Staff and Board

Johan Andrade

Johan Andrade, President

Affiliation: Bike North Bergen, President

johan@hudcostreets.org

A lifelong Hudson County resident since the age of 5, Johan became passionate about urban streets and active transportation during a vacation to The Netherlands where his aunt resides. Bike North Bergen launched in September of 2021 and has been steadily growing interest with people in the town who want to see safer streets for all road users. Johan works in the tech industry graduating from the New Jersey Institute of Technology with a degree in Computer Engineering.

Title: President

Affiliation: Bike North Bergen, President

Talya Schwartz

Talya Schwartz, Vice President

Affiliation: SafeStreets JC, President

talya@hudcostreets.org

Talya lives in Jersey City with her family and loves all cities. She believes that city streets are shared spaces for people and community. Talya’s particularly excited to bring safety improvements to the West Side and Journal Square Neighborhoods where she spends most of her time. Her dream is that her kids will one day be able to independently walk and ride bikes around the city safely.

Title: Vice President

Affiliation: SafeStreets JC, President

Matthew Graham

Matthew Graham, Cofounder

mattg@hudcostreets.org

Matt is the founder of Bici UC and lives in Union City with his family.

Title: PATH Campaign Organizer

Ryan Williams

Ryan Williams, Secretary

Affiliation: Bike JC, Secretary

ryanw@hudcostreets.org

Ryan is a computer programmer and long-time bike-share user who bought an e-bike during the pandemic and is obsessed with their potential to revolutionize urban transportation. He has mapped and graphed NJSP crash data, Citi Bike ridership data, and the progress of the Jersey City cycle network—his work can be viewed on this site as well as at neighbor-ryan.org. He advocates for pedestrian and transit improvements around the county with Hudson County Complete Streets and Bike JC.

Title: Secretary

Affiliation: Bike JC, Secretary

James Vance

James Vance, Treasurer

jimv@hudcostreets.org

Jim, a co-founder of Hudson County Complete Streets, is a long-time resident of Hoboken. He served as president of Fund for a Better Waterfront, whose mission is a continuous, public waterfront park in Hoboken. Jim is a member of American Legion Post 107, building homes for homeless veterans. With a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration, Jim built a successful brokerage dealing in used, business jet aircraft. He is a decorated US Army helicopter gunship pilot with 1,600 hours of combat time in Vietnam.

Title: Treasurer

James Lee

James Lee, Trustee

Affiliation: SafeStreets JC, Trustee

jimmy@hudcostreets.org

Jimmy is a trustee and former president of SafeStreetsJC. He is a campaign co-chair of the Turnpike Trap coalition. He has written numerous op-eds about traffic safety and transit issues, and can often be found riding a bus or a bike with his daughter.

Title: Trustee

Affiliation: SafeStreets JC, Trustee

Clayton Lane

Clayton Lane, Trustee

Affiliation: Bike Hoboken, Trustee

clayton@hudcostreets.org

TBA

Title: Trustee

Affiliation: Bike Hoboken, Trustee

Ayla Schermer

Ayla Schermer, Trustee

Affiliation: Bike JC, President

ayla@hudcostreets.org

Ayla is a proud Pittsburgh native turned proud Jersey City resident since 2012. She lives downtown in the Van Vorst Park neighborhood, and is an accountant at a software company in lower Manhattan. Prior to joining the board in 2017, Ayla was a Bike JC volunteer and was also very involved in the launch of CitiBike in Jersey City in 2015. Outside of biking advocacy, Ayla is active in the Jersey City community as a singer in the North River Sing community chorus and as a devoted member of the Van Vorst Park Association. She is also an avid Broadway theatergoer, a sports fanatic, and a travel lover who checks out the biking infrastructure everywhere she goes.

Title: Trustee

Affiliation: Bike JC, President

Tony Borelli

Tony Borelli, Trustee

Affiliation: Bike JC, Vice President

tony@hudcostreets.org

Tony has served on the board of Bike JC since 2014 after volunteering for several years; today he is the manager of the Bike JC social media presence, a liaison to the Jersey City government, and a chief marshal for many organized bike rides. A native of Queens, Tony lived in several urban and suburban towns in North Jersey before moving to Downtown Jersey City’s Hamilton Park neighborhood in 1997. He lives on the same block today. After a decade as a newspaper reporter, and stents editing and writing for Manhattan management and marketing firms, Tony is currently a proofreader and copy editor for Prudential Insurance in Newark, where he is also a member of the revived Brick City Bike Collective advocacy and riding group. A longtime explorer of Jersey City and its urban environs by bike and mass transit, Tony also enjoys triathlons, marathons and distance running, and Jersey City’s art, music, dining, and nightlife scene.

Title: Trustee

Affiliation: Bike JC, Vice President

Beatriz Bofill

Beatriz Bofill, Trustee

Affiliation: Bike JC, Treasurer

beatriz@hudcostreets.org

Beatriz has been cycling (for transportation!) since she was a kid, in many cities and countries, and is now based in the Jersey City Heights and is excited for the many opportunities to improve the cycling experience in Hudson County, especially the 14th St. Viaduct and Manhattan Ave.

Title: Trustee

Affiliation: Bike JC, Treasurer

Emmanuelle Morgen

Emmanuelle Morgen, Cofounder

Affiliation: Bike JC, Trustee

emmanuelle@hudcostreets.org

Emmanuelle came to transportation advocacy after noticing that bike lanes and sometimes sidewalks end inexplicably at municipal borders, creating unsafe conditions for vulnerable road users. Her goals are safe, sustainable streets, a cohesive regional mass transit plan, and a comprehensive county cycle network.

Title: Cofounder & Executive Director

Affiliation: Bike JC, Trustee

Advisory Council

Ron Bautista

Ron Bautista

Ron Bautista is focused on helping communities become more inclusive for people of all incomes, ages, and abilities. Born in Ecuador, Ron spent his adolescence and early adulthood in Hudson County as an undocumented immigrant with a long pathway to citizenship. That's why over the years he's aligned his professional career path with his passion for public service. Ron is a member of the Hoboken Vision Zero Task Force, a board member of the Hudson River Waterfront Conservancy, and the education nonprofit Organizacion Juventud Ecuatoriana. He’s also the chairman of the Coalition for Food and Health Equity, a nonprofit organization that has been addressing meal and nutrition needs for over 1,000 families, and serving over 200,000 healthy meals since 2020. Ron is a proud alum of New Jersey City University and has a Master’s in Political Communications and Governance from The George Washington University.

Kevin Bing

Kevin Bing

Kevin Bing is a Jersey City resident who has been working on street safety and cycling causes for over a decade. Kevin's work has been focused on improving local communities to make our transportation infrastructure safer and more equitable. He is a firm believer that safe systems are possible but that the key missing factor has been the civic will and political leadership to get good things done. In the past he has served on the boards of Bike JC, the Journal Square Community Association, and Bike the US for MS. In his other life, Kevin owns a small family business and goes hiking a lot.

Andy Kaplan

Andy Kaplan

Stephanie Martinez

Stephanie Martinez (she, they)

Steph, an environmental advocate based in North Bergen, NJ, unceded Lenape land, is a Hudson County native and child of immigrants. She advocates for transportation equity, highlighting the interconnected struggles BIPOC communities face daily, and interconnected solutions that meet the needs of Hudson residents and beyond. Engaged with Bike North Bergen and Hudson County Complete Streets, her experiences as a road user empower her to demand youth inclusion in decision-making for equitable, sustainable safe streets for all. Beyond activism, she works in the lab as a Research Technician at the New Jersey Institute of Technology focusing on plastics' impacts on female reproductive health.

Emeritus

  • Chris Adair, Cofounder

  • Ryan Emge, Cofounder

  • Matthew Graham, Cofounder

  • Cara Nasello