Board of Directors

	Risa Wilkerson, Board Chair Executive Director with Active Living By Design Risa brings a knowledge of the organization’s history as the former and longstanding Steering Committee Chair. In her work at Active Living By Design, she has provided technical assistance to local, state and national healthy community initiatives, with Safe Routes to School as a common core strategy. Risa brings additional experience from her tenure at the Michigan Fitness Foundation who, in partnership with the Michigan Department of Transportation, provided Safe Routes to School training and technical assistance statewide. In addition, she helped develop and host the first bi-annual Safe Routes to School National Conference in Dearborn, MI, in collaboration with the National Partnership, the National Center for Safe Routes to School and other new partners.
	Carol Goss, Vice Chair Carol A. Goss is a fellow in the Advanced Leadership Initiative program at Harvard University. Prior to joining Harvard, Goss served as president & CEO of The Skillman Foundation, a private independent foundation whose mission is to improve the lives of children in metropolitan Detroit by strengthening their schools and neighborhoods. During her tenure as CEO, the Foundation added safety as a priority area, with the aim to increase the felt and real safety of children, grow the work of resident leadership councils on safety, and prioritize the development of safe routes to school. Goss' professional career includes nearly 20 years' experience in child welfare, family services, youth development and philanthropy in Detroit and Oakland, Calif. Her many recognitions include City Year Detroit's "Idealist in Action" award and the Michiganian of the Year award by The Detroit News. In addition, Crain’s Detroit Business cited her as one of Southeast Michigan’s Most Influential Women, an honor that the respected weekly bestows every five years to the region’s most dynamic and powerful women.
	Ivye Allen, Board Member President of the Foundation for the Mid South Ivye L. Allen is President of the Foundation for the Mid South, a regional foundation serving Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. The Foundation supports programs and initiatives that focus on community development, education, health and wellness, and wealth building. Allen previously served as Chief Operating Officer for MDC Inc. and was Director of Fellowship Programs for the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. She has held finance and marketing positions in Fortune 100 corporations. Her education includes a Ph.D in social policy from Columbia University, an M.S. in urban affairs from Hunter College, an M.B.A. in marketing and international business from New York University, and a B.A. in economics from Howard University.
	Alice Cahn, Board Member Alice Cahn is a consultant and project director in the social responsibility and youth and family media businesses. She spent 10 years at Turner Broadcasting directing content and the implementation of pro-social initiatives across divisions. Prior, Cahn served as Managing Director of the Markle Foundation’s Interactive Media for Children Program. Cahn came to Markle from Sesame Workshop where she served as President of the Television, Film and Video group. From 1993-1998 Cahn was head of children's programming for US Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Cahn did her Master’s work in Educational Technology at San Francisco State University and holds a Bachelor of Science in Education from New York University. She and her partner live in Maplewood, NJ and have three children.
	Bonnie Nelson, Board Member Bonnie Nelson is the retired founder of Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates, a national transportation consulting firm specializing in creating healthy and sustainable places. Her work included transit, bicycle and pedestrian projects around the country, including projects as diverse as evaluating Marin County’s Safe Routes to Schools program, and establishing bike share programs in two cities. She authored three transportation sales tax measures, devoting significant funding to active transportation including Marin County (2004) and Alameda County (2002 and 2015) in California. Throughout her career, Bonnie has worked to make quality transportation affordable and available to everyone. Bonnie and her husband Jim divide their time between their home in Berkeley, CA, and Portland, OR, where they have a new grandson and his parents to visit, and their “happy place” on Maui.
	Michael Payne, Board Member Michael enjoys working at the intersection of sustainable development and organizational development. He most recently served as Executive Director of BikeHouston, where he led the transition from being a volunteer organization with limited resources to a professionally staffed, self-sustaining bicycle advocacy organization. Before joining BikeHouston, Michael spent 16 years working on sustainable development issues in the private sector, initially as a project developer and subsequently managing teams developing large scale wind energy projects in Europe, the US, and Asia for a global energy company. During this time he gratefully spent nine years living in the Netherlands, where he enjoyed life cycling under very civilized terms. Prior to pursuing an MBA at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, Michael lived in Atlanta where he was on the board of the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition and built up a software service company.
	Corey Wiggins, Board Member Director of the Hope Policy Institute Dr. Corey Wiggins is the Director of the Hope Policy Institute, the policy division of HOPE (Hope Enterprise Corporation and Hope Credit Union). HOPE is a community development financial institution that works to strengthen communities, build assets and improve lives of residents across the Mid South. As director, Dr. Wiggins manages the strategic direction, sustainability, research training and advocacy agenda for the Institute. For over 10 years, Dr. Wiggins’s diverse professional career has focused on the translation of policy and research into practice. His professional career has included serving as a fellow in the United States Senate and as a policy analyst in the Mississippi State Legislature. In addition, he has worked with private and non-profit organizations on a range of policy issues including education, healthcare, broadband and economic security.

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Board of Directors