Board of Directors
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ROBIN SPAZIANI, President
Robin moved to Missoula from rural New Hampshire because she desired to live in a place where she could walk and cycle instead of relying on a motor vehicle for transportation. Now driving an average of only 2800 miles per year (the battery keeps dying on her car from lack of use), she is enjoying a healthier, less stressful life. As a lifelong activist and volunteer, she has been a grassroots organizer, fund-raiser and administrator for several non-profit organizations.
Most recently she served on the Missoula Bicycle & Pedestrian Board and is currently on the River Road Neighborhood Council Leadership Team, where she has been working to build support for sidewalk funding alternatives.
Robin is an avid do-it-yourself-er, stained-glass artist, and word puzzle enthusiast. She hikes the many local trails and cycles with her American Bulldog, Spike, who enjoys riding in her “Doggie Ride” trailer. As a frequent user of Missoula’s bicycle and pedestrian facilities, she is appreciative of the efforts being made to accommodate non-motorized users and joined BWAM to help advocate for safer, more extensive and better-connected facilities that will make walking and biking more attractive to all Missoulians.
GINNY SULLIVAN, Vice President
Ginny Sullivan has lived in Missoula since 1989 (with a year-long foray to Louisiana while her husband attended LSU). Living in the friendly neighborhood near Greenough Park since 1990, biking and walking have become a major interest for the Sullivan’s. Ginny and her family are avid bike commuters and cycling recreationists. Working for Adventure Cycling Association as the Special Projects Director provides Ginny with the opportunity to learn about community successes, transportation innovations and new bike/walk trends. Ginny hopes to help the BWAM board grow their membership, take on bicycle safety education and help implement community programs that promote biking and walking in Missoula and beyond.
JEAN BELANGIE-NYE, Secretary
Jean Belangie-Nye is passionate about safe bikeways and walkways. Jean would like to see the Bitterroot Pathway system connected to Missoula’s system in the near future. She chairs the Missoula to Lolo Trail Committee of BWAM. The MLTA is developing a bike-ped route from Lolo to Missoula. She chaired the Lolo Focus Group for Highway 93 South, serves on the Citizens Advisory Committee for Highway 93 South, and has been a member of transportation committees and study groups for the Bitterroot Valley and Missoula.
Jean is a native Montanan and teaches fifth grade at Lolo School and owns Nye Imagery. Jean lives in Lolo. She enjoys gardening, photography, printmaking, and is currently trying to finish the Eddie’s Club Book. In her free time, she and her friend Michael run her two standard poodles in Crazy Canyon. When she retires, she intends to start biking again.
BOB WACHTEL, Treasurer
Robert L. Wachtel (Bob) retired from the professional staff of The University of Montana at the end of 2005 after 32 ½ years working audiovisual support for instruction and special events. Bob was a regular bike commuter during his employment at U of Mt, cycling 2 miles each way year round. Retirement has allowed him to join the Missoula Bike/Ped Advisory Board, and participate in the formation and development of BWAM. Bob continues to avoid driving locally as much as possible. His wife is an avid walker and enjoys the ability to walk for many of her errands.
Bob continues to brew his own beer and process his own fruit wines from available local fruit. Other interests include flat water canoeing, playing classical and religious guitar, and independent consulting on computer systems and home entertainment systems as Wachtel Consulting, LLC.
RONNI FLANNERY, Director
ETHEL MACDONALD, Director
Ethel MacDonald has been fanatic about not driving unnecessarily for over 30 years, and in the ten years since she retired from teaching in Arlee (where she carpooled every day) has averaged less than 3000 miles/year on her car (which includes at least one annual trip to Seattle). While she loves biking for everyday transportation everywhere she goes in Missoula, including up Pattee Canyon with her little dog in the basket ready to go run the Sam Braxton trail, France is her favorite place to tour (solo) by bike because of its great bike paths, quiet roads between interesting small towns, roundabouts, well-marked lanes and special bike routes.
GREG OLIVER, Director
Greg’s career has focused on community health and sustainability. In 2011, Greg retired from Missoula City-County Health Dept. after 30 years during which he worked on a wide range of topics and concerns. One reason he wanted to make that change was to focus his expertise and efforts more on two areas he is passionate about:
- better community design related to buildings, streets, trails, parks, mixed use centers, housing & density.
- increasing active living- particularly walking, biking and other outdoors activities.
Greg looks forward to working with BWAM as a Board member and has admired the positive difference BWAM has made to date. He believes we live in increasingly difficult times and more is at stake. There is less room for error or missed opportunities if we want Missoula to continue to be a great place to live and raise our kids.
Greg has earned a BA in Biology and an MS in Environmental Studies. His thesis focused on citizen involvement which reflects a lifelong interest in how communities best work and thrive. He is trained as an epidemiologist and seeks evidence based approaches and best practices.
Greg and his wife Neva have lived in Missoula for over 30 years. They met in Whitefish in the late 1970s and have raised two grown daughters. Greg continues to be inspired by and learn from the many accomplished and impressive people who call Missoula home and work at making it a better place.
JIM SAYER, Director
Jim is a volunteer Board member of the Bike/Walk Alliance for Missoula, which he co-founded with many other Missoulians in 2007. Professionally, Jim serves as the Executive Director of Adventure Cycling Association, the largest bicycling non-profit in the U.S. (with more than 42,000 members) which focuses on bike travel nationally and even globally. Jim also serves on the board of America Bikes, a national coalition devoted to securing more federal resources for biking (and walking).
Jim has directed other non-profits involved in smart growth and transportation, including Greenbelt Alliance (in the Bay Area, dedicated to community development and open space preservation) and the Sierra Business Council (based near Lake Tahoe, a unique business leadership group working for a “triple bottom line” of economic, social and environmental prosperity in the Sierra Nevada mountain region). He also served as senior legislative assistant to Senator Tim Wirth (D-Colo.), focusing on foreign policy and defense issues. Jim did his undergraduate work at the University of California, Santa Barbara and the University of Edinburgh (Scotland), and his graduate work at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and Harvard University. In his spare time, he has served as a Board member of Amnesty International USA and the Ginetta Sagan Fund for Womens and Childrens Rights. Most of his time he devotes to his family — his wife, Wendy, and their three rambunctious daughters, Samantha, Keilan and Lucy.
JOHN WOOD, Director
