“On a Roll with….” will feature interviews with women who bike in style. I’m compiling a list of interviewees I’d love to catch up with and working on the questions I’ll ask them.
This isn’t just about “notable” women (although I’m proud to say we have some notable women leaders who bike!). It’s about talking with women who make biking part of their lives (mostly without making a huge frickin’ deal out of it) and who manage it with style and grace.
Here is the beginnings of a list of women I’d love to talk with:
- Spokane Mayor Mary Verner, who has opened the Bike to Work Week Kickoff Breakfast every year since we began in 2008
- Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown (@SenatorLisa on Twitter)
- Bike coach, bike events organizer and Spokane Regional Sports Commission events coordinator Marla Emde of Emde Sports
- City Council member Amber Waldref
- Belles and Baskets women’s bike club founder Betsy Lawrence
- Bicycle Advisory Board member and Spokane County librarian Wilma Flanagan
- Bicycle Advisory Board member, software QA analyst at Next IT, and mom Rachel Scrudder (@thequestess on Twitter)
- Eileen Hyatt, Bicycle Alliance of Washington board member, League-certified bike instructor, and SpokaneBikeBuddy@aol.com if you need some advice and help with routes
- Angela Brown, Director of Employment Services for Spokane Public Schools who started out riding just a little and has now done STP (Seattle to Portland) twice; founder of Sistahpedia
- Wendy Osterling, a recent transplant to Spokane who’s a pediatric neurologist at Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital
- Liza Mattana, certified bike mechanic and board member at Pedals2People
- Beth Mort, urban forester for the City of Spokane and part of the team at Sun People Dry Goods
- Nancy Roth, a familiar voice from promos for Spokane Public Radio
- Erika Henry, co-chair of Spokane Bikes and Spokane Summer Parkways
And here are some questions I might ask:
- Tell me about your bike(s).
- What type(s) of riding do you do? How often, what destinations, and how far?
- What’s the most common question you get asked when you bike somewhere?
- What do you usually wear when you ride?
- What things do you wish were different about your bike and gear or women’s clothing or both that would make it easier to bike and look good, if that’s something you think about?
- Who or what made a difference in your life that got you on the bike?
- What does Spokane need to make it an even better place for women to ride their bikes?
- What question didn’t I ask that you want to answer?
Your Turn
- Who would you like to see interviewed? How about you?
- What questions would you like to see answered?
We’re Rolling!
I’ll update this list as I add interviews.
- On a Roll with Michelle S, Olympia
- On a Roll with Sue Hinz, Pullman
- On a Roll with Madeleine Carlson, Seattle
- On a Roll with Betsy Lawrence: On Becoming a Late-in-Life Jock
- On a Roll with Jamie Morgan, Coeur d’Alene
- On a Roll with Katherine Widing, Spokane
- On a Roll with Wilma Flanagan, Spokane
- On a Roll with Rachel Scrudder, Spokane
- On a Roll with Angela Brown, Spokane
- On a Roll with…
Great suggestion! Hoping to meet her at Summer Parkways June 22.
You must chat with Katherine Widing, travel writer, specializing in books on cycle touring. She’s involved with Spokefest and Spokane Parkways and has lived in Spokane for about a year! She rides with Belles and Baskets too.
Great! I’ll add her to the list.
More names I thought of after writing this:
Kitty Klitzke, Spokane coordinator for Futurewise and a follow member of the Spokane Regional Transportation Council’s Transportation Advisory Committee with me
Angie Feser, landscape architect and triathlete with Team Blaze
Erika Prins, writer and campaign manager for City Council candidate John Waite
Pia Hallenberg Christensen, Spokesman-Review blogger (who has a head start on all of us; she’s from a country where everyone bikes!)
Anne Irmer, vanpool coordinator for Spokane Transit and another triathlete/bike racer
Wynne O’Brien Persons, bike racer
There are so many!
How about Lynn Chistensen, L.Ac.– Artemisia Acupuncture…