2023 Board of Directors

Sophia BennerSophia Benner (2022 - 2024, 1st Term)
Street Design Project Coordinator, City of Austin
Austin, Texas

Sophia moved to Austin, TX, in 2011 to pursue a Master in Community and Regional Planning at the University of Texas and has lived there and worked as an urban planner ever since. As a consultant writing active transportation plans for cities around Texas including Austin, she was deeply involved in local bicycle advocacy, serving as the Chair of the City of Austin Bicycle Advisory Council in 2016. Now working for the City of Austin Active Transportation & Street Design Division, she focuses on creating partnerships, breaking down silos, and helping the Austin Transportation Department incorporate racial equity into their work. She is currently working on the Austin Bike Plan update, leading the Bike Parking Program, leading the Austin Bike Map updates, co-facilitating the Chronic Disease Prevention/Active Living Coalition, and co-leading the Austin Transportation Department’s Inclusion Diversity Equity Action team. She is a proud Uruguayan American, speaks Spanish and French, and is a happy member of the limb-difference family. In her free time, she enjoys gardening, hosting friends, dancing, birding and learning American Sign Language.  


Camilla DartnellCamilla Dartnell (2022 - 2024, 1st Term)
Senior Planner, Kittelson and Associates

Portland, Oregon 

Camilla is passionate about creating walkable and bikeable places to improve the sustainability, health, and livability of communities. As a senior planner and engineer at Kittelson and Associates, Camilla combines this excitement with her expertise in active transportation planning, conceptual design, performance measurement, and spatial analysis to contribute to thriving communities. Camilla’s experience spans the United States, from Oregon, Alaska, and California to Massachusetts, and in her spare time, Camilla enjoys being outside gardening, backpacking, or bikepacking in the Pacific Northwest wonderland that she calls home.   


Jeremy Chrzan headshot.Jeremy Chrzan, Treasurer (2022 - 2024, 2nd term)
Multimodal Design Practice Lead, Toole Design Group
Silver Spring, Maryland

Jeremy Chrzan is the Multimodal Design Practice Lead for Toole Design, responsible for ensuring that staff are applying best practices from concept through construction. Much of Jeremy’s work centers around streets that provide safe and comfortable walkways and bikeways. He has been a primary author for the Massachusetts DOT Separated Bike Lane Planning & Design Guide, Ohio DOT’s Multimodal Design Guide, Los Angeles Supplemental Street Design Guide, and other state and local design guides. He is currently working on finalizing the update of the AASHTO Guide for the Development of Bicycle Facilities.

Jeremy speaks frequently at conferences, trainings, and public meetings to educate planners, engineers, city officials, and the public about bicycle facility best practices. He has also spent a considerable amount of time throughout his career working on pedestrian accessibility issues, including the design of curb ramps, the review of pedestrian facility designs on behalf of agencies and DOTs, and the review of accessibility issues for transit facilities. Jeremy is a member of the National Capital Region Chapter.



Mary ElbechMary Elbech (2022 - 2024, 1st Term)
Integrated Mobility Consultant | US Lead, Mobycon

Durham, NC

With a background in active transportation planning from Denmark and the Netherlands, Mary has over a decade of experience in adapting international best practices to work within a local context. Since 2011, she has supported communities in becoming safer and more bicycle and pedestrian friendly through leading-edge projects around new mobility, shared spaces, community-led design, 20 mph zones, Complete Streets, and safe and active school zones. She has worked on the FHWA Bike Facility Selection guidelines, developed a tactical urbanism workshop series around community-led solutions for safer streets, and is currently leading Mobycon’s role on the NCHRP Guidebook for Urban and Suburban Cross-Sectional Roadway Reallocation. She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina, and leads Mobycon’s US office.


Billy HattawayBilly Hattaway (2023, 1st term)
Principal at Fehr & Peers
Orlando, Florida

As a Principal at Fehr & Peers, Billy is passionate about making a difference for pedestrians and bicyclists in Florida and nationally. He is active in the national Multi-modal Safety and Complete Streets/Bike/Pedestrian Discipline Group at Fehr & Peers. Billy is providing training to FDOT staff, local agencies and the consultant industry on Vision Zero/Safe Systems training with a focus on pedestrians and bicyclists. Billy also currently serves as Chair on the Board of Directors for the Congress for the New Urbanism Florida Chapter, and is an active member of Bike/Walk Tampa Bay and the Florida Department of Transportation Motorcycle Safety Coalition.


Mauricio HernandezMauricio Hernandez (2021 - 2023, 1st term)
Senior Planning Associate at Alta Planning + Design

Oakland, California 

Mauricio is an experienced multimodal planner who prioritizes equity in all aspects of his practice. Originally from Bogotá, Colombia, he strives to incorporate bilingual public involvement strategies to the transportation planning process. He has a background working in multimodal transportation and micromobility, having led the implementation and evaluation of countless bikeshare programs throughout the US, as well as national studies for Federal Highway Administration and the National Academies of Science. Mauricio’s passion lies in the development and implementation of active transportation, tactical urbanism, and open streets projects with a focus on public engagement and data analytics. 


Amanda Leahy headshot. Amanda Leahy, AICP, President (2021 - 2023, 2nd term)
Senior Planner, Kittelson & Associates, Inc
Oakland, CA

Amanda is a Senior Planner with Kittelson & Associates, Inc. Her areas of expertise include bicycle and pedestrian planning and design, multimodal traffic operations and safety analysis, and complete streets policy and implementation. Amanda is committed to creating a safe and comfortable public realm for people of all ages and abilities. She is passionate about strengthening connections between people and place through sound planning and analysis; creative, context-sensitive design and engineering; and effective stakeholder and community engagement. She is particularly interested in exploring the relationships between transportation, land use, health, safety, and equity. When she’s not in the office, you can find Amanda urban exploring with friends and family, rural adventuring with her two dogs, or pedaling around town while pondering transportation technologies and innovations of the future. 

 


Merisa MoriciMerisa Morici (2021 - 2023, 1st term)
Senior Program Manager, New York City Department of Transportation
New York, NY

Merisa is the Senior Program Manager for Authorized Parking and Special Use in the Parking Planning and Policy Unit at the New York City Department of Transportation. She develops curb management policy and manages the operations of more than 25,000 on-street authorized parking spaces. In her former role as a Senior Project Manager in the Pedestrian Unit, she successfully implemented various projects to improve safety and efficiency for New York City’s pedestrians, cyclists and drivers, including a rubber pedestrian island demonstration project and the first neighborhood traffic circles in New York City. Merisa was inspired to become a transportation planner through her interest in public art and is motivated by New York City’s ever-evolving use of public space. Merisa is passionate about exploring cities by foot, and you will likely find her running thought the streets of New York, or any city she is visiting.

Tobi OtulanaTobi Otulana (2023 - 2025, 1st term)
Planner II with Toole Design
Columbus, OH

Tobi is a planner with public sector and private sector active transportation planning experience. She is a planner in Toole Design’s Columbus office where she works with communities of various sizes on Active Transportation Plans, Complete Streets policies, and Transportation Demand Management efforts. Tobi is an advocate for equitable, safe, healthy, and enjoyable active transportation planning. She currently serves as a Board Member for Central Ohio’s bicycle advocacy non-profit Yay Bikes, sits on the APBP Equity and Inclusion Committee, and serves as one of the APBP representatives on the National Complete Streets Coalition Steering Committee. Aside from work, Tobi enjoys spending time with family, traveling, and bicycling.


Kendra RamseyKendra Ramsey, AICP, Vice President (2023 - 2025, 2nd term)
Active Transportation Project Manager with GHD
Sacramento, California

Kendra Ramsey is the co-founder of the Sacramento Region APBP Chapter, and is an Active Transportation Project Manager with GHD in her hometown of Sacramento, California. She has over twelve years of experience in active transportation planning, policy development, and community engagement, and has worked in state and local government, as well as the non-profit sector. Kendra has managed the development of numerous Active Transportation Plans for municipal and county clients, developed and implemented Safe Routes to School Plans and programs, and consulted on effective active transportation accommodation within large roadway projects. She holds a MS in Community Development from UC Davis, an undergraduate degree in Sociology from UC Santa Cruz, and is recognized as a Safe Routes to School National Course Instructor. Raised in a home without a car, Kendra has spent most of her life as a pedestrian, bicyclist, and transit rider, and continues to enjoy these modes. 


 Shawn SmithShawn Smith (2021 - 2023, 1st term)
Senior Project Manager & Professional Engineer, WSP
Ottawa, Ontario 

Shawn Smith is a Senior Project Manager and Professional Engineer at WSP with a goal of creating active, healthy communities. He has 17 years of experience leading sustainable mobility at the provincial and municipal levels of government and private sector. He specializes in pedestrian and cycling planning and design and has a professional interest in Vision Zero, Transportation Demand Management and micro mobility.

Shawn is actively involved in the APBP Ontario Chapter as well as the Canadian Institute of Transportation Engineers (CITE). In 2018, Shawn was recognized as the Wheels of Change Professional of the Year by Share the Road Cycling Coalition for his work at the municipal level to build more bicycle-friendly communities. Shawn is author of Happy Trails: Biking and Hiking Adventures in the Greater Toronto Area. He lives in Ottawa, Ontario and can often be found exploring the outdoors with his wife and three kids.

 

Click here for a list of our founders and past leaders.