Portland State research gives walking and bicycling their due as key pieces of a transportation system, exploring the choice to walk or cycle and how to make those options safer. It also looks at the economic factors of a system suited to cyclists and pedestrians. Our faculty, research staff and students at PSU are national experts in designing safe, effective and innovative bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure.
Anna is a low-vision parent, nondriver and author of 
Ray Delahanty is the creator behind 
Author of Roadways for People: Rethinking Transportation Planning and Engineering, Lynn Peterson’s career has led her on a journey from building projects to building communities that work for everyone. Lynn’s 30-year-plus transportation career has covered an impressive range of experience. From building and designing roads to serving as an elected and appointed official in both Oregon and Washington, respectively, she has worked on policy and implementation of transportation projects and trained State DOTs on forward-thinking transportation planning processes. Nationally recognized as a transportation and land use integration expert, she understands the pitfalls of being a White urban woman working with communities that are culturally and racially different from her own. She also recognizes that in order to do her best work, she must always strive to keep an open heart and mind in order to understand the perspectives of individuals in her communities.
Elise Roy is a deaf human centered designer, former lawyer, and motivational speaker who works in the vanguard of the disruptive innovation movement. She is a passionate proponent of the notion that when we design for disability, we often develop solutions that are better than when we design for the norm. A highly skilled public speaker, she has given talks at Microsoft, the U.S. Institute for Peace, the United Nations, and the World Bank. Her TEDx talk, "When we Design for Disability, We All Benefit," has over 1.2 million views. Elise’s deafness has always given her a heightened awareness of how profoundly design shapes the social, emotional and physical environment and this led her to study human-centered design in Maryland Institute College of Art’s (MICA) Social Design program. She completed a master’s degree with a thesis that investigated the barriers that exist for individuals with hearing loss in the fabrication technology and design realm. In 2016 Elise founded Elise Roy & Associates, a social enterprise that helps organizations analyze problems from the vantage point of people with disabilities to disrupt markets and industries. The organization is founded on the notion that when we design for extremes we come up with better solutions than when we design for the norm.
The inaugural Ann Niles Active Transportation Lecture was given in 2013 by Jean-François Pronovost, vice president for development and public affairs at advocacy group Vélo Québec. One of the most notable projects for Vélo Québec is La Route Verte (The Green Route), a 5,000-kilometer-plus bicycle route across Canada's largest province. La Route Verte crosses rural areas, towns and cities and incorporates all types of bikeways. The route got its start in 1992, when Pronovost was organizer of the Velo Mondial conference. There, Vélo Québec presented a vision and plan for what cycling could be at the turn of the century. The efforts paid off in 1995, with the provincial government investing $88.5 million and tasking Vélo Québec to plan and build the route. La Route Verte is now the most extensive bike route in North America.
Jordan Katcher (she/her) is an Initiatives Facilitator for the Wallace Stegner Center Environmental Dispute Resolution (EDR) Program and an Adjunct Instructor within the City + Metropolitan Planning Department at the University of Utah. She serves as facilitator and operations manager for the Gateway + Natural Amenity Region (GNAR) Initiative, facilitates community conversations, conducts situation assessments, and provides training and coaching related to conflict management and collaborative process design. Outside of work, she enjoys forest bathing, baking sourdough bread, traveling, laughing with loved ones, and practicing gratitude.
Elizabeth Sodja is the Program Coordinator for the Gateway & Natural Amenity Region (GNAR) Initiative at Utah State University (USU) Extension. She has a decade of communications and community outreach experience, and has worked with federal, state, and local government agencies. Before joining GNAR, she worked for USU's Center for Community Engagement and the National Park Service. She grew up in a small town in Utah where most family vacations were either camping, fishing, or in a National Park, and has a passion for helping small towns around the west preserve what is special about them. When she isn't working, you can usually find her and her husband climbing a rock, living out of a tent, or driving down a dirt road covered in dog hair.
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