AoB is a team effort and we highly value our members, volunteers, staff, and board. Thank you all for your many contributions that help make Asheville a better place. When you show, we grow!
Executive Director:
- Mike Sule
Current Board Members:
- Chris Berthiaume, Board Chair
- Brian Randall, Board Member
- Sophie Mullinax, Board Member
- Laura Richardson, Board Member
- Kent Cranford, Board Treasurer
- Clark Mackey, Board Member
- Torin Kexel, Board Member
- Jen Thompson, Board Secretary
Our Standing Committees:
- Policy
- Events
- Development
- Executive
Our part time staff:
- Abby Walker, Executive Assistant
Meet the AOB Board
Chris Berthiaume
Board Chair, He/Him
Why do you live in Asheville?
Access to the outdoors in a community that really cares about its members and future.
Why do you invest in AoB?
The freedom that I grew up with riding my bicycle around my hometown, Memphis, TN, while potentially filled with the dangers of my youth, was formative for me and I want to enable that for all the kids in Asheville.
What’s your best adventure on a bike?
The Ramble Ride here in WNC a few years ago.
What’s your favorite place to ride in or around Asheville?
Town Mountain, the river arts district, and riding out to Pisgah.
What’s your big wish for Asheville?
An equitable and carbon-independent future.
Brian Randall
Board Member, He/Him
Why do you live in Asheville?
I love mountains
Why do you invest in AoB?
AoB advocates for children to experience their city safely on a bike. AoB education events and Bike Club create wonderful communities of youth centered on the adventure of biking. I invest in AoB because it is transforming the infrastructure of Asheville so my family can safely commute to school and fun around town.
What’s your best adventure on a bike?
Watching my 5 year and 7 year olds complete the Wilma Dykeman Greenway with huge smiles on their faces because they felt safe were motivated to ride!
What’s your favorite place to ride in or around Asheville?
Dupont is my favorite dirt system but my family has truly come to love the Wilma Dykeman greenway.
What’s your big wish for Asheville?
My wish for Asheville is for it to be a place where everyone can experience success and safety, joy and community, peace and bike love!
Sophie Mullinax
Board Member, She/Her
Why do you live in Asheville?
I live in Asheville because it’s been my home since 2001. Much of my family is here and I deeply appreciate and enjoy the natural beauty and vibrancy of our city and surrounding areas. I love getting to see it become friendlier and safer for all types of transportation – car, bike, pedestrian, and transit.
Why do you invest in AoB?
Asheville on Bikes’ mission and work aligns with my vision for a more livable, joyful, and resilient city that is easy to navigate by bike and foot. AoB works hard to address systemic harms, racist policies, and societal inequities, and I’m heartened by AoB’s commitment to the never-ending work of becoming anti-racist.
What’s your best adventure on a bike?
The 50 States’ Ride in Washington, DC takes you on a 63-mile ride covering all the state-named streets in DC. I have ridden it three times, and once in the pouring rain. Tied with that is the first time I rode with my oldest daughter on our cargo bike when she was seven weeks old – on an AoB Summer Cycle ride!
What’s your favorite place to ride in or around Asheville?
In protected bike infrastructure.
What’s your big wish for Asheville?
To fully embrace and realize a vibrant, resilient, and healthy citizenry that isn’t dependent on cars.
Laura Richardson
Board Member, She/Her
Why do you live in Asheville?
AVL is appealing for so many reason including access to the outdoors, fresh food and amazing community!
Why do you invest in AoB?
It’s important to work on issues that increase equity for all in our community; everyone should have safe, reliable ways to move about our City via all modes of transportation including walking and biking and for recreating.
What’s your best adventure on a bike?
Most memorable, biking in Belgium to a farmhouse brewery was simply magical! We love to travel & explore the cities on bike/walking ~ most recently a visit to Miami, bike and pedestrian infrastructure everywhere connects us to multiple parts of the city!
What’s your favorite place to ride in or around Asheville?
I’m a commuter, so anywhere and everywhere.
What’s your big wish for Asheville?
Affordability, otherwise, we’re going to lose our most valuable resources: the residents of AVL. Everyone should be able to earn a fair wage, find affordable housing, access fresh healthy foods, child care and healthcare.
Kent Cranford
Board Treasurer, He/Him
Why do you live in Asheville?
I visited the NC mountains many times as I grew up and in 1993 made them my permanent home.
Why do you invest in AoB?
I love the advocacy for multi-modal transportation that AoB has been a leader for in Asheville.
What’s your best adventure on a bike?
Recently it was riding across NC previewing the Cycle NC Mountains to Coast ride.
What’s your favorite place to ride in or around Asheville?
Everywhere
What’s your big wish for Asheville?
Well-designed bike lanes on every corridor in the city and connections to our neighbor communities.
Clark Mackey
Board Member, He/Him
Why do you live in Asheville?
I love the mountains and exploring the map.
Why do you invest in AoB?
Biking and walking could be linchpins of public health in WNC, but they are not. I’d like to help change that.
What’s your best adventure on a bike?
Each year I take a weekend bike packing trip that attempts to connect through some virtually unknown part of WNC. One trip took me to a high mountain ridge where I could not see lights at night and where I found a millipede almost as wide as the palm of my hand. Our mountains are still wild places. Another trip had me partially retracing the footsteps of a holdout group of Cherokee that was forcefully evicted from their lands in 1838.
What’s your favorite place to ride in or around Asheville?
Patton Mountain / Sunset Mountain
What’s your big wish for Asheville?
A connected multimodal grid where 5% or more of the trips are by bike or ebike.
Torin Kexel
Board Member, He/Him
Why do you live in Asheville?
I love living and raising my family in this city because of the natural beauty, amazing food, great music and abundant entertainment.
Why do you invest in AoB?
I invest in AoB because Asheville needs better bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure. More than any other entity, Asheville on Bikes has successfully advocated for improvements that have made the city safer and more enjoyable for all people.
What’s your best adventure on a bike?
My best bike adventure was riding the Virginia Creeper trail with my whole family.
What’s your favorite place to ride in or around Asheville?
I love riding my bike along the Wilma Dykeman Greenway.
What’s your big wish for Asheville?
My big wish for Asheville is that it becomes a city where a higher percentage of people can thrive while living and working in close proximity to the natural and cultural features that this amazing place has to offer.
Jen Thompson
Board Secretary
Why do you live in Asheville?
My husband Kyle and I moved here in 2005 from Missoula Montana! I was like, hey I was a camp counselor in 1997 in Brevard and it seems like a great place for kayaking and biking and will bring us closer to our family. We can also find great paying jobs as we had both just graduated from grad school and Missoula is a tough spot to find a good paying career (insert Irony here!).
Why do you invest in AoB?
I invest in AoB for the community; I love bikes! I want to live in a city and raise my kids in a city in which I can have easy and safe access to trail systems and greenways. Asheville has a long way to go AND has come a tremendously long way since we moved here in 2005.
What’s your best adventure on a bike?
Oh boy, that’s a tough one! Bike packing into the Pioneer Mountains in Sun Valley Idaho was a great adventure! I was with my husband Kyle and I was completely ill equipped with gear. I used our daughters’ school backpack It was comical on many levels and also spectacular! The view was ridiculous! It was a really fun way to explore on a bike and get out of town without using a car or backpack in somewhere.
What’s your favorite place to ride in or around Asheville?
Bent Creek!
What’s your big wish for Asheville?
My big wish for Asheville is for our city council to make decisions more through the lens of our local community and its direct needs and less through the lens of tourism.