Meet Our 2022 Advocacy and Education Award Winners

It’s an honor every year to announce our Advocacy and Education Awards. Not only is it a celebration of the efforts of so many dedicated volunteers and advocates, it’s an opportunity for us to listen and learn from them. 

At the 2022 National Bike Summit, we revealed this year’s awardees and this May, during Bike Month, we’ll sit down with each of them for an in-depth discussion that you’ll be able to watch on YouTube.

Now, please join us in applauding the people and organizations who in 2021 expanded and grew the bicycling movement through education, encouragement, and advocacy. Thanks to their tireless efforts, we are building a more Bicycle Friendly America for everyone. 

Club of the Year

This award is for a bicycle club that has done an excellent job at providing a great experience for its members and people who are new to bicycling. The goal of this award is to recognize clubs that do an exceptional job at integrating advocacy into club activities or supporting advocacy organizations while creating exceptional events for new and experienced bicyclists. This award is about recognizing clubs that are inclusive, welcoming, and committed to growing bicycling.

OUR 2022 AWARD GOES TO TO EL GRUPO YOUTH CYCLING

El Grupo Youth Cycling, based in Tucson, Arizona, is a youth cycling organization focused on inspiring and empowering youth to get on bikes through programs for all ages, including year-round after-school programs, bike packing trips and a summer bike camp. Like us, El Grupo recognizes that bicycling can be a powerful tool in building leadership skills, camaraderie and a healthy lifestyle.

WHAT WAS A RECENT MOMENT OF BIKE JOY IN YOUR WORK?

24 hours in the Old Pueblo MTB race showed youth how to enjoy riding like a true team in a relay setting; riders slept in shifts, cheered on each other, and were able to bike out a win on the last lap after a neck and neck battle through the night. Seeing the teamwork setting through bike riding has been the highlight of our spring MTB season for 2022.

Visit El Grupo Youth Cycling’s website to learn more and follow the club on Facebook, and Instagram

Emerging Leader of the Year

This award is a special accolade for a young person who is new to the bicycling movement and has demonstrated exceptional and inspiring bicycle advocacy. Nominees have demonstrated leadership in their short tenure and show great potential to continue leading in the bicycling movement.

OUR 2022 AWARD GOES TO PHOEBE MROZINSKI

Phoebe Mrozinski is a BOLD Women’s Leadership Network Scholar and was introduced to the bicycle movement as a student bike commuter at the University of Connecticut. Inspired to share what she had come to learn and love about bicycling with other students, she volunteered with bike education courses at her local bike shop and went on to develop bike education programming at the University of Connecticut, work as a bike mechanic at the UConn Recreation Adventure Center and contribute several bike opinion pieces to the Daily Campus newspaper.

WHAT WAS A RECENT MOMENT OF BIKE JOY IN YOUR WORK?

In the fall, I taught a Ph-D student how to ride a bike. After hours of running alongside her, I finally let go and shed a tear as I watched her ride away. It made me proud to know that my work can inspire others to find freedom on a bike.

Follow Phoebe on Instagram or follow her Bike and Build Drive.

Advocate of the Year 

This award goes to a leader of a bicycling and/or walking advocacy organization who has shown tireless commitment to promoting bicycling and walking in their state/community. This person goes above and beyond the call of duty to transform their state/community into a great place for biking and walking. Their time, knowledge, creativity, and commitment are the highest standard of excellence exemplifying a role model for peers.

OUR 2022 AWARD GOES TO BRANTLEY TYNDALL

Brantley Tyndall has worked tirelessly to advocate for safe bicycling, walking, and safer streets as the Director of Outreach at Bike Walk RVA and President of the Virginia Bicycling Federation. When he’s not out on his bike growing his racing skills, he is growing transportation advocacy efforts across the Virginia region, leading in advocating for the passage of a safety stop that would allow Virginia cyclists to treat stop signs as yield signs, as well as trail funding for a proposed 43-mile regional walking and biking trail that will run through Central Virginia and connect seven state localities.

WHAT WAS A RECENT MOMENT OF BIKE JOY IN YOUR WORK?

I have never experienced the same level of joy in bike advocacy as supporting nine Virginia localities coming together in an unprecedented way to invest over $100 million to build a new 43-mile multi-use trail, called the Fall Line, that will serve as a backbone across Central Virginia and a signature portion of the Commonwealth’s section of the East Coast Greenway.

Follow Bike Walk RVA on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook and follow VA Bike on Instagram and Twitter.

Susie Stephens Joyful Enthusiasm Award

This award commemorates Susie Stephens, one of the Alliance for Biking & Walking founders and an enduring inspiration for many members of the bicycle and pedestrian movement. The honor goes to an individual or group who carries on Susie’s passion for advocating for bicycling as a fun and economical means of transportation.

OUR 2022 AWARD GOES TO CHARISE STEPHENS

Charise Stephens is the founder of U Create Macon, the first and only official youth affiliate of the Major Taylor Association in the world and a makerspace for youth to thrive by bike with bike rodeos, bike history tours, Earn A Bike programs and more. She exudes pure bike joy when talking about getting more kids in her community on bikes and is said by many to be “transforming the state of Georgia” with her passion for increasing representation for young Black cyclists.

WHAT WAS A RECENT MOMENT OF BIKE JOY IN YOUR WORK?

My joy is seeing kids (especially kids from our roughest neighborhood) earning their first bikes and seeing their smiles. One of our newest recruits was a child that had never owned a bike. He just did 25 miles with our team and earned a bike at age 15. He cried with tears of joy because in his own words…”Ms. Charise, I am a somebody, I ain’t a nobody no more”.

Visit U Create Macon’s website to learn more and follow the group on Twitter and Facebook.

Gail and Jim Spann Educator of the Year

This award recognizes a person who has worked to elevate bike education in their state/community. We’re looking for educators who are current League Cycling Instructors, active in teaching classes in the past year, serve diverse communities, and have shown innovation in their education work. 

OUR 2022 AWARD GOES TO DEBRA L. FRANKLIN

Debra L. Franklin wears many hats as an educator. She is a League Cycling Instructor, BikeWalk NC Trustee, USA Cycling Coach, AARP Driver Safety Program Volunteer, Bicycle Friendly Motorist Instructor, and a Career Counselor for the American Counseling Association. As a former city bus driver, she recognized the need for people to be able to confidently and safely get around by bike and aspires for her bike education consultation business, Bicycle Oven Company, to be the first accredited Bicycle Trade School in North Carolina.

WHAT WAS A RECENT MOMENT OF BIKE JOY IN YOUR WORK?

My recent moment was teaching a 4-year-old how to glide on a balance bike. #LetsRide

Follow Bicycle Oven Company on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Katherine “Kittie” T. Knox Award

This award recognizes champions of equity, diversity, and inclusion in the bicycling movement. This award goes to an individual or group that has led in making bicycling more inclusive and representative and has worked to remove barriers to participation by underserved and underrepresented people in their community, state, or country.

Learn more about Kittie Knox and her advocacy for a more inclusive League and bike community.

OUR 2022 AWARD GOES TO COURTNEY WILLIAMS

Courtney Williams is on a mission to ensure equitable access to the transportation, health and economic benefits of cycling through her advocacy project, The Brown Bike Girl. As an equity initiative consultant, DEI teacher and trainer, League Cycling Instructor and Grist 2020 Climate Fixer, she roots her work in making bicycle education more accessible and inclusive for BIPOC students by offering classes in different languages, teaching a wide variety of topics like urban street navigation, and working with new partners to increase her reach, and she encourages others to do the same by sharing equity-focused resources.

WHAT WAS A RECENT MOMENT OF BIKE JOY IN YOUR WORK?

After 3 cycles of collaborating with the NYC Dept of Health to train local residents to lead year-round rides with El Barrio Bikes coalition of East Harlem, the popularity of The Brown Bike Girl’s group ride leader training program has inspired the East Brooklyn branch of the agency to contract me to finally bring the program to the residents of the collection of neighborhoods where I first began my advocacy work. Now instead of looking toward one event, the predominantly Black and Brown neighbors will be able to look toward at least a full season of locally accessible health and leisure ride opportunities via the future East Brooklyn Bike Club! (Launching May 2022.)

Find more about The Brown Bike Girl here and follow Courtney on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Advocacy Organization of the Year 

This award goes to a bicycling and/or walking advocacy organization or club who, in the past year, made significant progress. Their leaders have worked tirelessly together to grow and strengthen their organization and fulfill their mission. The proof of their efforts is in the growth of their capacity, programs, membership and the victories they have achieved for biking and walking in their state/community. This award is about recognizing organizations that are inclusive, welcoming, and committed to growing bicycling.

OUR 2022 AWARD GOES TO BIKE DURHAM

Bike Durham is based in Durham, North Carolina, and runs on a mission to ensure that everyone has access to safe, affordable, and sustainable transportation. For the organization, 2021 was a year of many long-term safety initiatives coming into fruition, including developing a Safe Routes to Schools program in Durham’s public elementary schools, partnering with a neighborhood association and the City’s Transportation department to conduct a traffic calming plan, and pushing their City Council to increase funding for sidewalks, trails, bicycle facilities, and other equitable green infrastructure by $6 million per year for 10 years.

WHAT WAS A RECENT MOMENT OF BIKE JOY IN YOUR WORK?

On a Saturday in early December, we held a Bike Festival for youth following four weeks of teaching bike safety skills to fifth-graders at Eastway Elementary in Durham. The turnout was estupendo, and the highlight was when the school counselor got on a bike for the first time since she was a little girl.

Visit Bike Durham’s website to learn more and follow the group on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Dr. Paul Dudley White Award 

This award is the highest honor the League bestows. The recipient should be an inspiration to others for their commitment to the future of bicycling and someone that has made significant progress in education, safety, rights, or benefits of bicycling.

OUR 2022 AWARD GOES TO CONGRESSMAN PETER DEFAZIO

Congressman Peter DeFazio has been in Congress and on the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee since 1987, and, as a former bike mechanic, has been a longtime supporter of investments in safe and accessible bicycling and walking. In 2019, DeFazio was elected to Chair the House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure, which has jurisdiction over all the nation’s transportation system. In 2020, Chairman DeFazio authored and passed in the House, the Moving Forward Act, transportation legislation that addresses the climate crisis head on, created a new performance measure to improve access across all modes, a strong complete streets/context-sensitive design approach in federal policy, and included huge strides for biking and walking safety and funding.

Bicycle Friendly America Leadership Award 

The Bicycle Friendly America Leadership Award recognizes civic, academic, and business leaders who have made significant contributions towards our shared goal of an America where biking is safe, comfortable, and accessible for all  From mayors and CEOs to public agency leaders, academics, and university presidents, this award honors the leadership of changemakers each year.

OUR 2022 AWARD GOES TO CHARLES T. BROWN

Charles T. Brown is the founder and CEO of Equitable Cities LLC, an organization dedicated to reconnecting communities suffering from disinvestment. As a thought leader, researcher, and award-winning expert in planning and policy, he has continuously highlighted “the social, political, economic, and health impacts of racial disparities in transportation.” In 2021, Charles worked with the League to lead a focus group that reviewed and provided feedback for a national survey conducted to gauge support for bicycling in the United States, which was released in the League’s Reconnecting to the New Majority report.

WHAT WAS A RECENT MOMENT OF BIKE JOY IN YOUR WORK?

I had a one-hour conversation with a 75-year-old Black cyclist from Chicago. His belief in me and the work I’m doing positively ignited my soul and thirst for justice.

Visit Equitable Cities’ website to learn more and follow Charles on Twitter and LinkedIn.