Staff Update & Holiday Thanks
On December 15th, the BC Cycling Coalition bade farewell to Jen Petersen, our Executive Director since October 2024.
With 25 years of experience advocating for people-centric mobility, Jen helped guide the organization through a transition phase in 2025, shifting from the BCCC Board to a staff role.
During her tenure as Executive Director, Jen was instrumental in the expansion and impact of the BC Bike Valet, a province-wide program sponsored by the Ministry of Transportation and Transit; in 2025, Jen led the awarding of $275,000 in grants to advocacy organizations in 14 communities across B.C. Thanks to the grant program, 45,000 bikes were parked at BC bike valets in 2025, offsetting almost 1 million vehicle kilometres and hundreds of metric tons of GHG emissions!
Jen also contributed to the community of cycling and AT advocates across the province, sharing resources and facilitating training to increase their collective impact. BCCC programs like the BikeSense podcast, Kids on Wheels, and the AT Summit also flourished with Jen's support. Under Jen's leadership, Rights of Way, the BCCC's flagship fall advocacy campaign, contributed to a record-breaking year for donations to support BCCC's staff-led advocacy efforts.
In the new year, Jen will be returning to her career leading user and customer experience transformations through discovery and evaluative research. Thank you, Jen for your contributions to cycling and AT advocacy in BC!
Colin Stein Returns to the BCCC as Executive Director
A Vancouver-based researcher, writer, and communications and engagement consultant with a special focus on BC's rural islands region, Colin was previously E.D. with the BC Cycling Coalition in 2020 and 2021, before taking a writing sabbatical.
“After a 18 months of COVID lock-downs and rebuilding, the Board was gracious enough to allow me some time away to explore a creative project and reconnect with family and friends,” he said. During his time away, Colin wrote and self-published Vanbikes: Vancouver's Bicycle People and the Fight for Transportation Change, 1986-2011, an oral history of cycling activism on BC's south coast. “It turned into four years, and led to a renewed passion and appreciation for B.C.’s south coast, plus the desire to return to active transportation.”
Colin has also worked with or served on the Board of numerous other advocacy organizations and NGOs, including BEST Mobility, HUB Cycling, Island Pathways, and the Rural Islands Economic Partnership.
“I’m happy to be back with the BC Cycling Coalition, and to see how much progress has been made with the organization and our work over the past four and a half years,” Colin said. “To all our donors, members, partners and sponsors across British Columbia, thank you for your outstanding support for the BCCC and active transportation!”