Board Members
Meet our Board of Directors. They guide the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition in fulfilling our mission. Board membership is a volunteer position for a two-year term, with elections held annually online and at our annual membership meeting.
To find out more about the functions and duties of the Board, see our governance structure and bylaws.
Amie Ashton
Amie is a passionate cycling evangelist, environmentalist, and urbanist. She is committed to the idea that cities should have cyclists in mind during local and regional decision making. Amie works as an environmental planner and project manager and has championed bike-related amenities as part of roadway improvements, commercial office, public park, and residential development projects throughout the Bay Area. She is a dedicated bike/Caltrain commuter and appreciates the physical and mental boost that an active commute provides. As a board member, Amie leverages her connections with city staff and partners the development world to ensure that necessary bicycle infrastructure is included in long-range planning documents and is ultimately constructed. If you build bike paths, they will ride!
Gary Brustin
Gary has been an avid cyclist for over forty-five years. His passion for cycling has shaped his professional career. He has been in private law practice since 1976, specializing in personal injury litigation. Twenty-five years ago he decided to specialize in bicycle litigation and today his entire caseload consists only of cycling-related matters. He has personally handled over 1,000 bicycle cases.
Gary is also very committed to bicycle advocacy. In addition to his work on the Board of Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition, he also served on the Board of Directors of the League of American Bicyclists for nine years, the Board of Directors of the California Bicycle Coalition for ten years and the Sacramento Bicycle Advocates Advisory Board.
His office proudly co-sponsors the Velo Girls as well as many other groups and cycling activities. In his spare time, he acts as a volunteer attorney for various racing clubs, writes magazine and newspaper articles, and travels across the country speaking to bicycle clubs about cycling safety and the law.
Jennifer Fierman
Commute Operations at Apple.
Jennifer Fierman is a certified planner with over 15 years of experience in planning and implementing projects. She has worked with roadway designers, traffic engineers, elected officials and the public to create accessible transportation facilities for all users. She recently made a pivot in her career to merge her interests in planning and technology, becoming an expert in the latest transit tech platforms and utilizing them to plan, deliver, and service for Transportation Demand Management in the Bay Area.
Jennifer is passionate about helping public agencies provide convenient and equitable mobility.
Poncho Guevara
Poncho Guevara is the Executive Director of Sacred Heart Community Service, one of the leading grassroots antipoverty organizations in Silicon Valley. A native of Santa Clara County, Guevara’s professional career has been geared toward the advancement of low-income families – from providing direct services and community organizing, to serving in executive management roles in nonprofit housing and human service organizations.
Guevara’s experience has reinforced his dedication to creating systemic responses to poverty through a combination of investments in human services and organizing for wider public policy solutions. By cultivating and creating bridges between diverse constituencies, he has helped develop and lead campaigns on critical issues in workforce development, children’s health care, homelessness, affordable housing, and wage standards. Guevara is also involved in a coalition of organizations working to provide better transit options for transit-dependent individuals.
Poncho Guevara lives in San José with his two daughters. In addition to his expertise as a nonprofit executive, he represents the “every day rider” perspective.
Andrew Hsu
Andrew Hsu has been riding a bicycle ever since a young kid, when his dad needed a companion to go on his bike trips to Washington DC from their suburban Virginia home. From then, Andrew’s passion for cycling has developed, much to the dismay of his family, into a life-long obsession. Rarely a day goes by when Andrew does not talk about bicycles and their complementary benefits to our modern society or attempt to simplify a complex issue through the use of a bicycle racing analogy.
Although bicycle racing continues to be a strong interest, these days, Andrew does most of his bicycle riding on his daily 30-mile commute to work. While this started as a way to avoid the monstrous traffic on the 101 freeway, it also helps maintain enough fitness, so his teammates do not laugh too hard when he competes in the soul-crushing world of masters cat4 road racing.
When not on his bike, Andrew spends lots of time thinking of bikes and how to get more people to ride them. Beyond racing for Peninsula Velo, a 300+ member performance-oriented bicycling club, since 1998, Andrew joined their board of directors in 2010, and then served as president from 2013 to 2018. Outside of PenVelo, Andrew has led the bike-to-work efforts at his work since 2011. Unlike the competition focus of PenVelo, much of Andrew’s bike-to-work advocacy is spent convincing his people that anyone with a bicycle can be a bike commuter. Andrew is an outspoken regional advocate for getting more people to ride their bicycles, and for safer roads in the Bay Area.
James Lucas
James is a teacher in the Campbell Union High School District. As a youth, he fell in love with the freedom his blue, 24” wheeled Schwinn Varsity could give him. He didn’t know at the time that this passion would cause him to seek out all knowledge bike related. He spent 14 years as the owner of Calmar Bicycles, converting people into regular cyclists.
James spent years as an advocate and a cyclist, serving on boards of governance at UCSB and the University of Wyoming, competing in the first ever Collegiate Mountain Bike National Championships, and providing mechanical support for Shimano and the USA Cycling National Team. He now helps create the next generation of leaders and makers as a high school science teacher. James continues to serve the community through bicycle advocacy. After going to the National Bicycle Summit in 2010 he saw what individuals can do accomplish just by showing up. To this day, he continues to make it a point to show up.
Josh Mello, AICP
Josh Mello is the District Transportation Lead for Google and has a long track record as a transportation manager specializing in bikeway and complete street planning, design, and construction. Projects he has worked on include the Cross-City Trail in Wilmington (NC), NACTO Urban Bikeway Design Guide, and the first bicycle plan for the City of Compton. Prior to Google, Josh served as the Chief Transportation Official for the City of Palo Alto, and Vice-chair of the VTA Technical Advisory Committee, where he became a thought leader on all things bikes for neighboring cities to emulate. He has also worked for Alta Planning + Design, Atlanta (GA), and Wilmington (NC). While with the City of Atlanta, he helped establish the position of Chief Bicycle Officer, which is partially grant-funded. In 2013, Josh won an award for Professional of the Year from the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals and a Blinkie Award from the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition.
When he was with City of Palo Alto, Josh commuted from Millbrae by bike and Caltrain. He is still trying to figure out his Google commute. On weekends, he likes to take his whole family on bicycle rides throughout the Bay Area.
Ed Morimoto
Ed Morimoto, a Silicon Valley native, credits his twelve-year stint in New York City for spawning a deep commitment to the benefits of urban living, public transit and bicycling as a primary means of transportation.
Like many, Ed’s earliest bicycling memories recall the newfound joy and freedom of riding to school and exploring with friends. Rushed, sometimes rainy, trips to college classes and riding to decompress from early engineering workdays were later to follow. But a career pivot to consulting/finance relocating him to NYC through the 2000’s proved formative. While there, organizations like Transportation Alternatives opened Ed’s eyes to visions of a less car-centric world, and he was able to experience, first-hand, the city’s “bicycling renaissance.”
Now back in Los Gatos, you’re likely to catch Ed taking his son to preschool on the back of his cargo e-bike or doing his best on the rolling roads around his home. With a third career in agriculture and real estate investment/development, he’s gotten involved in land use policy that dovetails with bike infrastructure. Through his involvement with SVBC, Ed hopes to support the Silicon Valley’s own “bicycling renaissance,” helping ensure his son can safely ride to school someday and experience the same joy he once did.
Jim Parker
“I believe that there has never been a better opportunity for SVBC to positively influence our community, and I’d like to assist in those efforts.”
Jim has been an avid cyclist for the past 20 years in and around Silicon Valley, including century rides and commuting to work, as well as being a founding member of two of the larger regional triathlon clubs, Silicon Valley Triathlon Club and TRIbe.
Jim is interested in incentivizing more local employers to encourage bicycle commuting.
Alyssa Plicka
Alyssa is a native of the bay area and by design currently lives in the biking rich Santa Cruz Mountains. In college, she exclusively commuted on her bike and her love for cycling has continued to grow. Alyssa rides road, cross and mountain bikes in addition to competing occasionally. Alyssa has experienced riding in many countries and states and it is clear the attitude towards cyclists is so important to the overall cycling experience and safety. Creating a community and infrastructure that embraces cycling is a dream. With more and more people coming to the bay area the importance of non vehicle transportation is imperative. The opportunities and impact SVBC can make to Silicon Valley in the next few years is hugely exciting but also a bit daunting.
Alyssa is a CPA with PWC and has been on SVBC’s Board and Finance Committee for the past eight years. Alyssa will use her expertise in accounting and finance to help SVBC manage their growth against the many opportunities. Alyssa is excited to be a part of SVBC in the coming years.
Hong Quan
Hong Quan is slightly annoyed by people who talk about themselves in the third person. He is also not one to toot his own horn, but taking the advice he gives to his kids, he will this time. Now for the actual bio:
Hong Quan is a serial founder and Startup Dad, as well as a serious bike enthusiast who loves to build up bikes for his family and friends. Hong has been helping Founders build their startups from the earliest stages, finding strategic talent, crafting teams and designing orgs with a focus on high-performance culture and diversity. His client list includes over a dozen "Unicorns" or startups valued over $1B. He sold his first startup in the transportation industry, and helped usher in the age of modern electric bicycles with his second. He's currently working on his third startup at the intersection of housing development and climate change.
Hong's earliest memory of wrenching on bikes was refurbishing an old Schwinn he found in the trash. His first dollar was made delivering takeout on a BMX bike with a milk crate strapped to the bars. Hong started Karmic City in his garage to help people "ride further and faster" everyday. The Koben, Kyoto and Oslo were revolutionary designs which inspired many ebikes on the market today. With his 7 years in the bike industry, Hong sees a huge gap between everyday riders and weekend enthusiasts, but hopes to bridge that divide with our shared love of bicycles. He still believes that the simple bicycle can solve some of the world's biggest problems. At the end of the day, we're all just people on bikes.
Hong's love of racing started in college when he restarted the Columbia Cycling team and organized one of the longest running criterium races in New York City. Hong also started the #bikesandcoffee hashtag and can be seen on his vintage Merlin or Bridgestone at coffee shops all over the Bay Area.
Christina M. Salvatier
Christina M. Salvatier is the Chief Financial Officer of Valley Health Foundation, a 501(c)3 nonprofit leader in community health and healthcare that fundraises to support, innovate, and advocate better health for all in Santa Clara County.
Christina oversees all aspects of the foundation's finances, procedural policies, and human resources, as well as ensures compliance with state and federal laws. She is responsible for the management of nearly $14 Million in assets and over 200 funds. Christina is a graduate of San Jose State University (SJSU) with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and a Masters in Public Administration. Christina comes from a united Latino family, who she often visits in Los Banos, California. Christina was honored as the Rising Star Women of the Year by the 15th Senate District in 2019 and as a Finalist for CFO of the Year by the Silicon Valley Business Journal in 2015. Christina serves on several boards, audit, and supervisory committees, including SJSU and Premier One Credit Union. On her free time, Christina enjoys nature, plants, books, music festivals, and dancing on several Latin dance performance teams.
Christina represents the segment of the bike community that is not usually wearing spandex and looks forward to helping SVBC understand those who do not naturally gravitate towards the bicycle. Additionally, since SVBC now has annual revenues in excess of $1 million, she looks forward to bringing her nonprofit finance expertise to help the organization further professionalize its finances.