random homemade hybrids after law school, and is learning this amazing city. He married into (his wife is from Moon Twp) over the handlebars of his mountain and road bikes while trying to keep up with his kids. Phil also serves as General Counsel to Riverlife and is a Leadership Pittsburgh Inc. graduate.
You can reach Phil at phil@bike-pgh.org
Karen Brooks (Board Member since 2012)
Karen has been riding bikes around Pittsburgh since coming here for college. After a brief stint in the corporate world, she got sidetracked into a job as a mechanic at Gatto Cycle Shops in 1996, and has been happily wrapped up in the bike industry since then. Karen has worked for Rotating Mass Media since 2004, first as Operations Manager (after Brad Quartuccio), then as editor of Dirt Rag, now as editor of Bicycle Times.
Karen feels fortunate to get to ride all kinds of bikes in exotic locales, but enjoys mountain biking in Frick Park and traveling via the city’s rail trails the most. She does trail maintenance with PTAG and also volunteers as an Urban EcoSteward in Frick.
Edward Engler, Vice President (Founding Board Member since 2002)
Ed is the founder and Chairman of Summa Technologies, Inc., a Pittsburgh-based software consulting firm. He is also a General Partner with Pittsburgh Equity Partners. Ed brings his deep experience within the local business community to Bike Pittsburgh. He is a founding board member and has been here since 2002.
Ed can be reached via email at ed@bike-pgh.org
Nancy Furbee (Board Member since 2011)
Nancy can’t get enough of the out-of-doors – whether on a bicycle, on a horse, hiking through the woods, or cross country skiing, she loves spending her free time outside.
Though a well-traveled mountain biker for over a decade or two, Nancy’s cycling career has adapted to include road biking, and, specifically, raising money for various charities through each stroke of her pedals.
Additionally, she loves taking her nephew and beginners on bike rides in the Pittsburgh area. A new fan of the “city trails”, Nancy is motivated to make the city (and the region!) a place safe for cyclists, pedestrians and automobiles alike. She would make a great Safety Patrol with a bright orange vest.
Nancy lives in the Wexford area and is proud to call Pittsburgh home. She is a graduate of North Hills High School and holds a master degree in Human Resources from La Roche College. A recent graduate of the Leadership Pittsburgh program, Nancy combines her love of networking and her 20+ year HR career to successfully lead her HR consulting firm, Furbee and Associates LLC. Of course, if all of her clients were cyclists (and, many of them are!), she would live her dream by conducting all planning sessions on two wheels.
Beth Hazlett (Board Member since 2010)
Beth is a Strategic Account Manager for McGraw-Hill Construction, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies. Beth cannot remember a time when she did not ride a bike – there are even pictures of her on the back of her Dad’s bike when she was a baby. A native of Pittsburgh, she loves cycling on the roads here and overseas. Most vacations are spent on a bicycle traveling the roads of another country. She is passionate about the idea that bikes and cars can safely share the road. She is also passionate about getting as many people on bicycles as possible – it’s fun and it’s healthy. Beth rides with Lou’s Crew on most Saturdays and Sundays. Her favorite “city ride” is to the top of Mt. Washington either in the early morning or just before sunset. Beth also serves as an Ambassador at the Pittsburgh Public Theater. She is a graduate of Fox Chapel High School and Smith College.
You can reach Beth at beth@bike-pgh.org
Mac Howison, President (Board Member since 2008)
Mac is the Funding Programs Manager for The Sprout Fund, one of Southwestern Pennsylvania’s leading agencies on issues related to civic engagement, talent attraction and retention, public art, and catalytic small-scale funding. Mac’s enthusiasm for car-free transportation is evident in his active walking, busing, and biking regimen.
Mac holds a BFA in Painting from Carnegie Mellon University, and is a Camp Dudley, YMCA alumnus. A musician and amateur bike mechanic, Mac spends most of his time with his family around their 1901 Frederick Schiebler home in Swissvale. His wife Jennifer is an avid cyclist and their children Mev and Mason will sometimes join them on two wheels.
You can reach Mac at mac@bike-pgh.org
Jack Jordan (Board Member since 2011)
Jack is the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of R.E. Whittaker Co, a manufacturer of commercial carpet cleaning systems located in New Castle, PA. Jack’s career has included ten years as a CFO and 20 years as a commercial banker and middle market lender, where he worked with several non-profit organizations. He holds a BBA in Public Accounting from Pace University in New York.
Jack is a bicycle enthusiast who lives in the North Hills. He rides recreationally on his road bike in the North Hills, and on his mountain bike/commuter on the roadways and trails of downtown Pittsburgh and the three rivers area. While his city riding is recreational, it is also his main form of transportation in and around downtown as he believes it offers significant advantages to himself and the community over driving.
You can reach Jack at jack@bike-pgh.org
Mike Kotyk (Board Member since 2012)
Mike’s passion for cycling and bicycle advocacy stems from both his professional career and personal life. He is a Graduate Landscape Architect at Pashek Associates, a landscape architecture and community planning firm located on Pittsburgh’s Northside. At Pashek, Mike’s work focuses mostly on greenway and trail planning, as well as bicycle and pedestrian planning.
Mike is also owner and founder of Over the Bar Bicycle Café (OTB) in the South Side. At OTB, Mike worked hard to install Pittsburgh’s first on street bike corral. He has also received a proclamation from the City of Pittsburgh for advocating for safer streets and promoting bicycling for people of all ages, both for recreation and as an alternative means of transportation.
Mike was able to work with Bike Pittsburgh and the League of American Bicyclists to establish Pashek Associates and OTB Bicycle Café as Bicycle Friendly employers both locally and nationally.
In his spare time, Mike enjoys Mountain Biking with his wife Erin or riding the rail trails with his two small children Aidan and Addison. When he is able, Mike enjoys commuting to work by bicycle from his home in the South Hills. You can reach Mike at mike@otbbicyclecafe.com
Brian Mendelssohn (Board Member since 2012)
Brian has overall responsibility for Botero Development since 2007, a development and construction firm focused on urban redevelopment in Pittsburgh.
Previously, he led a 30 member team as the director of construction for Hawthorne Development, a Chicago-based condominium conversion company known for its environmentally friendly, high quality, affordably priced redevelopment projects. Prior to that, he was a project manager at Ariba (FreeMarkets) in Pittsburgh.
Brian earned a BS in Materials Science and Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, where he received the Senior Leadership Award. He is a resident of Lawrenceville in Pittsburgh.
Kim O’Dell (Board Member since 2011)
Kim is the director of the Heinz Awards program, one of the projects of the Heinz Family Foundation. Presented since 1994 to honor the late U.S. Sen. John Heinz, the Awards recognize contributions across a spectrum of activity – from the arts and the environment to technology and public policy.
Kim lives in Mt. Lebanon with her family and occasionally commutes into work by bike. She also enjoys recreational biking on the trails in and around town. Kim graduated from Arizona State University with a degree in business and lived and worked in Washington, D.C. prior to moving to Pittsburgh.
You can reach Kim at kim@bike-pgh.org
Susan Petersen (Board Member since 2012)
Shortly after moving to Pittsburgh in 1989, Susan’s darkest fears about the status of biking in Pittsburgh were confirmed when the city was named worst city for biking. Coming from pedaling the awesome cycling infrastructure in Germany and Denmark, this was quite a blow. So the tremendous progress of recent years is even more thrilling and Susan is honored to be able to contribute to making Pittsburgh more bike friendly.
Susan and her husband Stefan Frembgen can be seen biking around the East End where they live and own a business. They also enjoy bike touring. Memorable trips include the Great Allegheny Passage-B&O Canal trail to Washington, DC; and a family tour with Adventure Cycling in Colorado. They have three children, Ingrid, Marco & Renée. A native of Michigan, Susan has degrees from the University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin.
Brad Quartuccio (Board Member since 2006)
Brad is a third generation Pittsburgher who hasn’t stopped riding bikes since childhood. He started racing mt. bikes at the age of 14 and has competed in various cycling disciplines since. He worked for Dirt Rag Magazine from 1997 to 2007, moving his way up to a combined position of Subscription Circulation Management, Product Tester and Staff Photographer. He is currently the editor of Urban Velo Magazine. Brad holds a degree in mechanical engineering from University of Pittsburgh. Brad has helped organize BikeFest for the past few years, has worked on the Ghost Bike Pittsburgh project, Critical Mass and community/event planning.
You can reach brad at brad@bike-pgh.org
Cathy Schnaubelt Rogers, B.S., M.Ed. (Board Member since 2012)
Cathy is the President of Aero Tech Designs, Inc., a cyclewear company located in Coraopolis, Pa. near the Pittsburgh Airport. She fell in love with cycling at Girl Scout camp at age 12, where she attended the bicycle touring camp. Cathy has bicycle toured with panniers across the United States from Tampa, Florida up the East coast to Cape Cod, Massachusetts. She has taken a bicycle tour through eight European countries starting in London, England and cycling over to Dover and then across into the Mainland and throughout Europe. The most she ever rode in one day is 140 miles!
Cathy is an avid cyclist. She is a former USCF licensed bike racer, who cycled for the University of South Florida in many sanctioned races and achieved third in the Florida State Championships. In addition, she has competed in many triathlons throughout the Eastern U.S. Today, Cathy continues to ride in bicycle tours and events. She collects bike art and describes her home as a shrine to the pneumatic tire. She said that “Riding my bicycle makes me happy” which is the essence of her love affair with the two wheeled wonder.
Bruce Woods (Board Member since 2011)
Bruce is a certified arborist and is employed by the Duquesne Light Company as a Supervisor of Vegetation Management. A lifelong “Northsider”, Bruce has been active in his local community through his church, community groups, and as President of the Pittsburgh Major Taylor Cycling Club.
He and his wife Shelia are passionate about bringing the joy & health benefits of cycling to all members of the Pittsburgh area, especially those living in the inner city.
Bruce also sees the extra benefit of bicycling as it provides transportation to youth who may have no other way of visiting different areas of the city. Bruce believes bicycling also serves as an alternative, more efficient form of transportation for adult commuters that benefits the health of the city and its citizens.
Bruce is a recreational cyclist who enjoys doing centuries in Pennsylvania and several states around the country.
You can reach Bruce at bruce@bike-pgh.org
* We are actively seeking to grow and develop our Board of Directors. Over the course of the next year we hope to attract individuals who represent the larger bicycling community with diversity in skill, ethnicity, and gender.