About Advocacy Advance

Since 2009, the Advocacy Advance Team has created critical reports and provided direct assistance to advocates who used that information to take action. Advocacy Advance has also awarded $780,000 in direct grants and scholarships to build the movement and jumpstart new campaigns across the nation.

In 2012, Advocacy Advance will continue with renewed focus and ambitious goals to:

• Maximize federal funding for biking and walking projects
• Unleash new funding streams on the state and local level
• Boost the capacity of advocates to draw down these critical dollars

Get involved in this powerful initiative to improve biking and walking in your community.

• Attend a Training
• Access new and targeted Resources
• Apply for an Advocacy Advance Grant
• Learn how to Navigate MAP-21
• Read our Blog and other media for more about our progress

Advocacy Advance Team

Darren Flusche
Policy Director                                                                                                                  
darren at advocacyadvance dot org
202.621.5456                                                                                                                 
Darren Flusche is the Policy Director for the League of American Bicyclists. Before joining the League in April 2009, he worked for six years in New York City on a number of urban policy areas including transportation, education, philanthropy and the arts. Darren has earned a B.A. in history from Syracuse University and a Masters in Public Administration with a concentration in public policy analysis from New York University. Darren commutes to work by bicycle daily. 

Brighid O'Keane
Advocacy & Programs Director
brighid at advocacyadvance dot org
202.621.5452
Brighid O’Keane is the Advocacy & Programs Director for the Alliance for Biking & Walking. Before joining the Alliance in February 2011, she opened a food cooperative market as the Executive Director of the Berkeley Student Food Collective. An environmental policy graduate of the University of Colorado-Boulder, she has worked in Colorado, California, Alaska, and Thailand on community organizing, organizational development and facilitation. 

Ken McLeod
Legal Specialist
ken at advocacyadvance dot org
202.822.1333
Ken McLeod is the Legal Specialist for the League of American Bicyclists. Ken joined the League in 2012 after graduating from William & Mary School of Law. He is a licensed attorney in the state of Virginia. During law school he worked for a private law firm in Cambodia and the Washington State Department of Natural Resources. Prior to that, Ken worked at a law firm in Orange County and a legal services provider in Seattle. He graduated from Pomona College in 2007 with a BA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. He began using his bike regularly after college and has been car-free since February.

Darryl Turner

darryl at advocacyadvance dot org

Research & Tracking Intern
Darryl Allen Turner joined the Advocacy Advance team in January 2013.  As the research and tracking intern, he will be tracking how federal money is being utilized in states and examining the flexibilities federal law provides to states under MAP-21.  Darryl is currently a School of Public Policy student at the University of Maryland and holds a B.A. in Political Science and History from Northwestern University.

Advocacy Advance Guest Presenters

Peter Lagerwey
Peter Lagerwey is the Regional Office Director for Toole Design Group in the Northwest. Peter has over 26 years managing high profile pedestrian and bicycle projects and programs with the City of Seattle and as a private consultant. Peter is a nationally known expert having worked on non-motorized projects and made presentations in over 200 states, counties and cities. He was the project manager for developing and implementing the widely acclaimed Seattle Bicycle Master Plan; and co-author of the FHWA manual and training course on “How to Develop a Pedestrian Safety Action Plan (PSAP). Peter has taught the PSAP course along with the FHWA’s designing for Pedestrian Safety (DPS) course in eleven states.

Fionnuala Quinn
Fionnuala Quinn is a licensed civil engineer with a range of experience on bicycling and pedestrian projects, as well as environmental, and land development projects. She has worked for both large city government as well as a local county engineering office before entering the consulting world. She serves on the board of Fairfax Advocates for Better Bicycling, a local volunteer bicycle advocacy group in a suburban community. She was the primary author of the Guide for Reviewing Public Road Design and Bicycling Accommodations, which explains the engineering design process and covers how to understand engineering plans and provides checklists to assist in commenting on road design projects. She is also a member of the Fairfax County Bicycle Advisory Committee currently assisting with the county bicycle master planning process. She works on a variety of bicycle and pedestrian projects with Alta Planning + Design and is based in Northern Virginia.

RJ Eldridge

RJ Eldridge is the Director of Planning for Toole Design Group. RJ is an urban planner with over ten years of experience in land use planning, development regulations, demand forecasting and public facilitation. He is an extremely thorough project manager with experience managing large, multi-disciplined teams. He has a demonstrated ability to craft innovative and practical solutions for growth management issues ranging from urban infill to suburban stabilization to rural preservation. RJ's diverse experience includes authoring form-based codes for cities and towns of varying sizes, corridor and small-area planning projects, and infrastructure financing studies. RJ understands development issues not only as a professional planner, but also as an elected official in his hometown of Cheverly, Maryland, where he is a Town Councilmember and until recently, Planning Board Vice Chair. 

Advocacy Advance Advisors

Bike/Ped-Friendly MPO Working Group

• Mitch Barloga, Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission (Portage, IN)
• Aaron Bartlett, Mid-America Regional Council (Kansas City, MO)
• Sandy Fry, Capitol Region Council of Governments (Hartford, CT)
• David Henderson, Miami-Dade Metropolitan Planning Organization (Miami, FL)
• Dan Jatres, New Orleans Regional Planning Commission (New Orleans, LA)
• Leslie Meehan, Nashville Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (Nashville, TN)
• Tom Murtha, Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (Chicago, IL)
• Byron Rushing, Atlanta Regional Commission (Atlanta, GA)
• Gabe Thum, Pima Association of Governments (Tucson, AZ)

Grant Review Committee Members

• Sandy Fry, Capital Region Council of Governments
• Zoe Kircos, Bikes Belong   
• Tim May, Enterprise Community Partners
• Dick Mark, Philanthropic Advisor / Buttonwood Partnership
• Eloisa Raynault, American Public Health Association
• Tim Schwantes, Active Living By Design
• Caron Whitaker, America Bikes

Workshop Curriculum Advisory Team

• Ed Barsotti, League of Illinois Bicyclists
• Ann Chanecka, Pima Association of Governments and City of Tucson (Tucson, AZ)
• Sandy Fry, Capital Region Council of Governments
• David Henderson, Miami-Dade Metropolitan Planning Organization
• Dan Jatres, New Orleans Regional Planning Commission
• Leslie Meehan, Nashville Area Metropolitan Planning Organization
• Fionnuala Quinn, Alta Planning + Design and Fairfax Advocates for Better Bicycling
• Becka Roolf, Salt Lake City Bicycle/Pedestrian Coordinator
• Rebecca Serna, Atlanta Bicycle Coalition
• Leah Shahum, San Francisco Bicycle Coalition
• Sarah Stuart, Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia

For more information, contact us at info@advocacyadvance.org.