Meet the BTA’s new Policy Advocate

[Emily Gardner is the
BTA’s new Policy Advocate.]

The BTA has hired several new staffers in the last few months, but the one you’ll probably be hearing most about is their new Policy Advocate, Emily Gardner.

Emily comes to this position after former Metro Area Advocate (notice the different title, more on that later) Jessica Roberts recently moved on to work at Alta Planning and Design.

Emily — who has a Master’s Degree in curriculum development and instruction from Michigan State University — is cramming her schedule to get up to speed on the politics, projects, and people that make up Portland’s bike scene.

During our meeting over coffee in North Portland, she excitedly told me about her first experience in “multi-modalism” (a phrase she surely never knew before getting this job),

“I went up to Vancouver (WA) to visit with Todd Boulanger (a bike-loving, City of Vancouver transportation planner) and putting my bike on the bus rack was definitely an empowering experience.”

Emily might need the bus to make it to all the meetings she’s going to these days. Asked what she’ll be doing as Policy Advocate, she replied,

“I will be the lead on the Bike Parking team, the Crash team, and the Bicycle Boulevard team which is focusing on N/NE right now. I will also be involved more secondarily with the Policy Advocacy team and the Platinum team, and the LOPAC committee (Lake Oswego to Portland Transit Alternatives Analysis Advisory Committee).”

I liked Emily from the start and time flew by during our conversation. She’s smart and has some solid, creative ideas on how to grow the cycling pie in Portland.

Emily grew up in Detroit, Michigan and came to Portland (via Milwaukee, Wisconsin) back in 2004 to work on Bridge Pedal (she has several years of event management experience). Prior to that she worked as an advocate for sexual and gender minorities at a domestic violence shelter. These experiences drive her interest in community organizing and in reaching out to under-represented parts of the community.

When our discussion turned toward making Portland’s cycling population more ethnically diverse (an issue PDOT is trying to figure out as well), she thought it might make sense to form a partnership with the local chapter of the African American Health Coalition. On the topic of bike boulevards, she wondered whether it might be possible to tie them in with our Safe Routes to Schools effort to find funding and give them more political clout. Both of these are interesting ideas.

I was curious why the BTA changed the title of Emily’s position from Metro Area Advocate to Policy Advocate. According to Emily, the change was intentional:

“‘Metro-Area Advocate’ implied a certain geographic parameter around advocacy that we are trying to expand…as a Policy Advocate, the intention is to deliberately expand the focus of advocacy to include statewide and regional issues/initiatives.”

This new state-wide focus coincides with a recent vote by the BTA Board of Directors to allow new BTA chapters to form around the state and region (the BTA used to allow chapters, but some of them veered from official policies and had their status revoked).

Having one person in charge of keeping tabs on the entire state (and SW Washington) is a daunting task so I hope more chapters spring up soon. Portland has many bike issues to tackle and stay on top of and we need all the power the BTA can spare right here in our own backyard.

2007 will be a big year for the BTA and Emily Gardner will be right in the middle of everything; it’s good to know she’s up to the task.

Good luck Emily, we all look forward to working with you.