We are proud to introduce five local movers and shakers who recently joined the BikePGH Board of Directors

Mike Kotyk

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

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Cathy Schnaubelt Rogers, B.S., M.Ed.

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.

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Karen Brooks

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.

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Susan Peterson

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.

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Brian Mendelssohn

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.

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Not a member of BikePGH? Join today! We need you to add your voice! Bike Pittsburgh works to protect cyclist’s rights and promote the vision of making Pittsburgh a safer and more enjoyable place to live and to ride. For more info, check out: www.bike-pgh.org/membership