Case Study in Leadership

The League is excited to announce the first keynote presentation at the 2015 National Forum on Women & Bicycling: Ren Barger, founder and CEO of Tulsa Hub, and Barbara Bannon, Tulsa Hub Board Chair and expert human resources and organizational development consultant, will provide a live case study on organizational transformation.

They are going to be sharing their experience creating and growing Tulsa Hub. Women Bike is excited to have these two accomplished women leaders take the stage and share openly and honestly the challenges inherent in bicycling advocacy, and how they were able create a successful business addressing a vital social need. Tulsa Hub’s success has been at the center of bicycling advocacy in Tulsa, a city poised and ready to follow the lead of these two talented women advocates. 

Barger, as the founder and CEO of Tulsa Hub, has a long and eventful history as a vehicular cyclist and active-transportation educator. Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and raised between Wisconsin and Nantucket Island, she settled in Chicago after graduating Booker T. Washingotn high school, where she began using a bicycle as her primary means of transportation. It was here in the Windy City where she earned a living as a bike courier while attending Columbia College Chicago and volunteered for Working Bikes Cooperative and Blackstone Bike Works.

In 2004, after completing a self-contained bike-tour of the state of California, Barger was hit by a motorist and sustained several broken bones, including a spinal fracture, and was confined to a wheelchair for two months. Through a therapeutic yoga practice, she was able to recover. In 2007 Ren completed her League of American Bicyclists Cycling Instructor training, and resettled in Tulsa. Barger founded Tulsa Hub in 2008, as avolunteer-powered social business which offers low-or-no-cost reconditioned bikes and gear to indigent adults in need of transportation to achieve improved autonomy. Upon consummating studies at the United Bicycle Institute in Ashland, Oregon, in 2009, she honed her passion for service, social justice, and bicycle advocacy into a mission focused on “changing lives through cycling”.

Bannon is owner and principle consultant of Human Resource Investments (HRI) a consulting firm specializing in human resource management and organization development. She is the author of two books, “Risky Business, Overcoming Fear and Mastering the Art of Conflict Resolution” and “The Empty Desk Survival Guide” as well as several articles. She’s worked in schools, for public utility companies and also as the head of employee relations for a Fortune 500 company. Since beginning her own independent consulting business, she has worked with hundreds of organizations and individuals and specializes in the area of conflict management and mediation. She also designs and instructions workshiops on a variety of leadership and management topics. She’s an adjunct professor at Oklahoma State University’s Spears School of Business. 

Register for the 2015 National Forum on Women & Bicycling today!