Staff & Board

Ashley Lance

Events Director

Ashley has spent the last decade cultivating a more sustainable approach to how we adventure. As a graduate of Northern Michigan University’s Hospitality Management and Marketing program, she comes to Cycle Oregon with a wealth of knowledge surrounding event production, community connections, and team leadership. As the owner and founder of the beloved Fernweh Food Company, Ashley understands that the smallest of details can make all the difference and is excited to transition from food production to sanitation logistics.

Ashley is an avid bikepacker, backpacker, novice gardener, mother to a young adventurer, and enthusiastic about eating and cooking tasty things. When she’s not dreaming up her next adventure, you can find her propagating house plants and embroidering whatever she can get her hands on.

ashley@cycleoregon.com

Brad Kendrick

Operations Manager

Most of Brad’s working career has been related to the management of the sales, marketing, and distribution of consumer products. He has gained experience in a diversity of business cultures that range from large corporations to small family companies. Brad enjoys cycling in his free time, and is a veteran of many Cycle Oregon events. It was during those rides that he realized he was as excited and amazed about the logistics of camp as he was the day’s ride. When a position opened to help facilitate those logistics, he jumped at it. During the year, his responsibilities revolve around equipment, supplies, and the warehouse. He can be found during events staffing the (air conditioned) office RV.

brad@cycleoregon.com // 503-287-0405 x106

Steve Schulz

Executive Director

Prior to joining Cycle Oregon, Steve was in the fitness and adventure industry for over 20 years as the founder and owner of STRADA, in Portland, OR. Steve’s first Cycle Oregon experience was in 2001, taking a group of cyclists he was training on the week event. From then on, he was hooked. And over two decades later, he’s still passionate about serving others throughout Oregon.

As soon as Steve was walking, he was backpacking, playing sports and music, and riding a bike—it was all about adventure and discovery. Being active and exploring the outdoors have always been a part of his life. Growing up in a small town in Wyoming, Steve understands the challenges of rural communities and the opportunity for Cycle Oregon to not only provide economic impact, but to help facilitate constructive change for years to come. Steve’s greatest reward in his professional career has been helping to transform people’s lives. When not traveling throughout the beautiful state of Oregon looking for routes unknown, Steve enjoys spending time with his family and trusty Labradors, playing music, over landing through the backcountry, and wetting a line in any available body of water.

steve@cycleoregon.com // 503-287-0405 x101

Chris DiStefano

Marketing & Communications Manager

Chris DiStefano believes Bikes Mean Business, a pro-bike, economy-boosting advocacy talking point born from a lifelong career in bicycles. From commuting to racing and testimony from city hall to Capitol Hill, a life of bikes led him to Oregon in 2004, a state where bikes mean business in every community. Chances are, if you’ve been to a ride, race, bike show or just rolled around town on a bike you’ve met Chris. At Cycle Oregon events you’ll find him behind a bullhorn stoking the fun in some crazy bike contest.

Time off the bike is mostly spent listening to music, playing basketball, and getting up in the early morning hours to watch professional cycling races from all over the world.

chris@cycleoregon.com

Becky Newman

Program Manager

For most of her adult life, Becky has been a daily bike commuter and has encouraged others to ride. She has a background as an educator, and has worked as both a classroom teacher and after-school program leader. After making her own bags for self-supported bike tours, she founded Makeshifter Canvas Works, and continues to make handcrafted bike gear for riders around the world. In 2018, Becky and her partner Kevin founded Golden Pliers Bicycle Repair, with the mission to create a more welcoming and inclusive space for folks to gather around bikes. Some weekends you can still find Becky behind the counter, chatting about tires and enticing dogs into the shop with a handful of treats. 

Becky’s preferred way to experience the world is slowly, on foot or by bike, with a lot of snack breaks. The things that sustain her include growing food, cooking for friends, biking/hiking/camping with her dog and partner, saunas, and jumping into cold water.  

becky@cycleoregon.com

Shawne Martinez

Program Coordinator

Shawne is a car-free bike Dad that leads a weekly Bike Bus to his daughter’s elementary school. He volunteers with BikeLoudPDX, the Tigard Transportation Advisory Committee, Meals On Wheels People and Washington County Adopt-A-Road. Shawne enjoys bike camping, having recently biked with his daughter 43 miles each way from their home to Stub Stewart State Park. He has logged over 19,000 miles on electric cargo bikes over the past 3.5 years, completely replacing all car trips.

Shawne has experience helping with his elementary school’s balance bike program, scooter program and the 5th grade bicycle safety course and is actively advocating for safer walk and roll infrastructure in the region. A self-contained coast-to-coast bicycle tour is one of his greatest cycling achievements riding 3,000 miles in 76 days from San Diego, California to St. Augustine, Florida.

shawne@cycleoregon.com

John Brooks

Route Planning & Permit Coordinator

John Brooks has ridden Cycle Oregon 26 times and has been making the route maps for Cycle Oregon events since 1995.  He is a recent convert to “gravel grinder” rides on an old Surly cross bike with 42mm tires. In 2020 he took on the duties of route planning and permit coordination. He is looking forward to exploring and planning gravel options for all the events this year.

John has recently retired from VLMK Consulting Engineers where he specialized in Land Use and Industrial Building Design and currently lives in Alfalfa, Oregon – east of Bend.

John believes that if you are going to ride your bike someplace unique you should have a map that has lots of good information so you can plan your day.  You’d hate to pass a swimming hole and wish you had planned for a swim…  Accurate profiles and cues are also extremely important and make a great collectible memory of your adventure.

john@cycleoregon.com

Chad Davis

Board President - Cycle Oreogon, Inc. / Board Secretary - Cycle Oregon Foundation

Chad prefers to climb out of the saddle. Seated, he’s at a desk at the US Forest Service developing strategies and plans to assist public and private land managers restore forests in the Pacific Northwest. His professional experience in collaboration and public land management has introduced him to many community leaders in rural Oregon and vested a passion for these places deep within- both for their natural beauty and the people that are stewards of our forests, ranches and farms.

Chad is happiest on any kind of bike, including international trips to experience the iconic European climbs and to explore the rough-and-tumble gravel roads connecting coffee villages in Colombia. And if he’s not on a bike, there’s no place he’d rather be than backpacking in Oregon’s Wallowa Mountains.

Sarah Gates

Board President - Cycle Oregon Foundation

Scott Towsey

Board Treasurer - Cycle Oregon, Inc.

Hooked after his first day of Cycle Oregon #10 in 1997, Scott has participated in over a dozen Cycle Oregon rides.

Scott is Director of Integration at The Greenbrier Companies, an international manufacturer of freight railcars headquartered in Oregon. He has also worked in finance and accounting at other Portland based public companies. Scott began his 30 year career working as a Certified Public Accountant for Deloitte in San Francisco.

Scott has been a guest lecturer at Portland State University School of Business Administration presenting on Global Financial Accounting to graduate students.

Scott holds accounting degrees from Brigham Young University.

He and his wife Cody manage a small forest tract in Yamhill County.

Jackie Yerby

Board Secretary - Cycle Oregon, Inc.

Jackie Yerby is a long-time social justice and active transportation advocate.

Most recently, she served as the Executive Director for Bradley Angle, a non-profit that works with survivors of domestic violence to achieve safety and long-term stability.

In addition to serving on the Cycle Oregon board, Jackie is also on the boards of the Community Cycling Center and Basic Rights Oregon. She had previously served on the boards of Catholic Charities and the Cascade AIDS Project.

Jackie lives with a dog and two cats in the Alberta neighborhood in NE Portland. She started riding Cycle Oregon Week Ride in 2010 and has no plans on stopping. She likes to garden, but tends to spend most of her free time training for Cycle Oregon. She is an occasional bike commuter but strives to do better.

She holds an undergraduate degree in History from Yale University, and a Master of Public Policy degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Steve Young

Board Vice President - Cycle Oregon Foundation / Board Member - Cycle Oregon, Inc.

Steve Young has been in Oregon since 1995.  His passion for cycling and love for his adopted state brought him to Cycle Oregon.  Born and raised in New York, Steve grew up ski racing and took to cycling as a means to recover from a skiing injury.  He never looked back, and has been riding and racing his bike ever since.

Steve graduated from Clarkson University in New York, studying chemical engineering.  He worked for the Procter & Gamble Company in Cincinnati in Brand Management for 7 years before moving west in 1995 to realize his dream of joining Nike.   At Nike, he’s worked in innovation, footwear product creation and category general management.  With Nike, Steve and his family lived in Melbourne, Australia and, more recently, Sao Paulo, Brasil.

In his spare time, Steve loves to spend time with his wife, Mary, and their 3 daughters.

Jeff Wright

Board Member - Cycle Oregon Foundation

Jeff Wright grew up in northern Michigan and has since lived close to the 45th parallel, hiking, skiing and biking through upstate New York, Montana and Oregon. Since the 1995 Classic, he has enjoyed double centuries, gravels, weekenders, and more classics –  sharing the joy of biking and Oregon’s remarkable rural communities with riders from around the world.

Jeff served for 15 years as a major gifts fundraiser for Reed College and has more than 43 years of experience in fundraising and marketing for public broadcasting, higher education, and environmental conservation and sustainability organizations. He is an active community leader and volunteer, serving on the national PBS Development Advisory Committee and as a board member for the Northwest Photography Archive, Live Wire! Radio, Friends of Portland Community Gardens and the Hollywood Farmers Market.

Now retired, he rides a commuter e-bike as his household’s second car and lives with his wife, Julie, and their cats, Cesar and Chavez in Portland’s Rose City Park neighborhood.

Craig Vent

Board Treasurer - Cycle Oregon Foundation

Craig rode his first Cycle Oregon in 2000 and fell in love with the experience. In addition to many CO adventures with cycling friends that followed, Craig has completed Classic rides with his wife, Deb, and each of their three children on their beloved Co-Motion tandem. Beyond cycling, his other recreational interests include skiing, running, yoga and golf.

Since childhood, Craig has focused his discretionary time and energy on enabling recreational opportunities to connect and energize people and communities through sport and activities. He has contributed in a variety of roles including nonprofit board member, youth sports coach and event volunteer.

Craig worked as a technology industry executive where he held leadership positions at Hewlett Packard and Juniper Networks. He and Deb now split their time between Bend, Oregon and San Diego, California.

Randy Norris

Board Member - Cycle Oregon Foundation

Randy spent 39 years in International Sales and Marketing leadership, developing market opportunities in over seventy countries. During that time, he started getting involved with non-profits at home. For the pasted 30 years he has been most focused on outdoor recreation in underserved communities. During that time, he also rode 18 Cycle Oregon Classics exploring the joy of visiting rural Oregon.

His Non-profit experience has taught him a lot about “Donor Based” organizations and what it takes to make and keep them sustainable.

His first was his company’s in-house project connecting our employees with worthy local organizations which support Women’s and Children’s issues. After 25 years, it still donates $50-60K a year.

Multnomah Athletic Foundation. MAF is reliant on the largesse of the MAC membership. As President of MAF, he helped to increase the membership support from $120K to $200K/year, increasing support for Scholar-Athletes scholarships and worthy organizations focused on underserved kids in Portland metro area.

He served a 6-year term with Oregon Adaptive Sports (Vice President) helping increase revenue of this partially donor-funded, Bend Based non-profit from $316K to $1.2 million. He still sits on the Development committee continuing to work on Donor development and retention.

Randy enjoys all aspects of Development, from conveying the mission to smaller Donor based organizations to working with Corporate and Philanthropic grant partners.

Marley Blonsky

Board Member - Cycle Oregon Foundation

Marley is a national advocate for body size inclusion, cycling, and sustainability. She began her career in environmental sustainability before shifting her focus to bicycles as tools for joy, empowerment, and social change. Marley is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of All Bodies on Bikes, a nonprofit creating inclusive cycling spaces across the U.S.

Her work has been featured on The TODAY Show, in the Washington Post, and recognized by Bicycling Magazine and Outside Magazine. A passionate nonprofit leader and community builder, Marley first connected with Cycle Oregon at Joyride 2024 and immediately felt the magic. She continues to ride, speak, and organize for a more welcoming, joyful cycling culture for all.

Kelly Aicher

Board Member - Cycle Oregon Foundation

Kelly is a semi-retired cycling industry professional with over 40 years of experience. A graduate of Whitman College, Kelly is best known for his role as the co-owner of The Bike Gallery, a renowned six-store bicycle retail chain in Portland, Oregon. His passion for Cycle Oregon began in 1993 when he joined the event as a mechanic, a role that sparked a lifelong commitment. Since then, Kelly has participated in every Cycle Oregon Classic Ride and Rally over the past 32 years. Throughout his extensive involvement, he has contributed in various capacities—mechanic, volunteer, participant, and sponsor—gaining a well-rounded perspective on the profound impact Cycle Oregon has had on rural communities throughout the state.

Beyond his work with Cycle Oregon, Kelly also served on the board of the Children’s Heart Foundation (Oregon Chapter). Drawing from his dual passions for cycling and wine, he founded a distinctive wine-and-bike ride series that successfully raised significant funds for the foundation over the course of a decade.

Kelly and his wife make their home in Portland, where they continue to enjoy cycling, travel, and outdoor pursuits, while also spending time at their outpost in Central Oregon

Leslie Carlson

Board Member - Cycle Oregon Foundation

Leslie’s brain is an idea-generating machine, which she harnesses to develop creative angles and opportunities for her marketing clients. She was a founding partner of Brink Communications and served as its Strategy and PR Director before selling the company in 2021. Prior to Brink, Leslie ran a strategic communications consultancy focused on green building, renewables and sustainability, serving clients like the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, the City of Portland and the Freshwater Trust. Early in her career, Leslie served as communications staff for several elected officials, public agencies and campaigns, including working for Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber, British Columbia Premier Mike Harcourt and the 1996 Clinton/Gore re-election campaign.

At her newest venture In Common Agency, Leslie directs strategic communications and media relations, guiding the visibility of clients including public space initiative Reimagining the Civic Commons and leading national communications for the Healing Advocacy Fund, which supports the country’s first state-regulated psilocybin therapy programs.

When not working, Leslie is on her bike: racing cyclocross and mountain bikes, exploring the farm and forest service roads of Wallowa County or grocery shopping on her e-cargo bike.

Jerry Peacock

Board Member - Cycle Oregon Foundation

Jerry has been in the education profession for almost five decades in eastern Oregon. He was an administrator in the Baker School District where he spent over 20 years as principal of Baker High and had the good fortune to start and direct Baker Technical Institute.  Most recently, he was the Career and Technical Education Regional Coordinator for the Malheur ESD working with 23 high schools in six counties in CTE career areas.  Jerry became involved with Cycle Oregon in his role as Principal of BHS.  Intrigued by what he saw and heard, he decided to ride his first Classic in 2006.  He rode nine more after that and has been volunteering with us since.

Jerry is a fan of all sports, especially college football and his Auburn Tigers.  When not working or volunteering, he enjoys doing yard work, camping, and spending time with his grandchildren.  When he is feeling the need for a challenge, he turns to his new interest, the most frustrating sport ever invented, golf.