Board of Directors

Doug Cornelius, Board Chair (Newton)

Doug is an avid bike commuter during the week from his home in Newton. On the weekend, he loves long bike rides in search of ice cream and donuts. Doug rides the Pan Mass Challenge on Team Kinetic Karma.

When he’s not on his bike, Doug is working as the Chief Compliance Officer for a real estate private equity firm in Boston. Doug graduated from Brandeis University and Boston University School of Law. He is also an Investment Adviser Certified Compliance Professional®.

 

Jack Faer

Jack’s adult cycling experience began with the inaugural Boston to NY Aids Ride in 1995 and continued as a rider and fundraiser for the Pan Mass Challenge and Ride to End Alzheimer’s. His love for travel has included cycling in Australia, Europe and South Africa, notably the Cape Town Argus, the largest bike race in the world.  Additionally, he cycles with his wife, Jo Anne, the proud owner of an e-bike.

Professionally, Jack was trained as a CPA and FBI agent before a corporate career with Fidelity, State Street and Iron Mountain. He served on the Board of the Alzheimer’s Association as the audit committee chair and serves on the Dean’s Advisory Board of the Smith School, University of Maryland. As the founder of Faer Risk Consulting, LLC, he shows individuals and organizations how to reduce risk, with a focus on financial and security challenges.

Martin Hayes 

Martin is an avid recreational cyclist who discovered a passion for cycling through the Pan-Mass Challenge.  Whether exploring rail trails, commuting to Cambridge, or traversing the hills of western Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire, cycling has been an important part of his life for several years.  

In addition to cycling, Martin is an accomplished scientist in the pharmaceutical industry where he is Chief of Staff for a global neuroscience research team. Martin is also passionate about expanding educational opportunities for economically disadvantaged children in Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville through volunteer work.

 

George Lester 

George started riding a bike for his paper route in elementary school, and has been cycling ever since for commuting, transportation, family fun, recreation and fitness. His favorite cycling activities now are mountain biking and long-distance bike-packing. With MassBike, George wants to focus on advocacy at a state and local level for bicycle safety and equitable access to cycling for all.

George also wants to honor the legacy of his brother and parents and the work they did in cycling and pedestrian safety advocacy. His brother Al Lester was killed on his bicycle by a drunk driver in 1992, while participating in a 24 hour endurance challenge. Out of this heartbreak, his parents became tireless advocates for initiatives to combat drunk driving and promote safety on roads for pedestrians and cyclists everywhere.

George is also active on a board or committee level with Hale Education, NEMBA, the Bay Circuit Trail, Friends of Medfield Forests and Trails, and the Town of Medfield Open Space and Recreation Planning Committee, and volunteers with Bikes Not Bombs.

 

Vance Perry (Marblehead)

Vance has a long history of riding bikes, starting back in grade school with his yellow Schwinn with a banana seat!   He is an avid cyclist and enjoys road rides with his local cycling club or riding and racing mountain and gravel bikes all over New England and beyond.   When not riding bikes, he enjoys skiing and snowshoeing in the winter and is a ski instructor with New England Disabled Sports in NH.
 
Professionally, Vance recently took a voluntary buyout from his long-time employer. While he does not want to say he is retired, he is enjoying his time off as he contemplates what comes next.  He is looking forward to working with the MassBike board members and staff to help make cycling safer for everyone.

Eric Poch, Board Treasurer (Sudbury)


Eric built his first 10-speed bike from trash-picked parts at the age of 8 and has loved riding on two wheels ever since! He has a lengthy industry association working in bike shops and with race promoters. His racing history began as an elite level Junior racing on the road and in time trials and he still races Masters road and cyclocross and enjoys mountain biking, too. Eric enjoys being active in his community having held various positions over the last 25 years, on local task forces, committees and boards and is current Chair for his town Finance Committee.

In his professional life, Eric holds an MBA and a Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) certification with more than 25 years experience in audit & assurance, controllership, and financial operations. He serves as a subject matter expert in Sarbanes Oxley with a deep understanding of COSO, PCAOB auditing standards / SEC and IFRS requirements and Internal Controls. 

 

Kristen Sykes (Holyoke)

Kristen has been an avid bike commuter for the past 5 years. Kristen began commuting to work when she worked for the Appalachian Mountain Club in downtown Boston. This bike commute took her from Cambridge to Beacon Hill. While in Boston, Kristen participated in the Boston Bike Party and the Santa Rampage events. After moving to Western Mass, Kristen commuted daily from Northampton to Amherst. She is an active road cyclist and participated in the Western Mass Food Bank Will Bike 4 Food and Pedal to Pints events. In her professional career, Kristen has worked for the Appalachian Mountain Club for over 15 years advocating for land protection and trails. She is also a craft beer enthusiast and homebrewer.

Staff

Galen Mook, Executive Director (Allston)

Galen has been involved in MassBike since his days at Boston University, when he helped kick-start the bicycle advocacy movement by co-founding a student group BU Bikes. Before taking the helm at MassBike, Galen worked at Landry's Bicycles in the advocacy and marketing department, worked for the start-up the Hubway bike share company for the first three years of the program, founded a community bike co-op non-profit in Allston called CommonWheels, and has worked as a pedicabber and bicycle activist in the Boston area for over a decade. He especially enjoys teaching folks some of the basics of biking to break down barriers and get more folks riding more bikes more often.

Galen holds a B.A. and an M.A. in Social Movement Theory and Multimedia Journalism from Boston University.

 

Alexis Hosea-Abbott, Regional Advocacy Specialist (Easthampton)

Alexis first discovered rail trails on Seattle's Burke-Gilman trail in 1996 and later discovered, in 2004 when living abroad, that it was not only possible to live without a car, but was delightful. She joined MassBike in 2023 to help everyone to have a chance at that sweet sweet car-free lifestyle. She lives in Easthampton, where she enjoys walking and biking to all of her needs and most of her hobbies.

 

Alex Salcedo, Worcester Program Manager (Worcester)

Alex was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and relocated to Worcester, MA, in 2010, to pursue her graduate studies. Not being familiar with Massachusetts, biking allowed her to get out of her comfort zone and start building community, by getting familiar with neighbors and neighborhoods. This translated throughout the years into establishing working relationships with organizations and businesses that contribute to the community’s well-being. For her, opting for a bike instead of a car is a win for everyone: cleaner air, less traffic, and a healthier world. 

Alex holds a B.S in Business Administration from Guayaquil State University and an M.S. in Nonprofit Management from Worcester State University.

 

Jes Slavin, Communications Coordinator (Northampton)

Jes grew up riding her bike on the Southern New England Trunkline Trail in her hometown of Douglas and started bike commuting while living in Boston. After being tricked into racing a mountain bike short track race on her hybrid commuter bike, Jes fell in love with bike racing. She has raced cyclocross, mountain bikes, and gravel.

Prior to joining the MassBike team, Jes worked as the Marketing & Memberships Manager for the Nebraska based nonprofit Heartland Bike Share. In this role, she oversaw marketing and communications for three bike share programs: Heartland B-cycle (Omaha, NE & Council Bluffs, IA), BikeLNK (Lincoln, NE), and Valentine Bike Share (Valentine, NE).

Jes holds a B.F.A in Writing, Literature, and Publishing with a minor in Photography from Emerson College and an M.A. in Educational Administration from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

 

Emma Walter, Administrative Coordinator (Belmont)

Growing up in the Boston suburbs, Emma has fond memories of exploring the Boston area on foot and on two wheels. She is thrilled to contribute to the work that MassBike is doing to allow more people to enjoy our beautiful state without a car. She comes to MassBike with diverse experience in program coordination and volunteer management and holds a B.A. in Environmental Studies from Lawrence University. 

Outside of work, she can be found running around the Charles River and her favorite trails on the Western Greenway.

 

Cycling Instructors

Tina Chan  (Allston)

Tina loves the freedom, joy, and movement that riding her bike brings. She enjoys teaching people of all ages how to ride a bike safely and legally so they are empowered every time they ride a bike.

 

Aaron Charlwood (Arlington)

Aaron is a League Cycling Instructor who has taught all kinds of cycling skills, including bicycle safety, handling skills, and safe and effective cycling with traffic, to people from ages 2 through 60+. Bicycling has been his primary transportation in metro Boston for over 25 years! He is thrilled to spread the joy and practicality of safe cycling to anyone and everyone. When he's not balancing on rubber legs, you can find him designing and building products, tools and systems for living more sustainably, either at home in his edible permaculture garden or at his makerspace studio in Allston!

 

SüSi Ecker  (Malden)

SüSi loves to discover new places on two wheels whether on her hand-built bikes made with LoVe by her husband Matt, or on the back of their mountain bike tandem. SüSi loves teaching young new riders from moving along on their balance bikes to removing their training wheels and the thrill of seeing them balancing and pedaling their first pedal strokes. The pride and empowerment the kids feel is palpable, and gets her worked up every time!

Lanita Foley (Cambridge)

Lanita is an L.A. native, who appreciates how bike-friendly Massachusetts is to riders of all ages. She learned to bike daily for transportation as an undergraduate.

She has experience with running kids’ bicycle rodeos, teaching bike safety, and mechanics (through Bikes Not Bombs’ Bike Institute in Boston where she has served as a volunteer teacher for all ages). She has given many school presentations about being a smart cyclist around the commonwealth. She loves to ride whenever she can.
Lanita can be found teaching communication at the collegiate level, connecting with people from all walks of life, and cultivating her own garden.

Laura J. Gray (Allston)

Laura loves riding her bike because it takes her places she'd never go otherwise, and she want to spread that joy to others. She is a League Certified Instructor (LCI) and has experience in running kids' bike rodeos, teaching bicycle safety to all ages, and mechanics (she built up a wicked cool touring bike!), but her passion is leading rides from three riders to three hundred riders! (You can catch Laura leading the pack at Boston Bike Party!)

 

Irene Lutts (Quincy)

As year-round, transportation cyclist, Irene spent many years on a family triple before launching her kids on their own bikes. As a League Certified Instructor, she currently leads rides and teaches with the volunteer-run group Quincycles. Irene loves sharing the joy and freedom that bicycling brings to her life by teaching others how to ride and to improve their on-bike skills.

 

Laura Smeaton (Boston)

Laura loves helping others discover or rediscover the joy, freedom, and independence of bicycling.  Laura grew up in a family of cyclists, and still enjoys pedaling with them. Past adventures include multi-day tours, but these days, she enjoys biking locally for transportation.

 

Peter Perlmutter, LCI (Lynnfield)

Guiding kids and adults to appreciate the freedom that cycling offers is fun. Following up with cycling skills and rules is equally important. Now it’s time to take off the training wheels!

 

PQ (Somerville)

PQ loves using bicycles not only for transportation but also to express their artistic vision. In addition to finding joy teaching riders young and old, they belong to SCUL, Somerville's friendly neighborhood bicycle chopper gang, and build and compete in all-terrain, amphibious, human powered Kinetic Sculpture Races. 

 

Anna Scalera (Salem)

Anna joined MassBike in spring 2019 to help with Safe Routes to School, bike rodeos, and bicycle education. She lives on the north shore and enjoys sharing her love of cycling with her two boys and with others in the community.