America Walks is happy to introduce the 2024 Nationwide Strolling Faculty fellowship class. In its ninth 12 months, the Strolling Faculty welcomes 24 spectacular candidates. This 12 months, our standard on-line coaching program has two sections. The primary is an introductory course aimed toward educating individuals the fundamentals of walkable design and coverage. The second course is aimed toward these with preexisting information of design and coverage interventions who’re involved in honing organizing and advocacy abilities. For the primary time, the Nationwide Strolling Faculty inspired workforce participation to broaden grassroots efforts.
Pictures and profiles of our new fellows could be discovered beneath.
2024 Fellows
Laura HarrisNew Orleans, LA
Laura has been an integral a part of the New Orleans bicycle neighborhood, dwelling and biking throughout this metropolis because the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Having served as Bike Simple’s first intern, she has lengthy been part of the story of higher biking within the metropolis. From working as a pedicab driver, to doing long-distance bike excursions, and dwelling for years within the metropolis with no automobile, she’s skilled the fun of life on a motorbike in some ways.
A League Licensed Teacher and Grasp of City & Regional Planning, she serves as Bike Simple’s Training & Coverage Supervisor, overseeing all elements of improvement and administration of Bike Simple’s teaching programs, from bringing bikes to youngsters in colleges to working to coach drivers on safely sharing the street. She additionally works to assist activations with the New Orleans Full Streets Coalition in addition to advocacy efforts in coverage and design. Laura believes within the energy of creating our cities higher locations for folks by remodeling our transportation and concrete kind to assist a more healthy neighborhood.
Sofia MoragaTucson, AZ
Sofía (she/her) obtained her BA in journalism and French from the College of Arizona the place she was awarded a grant to tackle an bold venture specializing in spotlighting people from underrepresented communities working in and visiting our Nationwide Parks; she interviewed, photographed, and documented their tales in order that others may see themselves represented within the Parks and really feel extra welcome. Illustration, fairness, and accountability are of the best significance to Sofia, and dealing with LSA she hopes to assist make Tucson a safer house, the place folks of all skills and backgrounds can really feel comfy of their streets. Sofía is Chilena, she was born in Chile and moved to the States in 2005 at 6 years previous. She has been dwelling in Tucson for 12 years (the longest she’s lived wherever) and calls this metropolis her dwelling. When she isn’t biking, yow will discover her cooking, portray, trying to write down a e book, having fun with time along with her household and buddies, or like a lizard within the solar, basking in the fantastic thing about our Sonoran Desert.
Luticha DoucetteRochester, NY
Luticha André Doucette is the creator of the groundbreaking e book: Cultivating An Intersectional Mindset. She graduated from the Rochester Institute of Expertise with a level in Bioinformatics the place she developed protein floor prediction algorithms. After graduating, she was a Fellow on the College of Rochester the place she labored in a genomics lab that centered on analyzing the venom of parasitoid wasps to develop new drug therapies for numerous ailments. She’s the creator of many studies which have been used to additional advocacy domestically, together with Wage Disparities Throughout Race and Gender, and The Working Actuality: Employment Obstacles for Disabled Individuals. She is a graduate of the Management and Training in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (LEND) Fellowship program and an AUCD Rising Chief. An inductee into the Susan M. Daniels Incapacity Mentoring Corridor of Fame established by the Nationwide Incapacity Mentoring Coalition and the 2020 – 2021 Distinguished Alumni Awardee from the Rochester Institute of Expertise. Luticha’s analysis and writing has been featured in numerous publications comparable to Insect Molecular Biology, Toxicon, The New York Occasions, and Sure! Journal. She is the proprietor of Catalyst Consulting Associates, which helps organizations, leaders, and advocates study fairness throughout race, gender id, and incapacity in insurance policies, practices, procedures, and relationships. She additionally works because the NYS OPWDD (Workplace of Individuals With Developmental Disabilities) Part supervisor at Georgetown College’s Nationwide Middle for Cultural and Linguistic Competence. In her spare time, she is a fencer, bicycle owner and out of doors fanatic.
Elizabeth FloydWashington, D.C.
For the previous decade, I’ve labored as an reasonably priced housing advocate in Washington, D.C., at present as supervising legal professional of a program that advises low- and-moderate revenue residents who personal and run their residence buildings as reasonably priced housing cooperatives.
As a baby of the American suburbs, I grew up driving in every single place—even to my very own mailbox. I’ve progressively found the freedoms of not being certain to a automobile and dream of rising previous in a greater model of my metropolis, the place I can shuffle my sluggish manner up the block to the neighborhood grocery retailer with out worry of being plowed over by a reckless driver in the course of the crosswalk.
Amanda WilsonWashington, D.C.
Amanda Wilson is a artistic advertising skilled dwelling in Northwest Washington, DC. She doesn’t personal a automobile. In her free time, she loves biking, studying, crusing, pilates, and dealing in her neighborhood backyard. She can also be a member of the DC Chapter of the Sierra Membership the place she is an lively volunteer with the Zero Waste Committee and the Single Use Plastic Subcommittee. Amanda can also be the chairperson of her constructing’s tenant affiliation. Throughout her fellowship with Strolling Faculty, Amanda’s objective is to turn out to be an knowledgeable advocate for street security and walkability for herself and her neighbors. As a profession communications skilled, she additionally goals to achieve insights to assist strategically market and promote walkability to the broader world. Amanda earned her a BA in Journalism from UNC Chapel Hill and an MA in Sociology and Social Anthropology from Central European College.
Christine LindstromAmherst, MA
When Christine Lindstrom moved to Amherst, MA in 2024, she appeared for a neighborhood that was walkable to city, to highschool, and to work. She discovered it. Her household gave up their second automobile, saving some huge cash and liberating up sources for different issues. Sadly, the state of sidewalks and bike lanes locally left her nervous for security and puzzled about selections relating to these ‘various’ modes. That led her to the Amherst Transportation Advisory Committee, and to begin up the Protected Routes to Faculty initiative on the town. She hopes the Strolling Faculty will assist her spark a motion for safer strolling and biking on the town.
Tynita WhiteColumbus, OH
Tynita M. White serves as a Coverage Analyst in Columbus Public Well being’s Middle for Public Well being Innovation within the Coverage, Analysis, and Analysis Part. In her position, Tynita researches finest practices to tell coverage and program suggestions that create and promote well being fairness within the constructed setting. Previous to becoming a member of CPH, she served because the Program Administrator of the Ohio Legislative Service Fee’s Legislative Fellowship Program, amassing practically a decade of expertise in legislative affairs and program administration. Tynita is a two-time alumna of Ohio College the place she earned her B.A. in Political Science and Grasp of Public Administration from the Voinovich Faculty of Management and Public Service. Outdoors of her skilled endeavors, Tynita finds pleasure in biking by scenic routes and immersing herself within the soulful melodies of jazz music.
Madeline McClureTucson, AZ
Madeline McClure (she/her) is a author of poetry, fiction and drama, and a each day pedestrian of the streets of Tucson, the place yow will discover her strolling her canines alongside downtown sidewalks morning and evening. Whereas acquiring her Bachelor of Arts diploma, Madeline studied social actions in southern Mexico and attracts inspiration from the Zapatista conviction that ‘One other World is Potential’. She brings this perception into her position as Operations Supervisor for the transportation advocacy non-profit Dwelling Streets Alliance, the place she facilities neighborhood care and organizational sustainability on this essential work.
Lydia LynchWarren, OH
Lydia is the Well being and Wellness Coordinator at Trumbull Neighborhood Partnership, a neighborhood improvement non-profit primarily based in Warren, Ohio that focuses on strengthening neighborhoods by high quality of life programming. Since 2022, Lydia has run the wholesome neighborhood retailer program, aided in organizing the Warren Farmers Market, and been part of a number of grant alternatives surrounding wholesome meals and lively dwelling. Pairing her passions for public well being and concrete planning, Lydia has been a part of Well being Neighborhood Partnership’s Energetic Transportation workforce that advocates for full inexperienced streets insurance policies, leads bike security demonstrations, and organizes strolling teams.
Tyler FleischmanProvo, UT
I’m a younger entrepreneur dwelling in a city with quite a lot of potential, however mountains of labor to do. As a passionate designer and marketer, I’m fascinated by the intersection of human psychology and the constructed setting. I advocate for human-scaled locations constructed for folks first, not machines. I firmly consider that everybody deserves protected, dependable, and cozy neighborhoods to stroll and roll in, not only for pleasure, but additionally as a way of real transportation for our each day wants. Our mindset round how we construct our locations ought to make this shift for the sake of our well being, wellbeing, and financial prosperity, and I’m assured that by embracing incremental change, we will make it a actuality.
Kris KriebelWarren, OH
At the moment, Kris is a well being educator on the Trumbull County Mixed Well being District working beneath the Creating Wholesome Communities grant. Work revolves round coverage, methods, and environmental change with a give attention to wholesome consuming and lively dwelling methods. Some accomplishments embrace however usually are not restricted to: the creation of two lively transportation plans in two separate jurisdictions, bicycle crossing and lane enhancements and, at present, planning a safer streets demonstration venture to focus on potential future infrastructure enhancements.
Ma’saih BatemanTakoma Park, MD
I’m a grad pupil at NYU, diving deep into city planning. At the moment I’m a Planning intern for the Metropolis of Takoma Park, MD, making cities cooler one step at a time! Beforehand, I used to be a Area Ambassador for Transportation Options within the bustling streets of New York. My ardour? Guaranteeing that cities are accessible, reasonably priced, and protected for everybody.
Sunshine BellonRoosevelt, UT
I grew up in Salt Lake Metropolis, Utah the place lively transportation was a giant a part of my life. I walked or biked to highschool, internships, work, or simply to go to my buddies or run errands. I spent my free time mountain biking on the Bonniville Shoreline Path or touring up and down the Salt Lake Valley on the Jordan River Parkway. I not often drove, and proudly owning a automobile was not a necessity till I moved to a freeway city in rural Utah practically a decade in the past. I’ve felt the stark distinction within the sorts of employment, leisure, neighborhood, and well being enhancing alternatives which can be accessible in a metropolis that, till just lately, has not prioritized walkability. As an worker of Roosevelt Metropolis, I’ve had the chance to take part within the building of a nature park and pedestrian path, which has impressed me to be taught extra and turn out to be a stronger advocate for walkability, accessibility, and high quality of life in my neighborhood.
Jeiri FloresRochester, NY
Jeiri is a Puerto Rican incapacity rights activist from Rochester, NY. She earned her Bachelor’s Diploma within the examine of Sociology and African-American Research at SUNY Brockport in 2014. Her grasp’s within the examine of Human Improvement on the College of Rochester in 2023. Jeiri serves as a useful resource for residents in her neighborhood by connecting them to current companies and helps. As a incapacity advocate, Jeiri shares her distinctive perspective at numerous faculties and conferences, the place she introduces attendees to the struggles and invisibility that individuals with disabilities face. She offers perception relating to inclusion, citizenship, incapacity intersectionality, and challenges that stay unaddressed by society. She hopes to affect younger disabled folks to meet their function and create a brand new narrative for what it means to be disabled.
Kaysi-Ann WebleyTakoma Park, MD
Kaysi-Ann is the Particular Initiatives Coordinator for the Metropolis of Takoma Park. Her duties embrace coordinating, supporting and facilitating bicycle and pedestrian security occasions, programming and coverage. All with the purpose to result in safer and extra strolling and biking for all of the residents of the Metropolis. She additionally serves because the Protected Routes to Faculty Coordinator for Takoma Park and has 5 colleges of roughly 4000 college students in this system. Her curiosity in additional walkable cities is longstanding however received reignited after the beginning of her son, who she likes to stroll and bike with. She believes that growing extra walkable cities and communities is nice for well being, wellness, sturdy communities and good for enterprise too!
Benji RouseTucson, AZ
Benji Rouse (he/they) – Anishinaabe, citizen of the White Earth Ojibwe nation, Ottertail Pillager band – is the Protected Routes Supervisor at Dwelling Streets Alliance. Born in Seattle, he labored for 13 years as a disaster intervention employee with street-involved and unhoused youth and younger adults, finally getting the bike-mechanic bug when he began a bike-building and restore venture to assist youth experiencing pressing transportation points. Since 2014, he’s labored at neighborhood bicycle training nonprofits in Oakland, Minneapolis, and Tucson, coordinating Protected Routes to Faculty applications, coaching folks in bicycle mechanics, and facilitating bike journeys with youth.
Ben HanpeterNorwalk, CT
My title is Ben Hanpeter, and I’m enthusiastic about constructing full of life and protected neighborhoods which can be conducive to constructing neighborhood. I dwell in Norwalk, CT, a small metropolis of about 90,000 folks an hour outdoors of NYC. I’m lucky to dwell within the walkable neighborhood of South Norwalk, which has allowed me to begin dwelling car-free final 12 months. I by no means lived in a walkable neighborhood till I used to be in school, and dwelling inside strolling distance of buddies, courses, and companies helped me really feel extra part of a neighborhood than I ever had earlier than in my life. I missed this sense once I first moved to Norwalk, so I received concerned to assist make Norwalk extra walkable. I began by doing initiatives for the Norwalk Bike Stroll Fee, and later helped discovered Sustainable Streets Norwalk, our metropolis’s first and solely advocacy group devoted to problems with strolling, biking, housing, and transit. I consider that constructing walkable neighborhoods is crucial to constructing sturdy social connections and combating the epidemic of separation and loneliness that’s rising in our nation.
Shani SmithChicago, IL
Shani is a dynamic power for change, and has been identified for her impactful presence behind the scenes as a nonviolent motion strategist for quite a few mass demonstrations in Chicago. Specializing in battle exploration, nonviolent communication, and emotional and social studying curriculums, she exudes her ardour for uplifting collective motion and empowering communities. Shani leads with love in each side of her life.
In her present chapter, Shani is immersed in neighborhood constructing because the Director of Black Cornerstones Mission whereas performing because the Grasp Curator for its StoryQuilt anthology sequence, weaving private narratives to forge connections between communities. Her distinctive strategy conjures up people and neighborhood leaders to glean paramount classes from their very own experiences, catalyzing transformative progress.
Shani’s humanitarian efforts have been acknowledged by publications comparable to The Washington Submit and the Chicago Tribune, in addition to in books like “Mayor 1%” and “Democracy in Black.” She has mobilized 1000’s of supporters round civil rights points to dismantle structural racism, with a steadfast dedication to inclusion because the cornerstone of her work.
David CarrenoTyler, TX
My title is David and I’m enthusiastic about making my small metropolis a greater place for strolling, biking, and the huge number of choices to roll from one place to the following. I began a gaggle of lively transport advocates in my metropolis to deliver folks with the identical passions collectively and advocate for change. I’m excited to find out how we made ourselves car dependent, and achieve some insights for what the trail to reversing this dependence appears to be like like. I’m trying ahead to utilizing what I be taught on this course and utilizing it to make my metropolis a greater, extra equitable place for all modes of transport.
Emily BurnamanNorwalk, CT
Hello, I’m Emily. I dwell in South Norwalk, Connecticut, embracing an eco-friendly life-style with my canine Bentley (not a automobile), and my e-bike as my main mode of transportation. Professionally, I work as a Digital Mission Supervisor at Snyder Group Inc., creating partaking, accessible web sites to advance the missions of varied organizations, starting from non-profits to massive companies. My position entails enhancing consumer experiences and optimizing digital content material to satisfy various advertising targets, abilities vital for advocating for walkable communities.
As an lively Board Member of the Norwalk River Valley Path (NRVT), I contribute to digital advertising and content material technique to assist the group’s mission of constructing and sustaining a scenic 30-mile path in Fairfield County, Connecticut. I’m additionally concerned with the Norwalk Bike/Stroll Fee, at present serving as Vice-Chair, to assist bicycling and strolling as protected, accessible, and sustainable transportation and leisure choices. These efforts completely align with the Strolling Faculty’s mission to empower fellows to steer neighborhood change for pedestrian-friendly environments. Study extra about me @heyemmibee.com
Jennifer ChenNorwalk, CT
I’m a suburbanite who grew as much as fall in love with cities. I flitted round many, leaping from metropolis to metropolis earlier than touchdown in New York. In New York, I measure the size of my life in metropolis blocks and what I can attain in a 7 minute stroll. However as my husband and I’ve expanded our household, including a mini poodle and a human-in-training, I’ve sought extra space. This led to a return to suburbia. In my previous work life, I explored alternative ways of getting round once I labored on Google Maps and led product for driving, bicycling, and strolling instructions. There, I studied the impression of accelerating congestion. We want fewer automobiles on the street, however not driving isn’t a viable possibility for many. Let’s make it one.
Jeremy Anderson, PhD.Amherst, MA
I grew up in a small city that had bike trails that enable households to soundly go to highschool within the morning, the seashore within the afternoon, and to procuring/eating places/leisure within the night, and a lot extra. Now that I’m the dad or mum of two younger kids who like to bike, I’ve been making an attempt to work with our city authorities to deal with visitors security and have seen first-hand how backwards our present visitors pointers are – prioritizing the velocity of autos over the protection of communities. In consequence, I’ve turn out to be a passionate advocate for pedestrian and bicycle security, and hope that we will make our communities safer and extra accessible for all members. I’ve a PhD in Environmental Science Coverage and Administration, and consider that by making our communities extra accessible that we will create a calmer and safer setting for everybody to dwell, work, and play in.
Paul FoxNorwalk, CT
Paul has been a eager reader on urbanism, walkability, and public transit for a few years however has solely just lately turn out to be lively in advocacy. He grew up within the Washington DC space and has fond recollections of strolling round downtown DC and driving the Metro, and not-so-fond recollections of being remoted in his suburban Northern Virginia neighborhood surrounded by uncrossable highways.
After attending Grove Metropolis Faculty in Pennsylvania and graduate faculty at College of Delaware, he has labored as {an electrical} engineer and appeared for alternatives to advocate for walkability and public transit. After shifting to Norwalk for work in 2022, he has turn out to be concerned as a core member of the recently-founded Sustainable Streets Norwalk, studying and analyzing coverage, talking at public hearings and serving to to prepare occasions.
Amy McLaughlinDetroit, MI
Amy has lived, labored, volunteered, and constructed her life in city facilities in Canada and the US for over 25 years. After operating a design enterprise in Toronto for fifteen years, she relocated to a central neighborhood in Detroit in 2017.
Amy has a background in design and design administration, creating options for all audiences by listening, continuous studying, outreach and engagement. She has expertise growing merchandise and areas that cater to a number of sorts of customers. The idea that everybody is entitled to pleasure, ease, entry, and alternative is prime to her considering and strategy.
Establishing connections and forging hyperlinks in her new metropolis, Amy turned a member and vice-president of Woodbridge Residents’ Council (WCC)–her neighborhood extensive block membership; volunteered with and was a previous board member–now contract worker–of Woodbridge Neighborhood Improvement (WND) a Detroit not-for-profit financial improvement company; and is actively engaged with civic processes and conferences particularly pertaining to planning, improvement, and zoning. Moreover, she represents her neighborhood in a local-leadership community led by her Metropolis Councillor, the place she sits on the housing committee.
As a long-time walker and bicycle owner, Amy appears to be like ahead to diving deeper into the historical past and hopeful way forward for non-motorized transport, and bringing this data again to her neighborhood by coordinating the creation of a shared imaginative and prescient for the advance of a harmful, busy freeway by her neighborhood.
2024 Mentors
Phil HansonColumbus, OH
Phil Hanson is an city planner and public well being skilled from Columbus, Ohio. He has centered his work on making his neighborhood a extra health-promoting place for all residents by enhancements to the constructed setting and social applications. His work for the Metropolis of Columbus started in 2015 because the Metropolis’s Strolling Applications Supervisor, throughout which era he was a member of the 2016 Strolling Faculty cohort, then he labored as a Planner II within the Division of Parking Companies, and since 2021 he has labored on the Metropolis’s federal Housing and City Improvement grants, significantly the Neighborhood Improvement Block Grant.
La Verne ParlowCharlotte, NC
La Verne has over 24 years of public well being expertise. She is a Well being Training Coordinator on the Gaston County Division of Well being and Human Companies – Public Well being Division. On this position, she works with native governments to advertise lively dwelling by coverage and environmental adjustments. Since 2011, she has taught well being training programs at Johnson C. Smith College, North Carolina A&T State College and Clinton Faculty.
La Verne holds a Bachelor of Science in Well being Training from the College of North Carolina at Greensboro and a Grasp of Well being Promotion from the College of North Carolina at Charlotte. She accomplished the Strolling Faculty in 2016.
La Verne enjoys spending time with household and buddies, studying, touring, and operating. Her objective is to finish a full or half marathon in all 50 states plus DC. So far, she has accomplished 31 states plus DC and has accomplished races in Jamaica and Bermuda.
Heyden Black WalkerAustin, TX
Heyden Black Walker (CNU-A) is Director of Planning for Black +Motal Structure and City Design (previously Black + Vernooy). Along with Sinclair Black, she co-founded Reconnect Austin, a community-based name to decrease the primary lanes of I-35 by Austin’s city core, making a imaginative and prescient of a reconnected metropolis cloth which offers entry to housing, jobs, medical services, training, and transit. Heyden manages a wide range of planning initiatives, which embrace chairing the board of administrators for Reconnect Austin and dealing to alter the freeway constructing paradigm at each the state (Texas Streets Coalition) and nationwide (Freeway Fighters Community) ranges. With the objective of human-centered transportation, elevated security, and entry for all, Heyden additionally donates her time and advocacy efforts to the Congress for the New Urbanism, the Texas Statewide Pedestrian Security Coalition, Austin Outdoors, and Protected Streets Austin. Heyden is a 2016 Strolling Faculty graduate.
Deidre BrownSt. Louis, MO
Deidre Brown is a founding member and President of the Riverview Gardens Training Basis which serves the students of Riverview Gardens Faculty District in St. Louis, MO. She holds a number of levels – a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Southern Illinois College at Edwardsville, a Bachelor of Science and Grasp of Science in Laptop Science from Webster College, a Graduate Certificates and Grasp of Science in System Engineering from Missouri College of Science and Expertise (Rolla), and a Graduate Certificates in Cybersecurity from Florida Institute of Expertise. Deidre has been employed with Boeing for twenty-four years.
Deidre has a ardour for serving to folks be the very best that they are often each academically and bodily. She is a 2016 American Walks Strolling Faculty Fellow, a Trailnet Stroll/Bike Ambassador, serves as Nice Rivers Greenway Advisor, and has been a GirlTrek organizer since 2012. She has had a number of talking engagements together with taking part as a presenter and panelist on the Nice Rivers Greenway third Annual Greenways Symposium in 2018 talking on ‘Range and Inclusion in Parks and Recreation Programming’ and on the first Gateway Outside Summit in 2019 talking on ‘Elevating Outside Leisure Entry For All.’
Deidre promotes dwelling an lively life-style and acts as an advocate for making communities extra livable and accessible for all.
Garrett BrumfieldRoanoke, VA
Garrett is honored to collaborate with the Strolling Faculty in his fourth 12 months as mentor. As an individual with a incapacity, he was first launched to walkability/rollability house as a fellow within the Strolling Faculty in 2018. He has since created and co-facilitated many stroll and roll audits alongside change makers from across the nation in an effort to make communities extra inclusive, accessible and livable for all. Previous to this, he based his motivational motion, Overcome Yours, in 2014 as a technique to educate, empower and advocate alongside numerous native, state and nationwide organizations. He lives in Roanoke, Virginia and spends his free time hanging out together with his pet, attending festivals and doing sit down comedy.
