Alexandra Martinez
Absolute Bikes, Flagstaff, AZ

I am Alexandra Martinez and I work at Absolute Bikes in Flagstaff, Arizona. I am passionate about all things bikes. I have been riding and racing mountain bikes since I was 15. I am excited to learn how to work on bikes, expand my knowledge and help my community.

Asha Greyeyes
BICAS, Tucson, AZ

Yah’aht’eeh, my name is Asha Greyeyes, I’m a mom who works at a community bike collective called BICAS in Tucson, Arizona. My roommate-friends in college were the ones who really opened the door for me into the bike scene and to BICAS, which at first I didn’t take much interest in, but as time went on, I came to love the independence and capabilities both gave me. I hope with the QBP scholarship, I can take what I have learned from the classes and my shop, back to my home on the Navajo Reservation and start something bikey there for my daughter and my community. I have come so far thanks to my friends, my family, especially my mom and I want my BICAS family to know they give me confidence I did not know I had through bikes and with their support in and out of the shop; let us continue riding bikes together in beauty.

Ashley Carlson
The Bike Union, Omaha, NE

My name is Ashley Carlson and I am the Program Manager at The Bike Union and Coffee in Omaha, Nebraska. We are a nonprofit organization that hires youth who have been in foster care and provides them with workforce and personal development. We also facilitate a summer mountain bike program for youth in the community. I am excited to go to UBI to expand my knowledge and skills and be better equipped to teach the young people I work with and empower them to get more involved with cycling.

Bridget Tevnan
Reno Bike Project, Reno, NV

My name is Bridget, and I work as the Youth Programs Coordinator at Reno Bike Project-a nonprofit bike shop in Reno, NV. I am excited for the opportunity to expand my skills and thereupon provide hands-on, bicycle education that might empower students as problem-solvers and future mechanics. When I’m not riding, I enjoy hiking, identifying plants, wildcrafting, and hosting a weekly show on Reno’s community radio station, KWNK-LP 97.7 FM!

Candi Jiosne
REI, Atlanta, GA

My name is Candi Jiosne. I am a bike tech and an IMBA Level II cycling instructor with REI in Atlanta, GA. My favorite classes to teach are the women’s hands on bike repair and mountain bike skills classes. There’s nothing like women empowering other women! I’m super stoked to deepen my understanding about bicycle mechanics so I can share more with my community.

Celeste Verhelst
Cycles for Change, St. Paul, MN

As the Learn to Ride program coordinator at Cycles for Change, I teach adults of diverse ethnicity how to ride bicycles & am one of the facilitators of our Grease Rag, women/trans/fem open shop. I’m passionate about increasing & keeping access open to riding & fixing bikes for IBPOC, immigrant, women/ trans/ fem & all folks under represented in the bike industry or marginalized by our current society. I love bicycling & the joy, liberation, autonomy, community and social justice building, balance and camaraderie it has given me & am stoked to share more of that along with bike fixing skills with the communities I work and ride with.

Charlotte Cadieux
CLT Bike Camp, Trips for Kits Charlotte, Charlotte, NC

My name is Charlotte and I live in Charlotte NC! I work at the Charlotte Recyclery and co-lead a non-profit CLT Bike Camp. My wish is to see bicycles and public transit strengthen, connect and bring happiness to this city, the way they have for me.

Claire Cullipher
The Spoke Easy, Charlotte, NC

Hey kids..I am Claire Cullipher, a mum that loves working at The Spoke Easy in Charlotte,NC. I’m stoked to bring the skills I learn back to our shop. I am also looking forward to bringing my passion and knew found knowledge back to the addiction recovery community. As most of the folks in the shop..I love steel!

Deborah (Debbie) Trubatch
Tryon Bike, Rochester, NY

Hi, my name is Debbie Trubatch, apprentice bicycle mechanic at Tryon Bikes in Rochester, NY. Bicycling has played a very important role in my life since childhood; it has represented independence and freedom, and brought me both peace and strength. After some big challenges in my life, and after leaving a corporate career of 30 years, I embarked on a solo tour of 1500 miles through the desert, canyons and mountains.

It was on this trip that I realized I wanted to work in the bicycle industry and learn from the ground up, so becoming a bicycle mechanic is the first step in the journey.

I also have a great desire to share the love of bicycling with others and I would especially like to introduce those who have experienced health and personal challenges in their life, to the joy that bicycling can provide be it casual recreational rider, commuter or wilderness adventurer.

Emma Coakley
Scheller’s Fitness and Cycling, Louisville, KY

My name is Emma Coakley and I love spreading the joy of bikes to everyone I possibly meet! I work at Scheller’s Fitness & Cycling in Louisville, Kentucky and race bikes and off-road triathlon on the side. I am really looking forward to gaining new mechanical knowledge and learning more how I and others in my community can work to make riding and/or racing bikes a happy, healthy and much more inclusive space for everyone.

Virginia (Ginny) Duncan
Spoke Bicycle Café, Los Angeles, CA

My name is Ginny, and for nearly 10 years I’ve been commuting by bicycle and working in nonprofit shops in Memphis, Baltimore, and now Los Angeles! At the Bicycle Kitchen I work with the kid’s earn-a-bike class getting tomorrow’s commuters and city-planners excited about bikes, and I’m excited to be working at Spoke Bicycle Cafe and leading a workshop for femme and gender non-conforming folks where I can reach new people and improve access to products and resources that aren’t typically available at co-ops. After years of working on mostly old steel frames for transportation justice, I’m looking forward to learning more about new technologies so that I can help “close the gap” in sports and recreation and influence a cultural shift from that end too!

Jackie Brown
All Out Adventures, Northampton, MA

My name is Jackie Brown and I am a recumbent trike mechanic and program leader at All Out Adventures. We provide outdoor recreation programs for people of all abilities. I am thrilled to bring the training back from UBI to continue breaking down barriers and spreading the joy of cycling to others.

Jessica Wyman
Rolling H Cycles, Nampa, ID

I’m Jessica Wyman, Sales Manager at Rolling H Cycles where I get to work, volunteer, and coach in my local community. I’m excited to expand my skill set so that I can continue to grow in the ways I can give back to my local cycling community through clinics and coaching at Rolling H Cycles, with the Rolling H Ladies cycling club of 50+ women, and of course with our local NICA team, C4, Canyon County Composite Cycling. My passion is to create confidence in cycling.

JoAnne Maltese
Hubs and Hops, Thomasville, GA

My name is JoAnne Maltese; wife, mother of three daughters, a triathlete, and all around cycling enthusiast. My passion for all things cycling and craft beer lead me to open a bike shop and tap room in Thomasville, GA., Hubs and Hops, with my buisness partner Roger Hawkes. We strive to build a gravel road/adventure cycling community in southern Georgia where the most beautiful canopy clay roads are in abundance. Let’s get more people on bikes!

Judith Rognli
St. George Bicycle Collective, St. George, UT

My name is Judith Rognli. I am an immigrant, mom, and sociologist turned Location Director of the St. George Bicycle Collective, the only non-profit community bike shop in Southern Utah.
I love bikes for their ability to be perfect facilitators for so many things at once: to improve quality of life, empower and equalize, draw down greenhouse emissions, tackle public health issues, bridge political and social divides, getting places, and so much more. I am beyond excited to share the knowledge gained through the QBP scholarship with my community.

Judith Westwood
Provo Bicycle Collective, Provo, UT

Hi, I’m Judith! I currently work as a bike mechanic for a non-profit bike Co-Op called the Provo Bicycle Collective. I’m looking forward to improving my mechanics skills during my time at UBI so I can better serve my community.

Kate Sage
Amain Cycling, Chico, CA

I’ve worked in the cycling industry for over a decade in many different jobs, I live and breathe bikes and could be the biggest bike nerd you will ever meet. I love the freedom, the connection to the outdoors and to our community that bicycles give us. I believe they are magical machines that have the potential to solve so many of our society’s problems while we get rad at the same time.

Katrina Leyden
San Francisco Bike Kitchen, San Francisco, CA

My name is Katrina, and I am based in Oakland, CA where I’m pursuing my Associate Degrees in both Welding and Machine Technology. I’m curious and compelled by bikes and all things mechanical, and hope this training will jump-start my education in bike repair and maintenance. My goal is to one day design and build bike frames!

KeKe Pinkney
Working Bikes, Chicago, IL

My name is Keke, I work at Working Bikes in Chicago and my passion is helping others and bikes. Super excited to be here!

Kimberly Melton
Recycle – A – Bicycle, Brooklyn, NY

Name’s Kim, mechanic x courier in NYC. I am a track racer, a USAC official, and assistant coach for our local youth cycling program, StarTrack. Being an active member of these spaces is my way of fostering a community that better supports WTGNC folx and gets more of us out on bikes!

Kristiina Thompson
The Freewheel Project, Gainesville, FL

Hey all, I’m Kristiina Thompson and I was an owner-operator of Hushpuppy Courier and am now a mechanic and event coordinator at The Freewheel Project, a non-profit bicycle shop and collective in sunny, Gainesville FL. Cycling has helped grow as a person, find a community I feel comfortable and accepted in, and given me a lifelong passion that with this UBI training, I hope to ignite in others, as others have given to me.

Leah Plummer
Uptown Bikes, Chicago, IL

My name is Leah and I am the shop manager at Uptown Bikes, a commuter-oriented shop on the north side of Chicago. At Uptown Bikes, we strive to make every customer feel comfortable and welcome when they walk through the door. I got into bikes as a commuter and have since expanded my riding to include touring and cyclocross. I love using my bike as a tool to explore and meet people. At this training, I am looking forward to learning new skills that I can bring back to share with my coworkers and our customers.

Lehua Taitano
REI, Santa Rosa, CA

I am a queer CHamoru writer and artist, native to the Pacific island of Guåhan. All of my work, whether in the arts or as a bicycle mechanic, leads me to investigate resources for amplifying the voices of marginalized people. particularly those in Indigenous communities who identify as LGBTQIA+. As a genderfluid woman working in a cis male dominated industry, I am passionate about creating inclusive and welcoming spaces for womxn and people of color in all aspects of the cycling community, from beginning cyclists and working class folx who depend on bicycles as transportation, to future professional mechanics in my home shop in Santa Rosa.

Linda Yépiz
Good Karma Bikes, San Jose, CA

My name is Linda Yépiz, and I am delighted to be employed by a nonprofit bike shop with growing programs for women and the homeless. I am passionate about serving women, who are often discouraged from entering into male-dominated professions. I look forward to teaching other women—particularly homeless, and other disenfranchised women—bike maintenance skills, in order to help them feel more confident and safe, in life and on the road.

Lori Romero
Hilltop Bicycles, Madison, NJ

My name is Lori Romero and I am a mechanic apprentice at Hilltop Bicycles in NJ. I’m a roadie at heart, but also love my fat and cross bikes. With this training, I hope to empower female cyclists to become more mechanically independent as well as to bring diversity into the service side of the industry.

Nelly Jones
The Spoke Folks, Grand Rapids, MI

My name is Nelly and I am a Grand Rapids community activist, artist, and shop manager at The Spoke Folks non-profit shop. My goal is to combine my love for poetry, bikes, and exercise by creating a traveling bike repair / movement / art non profit, and this course will allow me to gain more knowledge and confidence in wrenching to do so!

Olivia Williams
REI, Kennesaw, GA

My name is Olivia Williams and I am from a smallish town in North Georgia, USA. I am a born tinkerer who is always game to learn something new. I plan to use all of the skills that I develop in UBI to master important techniques in bike repair and to increase my confidence both in the shop and on the trail.

Sage Saatdijan
Moon Cycles, Arcata, CA

Two years ago, unable to find local work as a bike mechanic, my best friend and I opened our own little full-service neighborhood shop, Moon Cycles.

My enduring romance with bicycle mechanics began at the age of 17, when I trued a wheel at the Los Angeles Bicycle Kitchen and got my first taste of the satisfaction, confidence, and sense of freedom gained by learning my way around these elegant and empowering machines.

As I continue to grow my knowledge and work on redistributing these skills to other womxn, I have a sneaking suspicion that we are doing much more than fixing bikes—we are coming together and learning from one another, taking power into our own hands, and at each turn of the wrench, shifting the culture at large.

Salony Mehrok
Sacramento Bicycle Kitchen, Sacramento , CA

Riding my bicycle connects me to the histories of my mom and grandmother who rode bicycles in India as young girls before cars were mainstream. I make the choice to commute to work on my bike because it deepens my connection to the outdoors and the feelings of freedom and strength. As a volunteer at the Sacramento Bicycle Kitchen, I strive to help others who need functioning bikes. I am grateful for this opportunity and excited about the possibilities from this training!

Sandie Reilly
Ridgewood Cycle Shop, Ridgewood, NJ

Hi, I am Sandie Reilly and I am either on a bike, thinking about a bike or helping someone else with a bike! My life’s work is teaching people to ride, riders to ride better and racers to win. When I’m not on a bike or caring for my family I am making, singing or recording music!

Shannon Leigh
Edgar Bikes, Redmond, WA

I’m Shannon Leigh, aka Radiant Wrench, aka mechanicorn. I ride bikes, fix bikes, teach bikes, live and breathe bikes. I love riding almost as much as I love being part of and supporting my rad community. I’m dedicated to building confidence in my fellow cyclists, encouraging them to grow as riders and be empowered to fix and maintain their own rides.”

Shari Heier
Gearing Up Bike Shop, Taos, NM

Hi! I’m Shari. Living my life in Northern New Mexico. Riding bikes on forest trails. Running my pups on the mesa. Hiking the backcountry. Part of the crew at Gearing Up Bikes in Taos. Volunteering some time w the Enchanted Circle Trails Association to bring more trail riding opportunities to the area. Excited to be a recipient of this scholarship + to learn + share my new skills w the local community.