Board Meetings
The Sharing Wheels Board of Directors meets at 6:30 p.m. on the third Wednesday of most months. Meetings are generally at the Sno-Isle Food Coop. Anyone interested in our nonprofit is welcome to attend.
Public comment may be limited to the first part of the meeting, depending on the agenda.
For more information about attending a board meeting, contact Executive Director Christy Cowley.
Shop Staff
Christy Cowley, Executive Director
Christy started in 2019 as our first ever Executive Director. She brings many years of health and wellness and professional leadership experience to Sharing Wheels.
Her 20 year career highlights include program management, volunteer development, and event planning in both medical corporations and nonprofit organizations.
She has extensive experience collaborating and networking with partners to build teams that produce results and make a difference in the community.
Christy is a certified triathlon coach and has enthusiastically mentored hundreds of beginner athletes to the finish line of their first triathlon. She dreams of touring New Zealand on bike one day and is a lifetime member of Adventure Cycling Association.
For now, she is settled in Mill Creek with her three bikes and will continue to explore all the roads and trails Snohomish County has to offer. She is a member of BIKES Club of Snohomish County.
Aaron Taht, Shop Manager
Aaron joined the team in July of 2019. He’s been around several bike shops and is no stranger to the bike retail world. In his free time, he likes to fix and build bikes!
Aaron is our ‘organizer extraordinaire’ and we rely on him to keep all parts/accessories and bikes sorted and priced. There is no pile of clutter that Aaron can’t work through, as evidenced by the amount of order he’s created in our shop in just a few short months.
In addition to riding bikes, Aaron enjoys backpacking, eating really BIG sandwiches and spending lots of time cooking Indian and Thai food in his kitchen.
Andrew Longstreet, Bike Mechanic
Andrew joined the staff in spring 2022. Like most of us, he’s been biking since he was a kid. But his rides as a BMXer and dirt jumper have included empty swimming pools, crazy stunts, and sponsors who buy the bikes.
He’s worked at Marysville Bike Shop and Bicycle Centres Silver Lake, and is returning to bike repair after a stint working with his father in construction. He’s a Mariner High School graduate who continues to live in his hometown.
He currently rides a “DJ” (dirt jumper) from sponsor Hellion Bikes. During the week he rides in the city, or wherever he needs to go. On weekends, he heads out to find some dirt, and some jumps.
Henry Cotter, Digital Marketer
Henry has a 20 year career in Design and Marketing. He has designed products in the kitchen appliance industry and created advertising and managed social media for the US Navy.
An avid runner, he took up cycling for cross training and fell in love with road cycling. He’s participated in bike rallies and triathlons, however, he doesn’t consider himself a triathlete.
Henry comes to Everett via Singapore. He and his wife lived there for nearly five years. While there, he rekindled his love of cycling with the help of Singaporean friends. He’s circumnavigate Singapore and Taiwan (pictured) and cycled in Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand and Thailand. He’s now looking forward to tackling the roads and trails of the PNW, on foot and on two wheels.
Sharing Wheels Board Members
Drew Ellison, president
Drew joined the Sharing Wheels board in fall 2018. After previously service as secretary and vice president, Drew took on the role of president in 2023. He is also the current president of B.I.K.E.S. Club of Snohomish County.
Drew retired a few years ago from his owning and managing companies in the seafood business. Bicycling is now his full time passion. In addition to leading two local bike nonprofits, he works part-time at Gregg’s Cycle in Lynnwood, and has his own complete bike shop in his Everett home.
Steve Erickson, treasurer
Steve joined the board at the beginning of 2017. He previously served as board treasurer and vice president.
As a board member, Steve has kept our mission and the needs of people who rely on bikes for transportation at the forefront, while also emphasizing “No money, no mission.” He has reached out to and volunteered with the Everett Port Gardner Rotary which has supported Sharing Wheels with annual grants for several years.
Steve is a retired airline pilot who continues to travel the world, now on his own schedule. For Steve, bicycling is his ‘Happy Place’, but he also recognizes many people cycle for basic transportation and he strongly supports our mission to serve low income people. Steve is married 42 years and has 2 grown children.
Nate Deka, vice president
Nate joined the board in 2022. He is a clinical social worker and supervisor at Compass Health in Everett. He hasn’t spent a lot of time at Sharing Wheels (yet), but he has been on the board of other community bike shops around the country: Back Alley Bikes and The Hub of Detroit; and Cycles for Change in St. Paul (no longer operating).
Nate is now settled enough in his career and in Everett to get back involved in the bike community. As a board member, he plans to first get to know Sharing Wheels as an organization. After a year or so, “I could see myself helping to expand youth programs, incorporate outcome based data management, monitoring, and analysis capabilities, and networking Sharing Wheels with other community agencies, especially those that serve youth and families.”
Christina Strand, secretary
Christina got her commuting bike at Sharing Wheels in 2021 and used our DIY tools to install fenders (a necessity for a year-round bike commuter). In 2022 we recruited her to join the board.
She works as a marketing coordinator for Community Transit. She volunteered with Everett Bike Walk and participated in Bike Everywhere Day, Week Without a Car, and Ride in the Rain.
Christina has served the Bayside Neighborhood Association as chair, treasurer and secretary. She appreciates the positive impact biking can have for people and communities.
“I see public transportation, biking, and walking as the future that cannot only change our city but also help globally with climate issues.”
Claudia Douglass, member
Claudia found Sharing Wheels online in 2020 when she was shopping for a bike. Next thing you know, she’s helping other people buy bikes, fix flats, and borrow tools for their DIY projects as a weekly customer service volunteer in the shop.
Claudia recently moved to Everett to be near family. She was the vice provost at Central Michigan University, where she helped start the medical school. Sharing Wheels has given her a connection to her new community and a way to give back. She looks forward to learning bike repair during her shop time and to help Sharing Wheels thrive as a board member.
Therefore, she appreciates that the organization provides transportation to everyone, regardless of means or status, and has a strong commitment to conservation.
Lou Rivetti, member
Lou joined the board in 2023. He also serves on the board of B.I.K.E.S. Club of Snohomish County, and leads both road and gravel bike rides for the club. Lou works part-time for Trek Redmond, and has also been a contractor on staff with Sharing Wheels, helping with Christmas House work parties. Lou regularly donates great kids bikes that have been traded in at the Trek store.
Lou hopes to help Sharing Wheels with marketing and mutually beneficial business sponsorships.
Ralph Boy, member
Ralph first found out about Sharing Wheels while dropping off mask donations during COVID. He is involved with the Community Foundation of Snohomish County and even before joining the board in 2023, he helped us get a grant from the Robert Killingstad Foundation.
While not a big bicyclist himself, Ralph appreciates the work we do in the community. He is a retired Boeing Engineering Fellow and has served on many advisory boards in the past. His vision for Sharing Wheels is that we spread the word about our free services and needs (like business sponsors and better shop space), and find a new location in the next 5 years.
Kristin Kinnamon, on leave
Kristin is currently serving as a temporary Sharing Wheels staff member. She is on leave from the board through March 1.
Kristin served as board president from 2018 through 2022. Before joining the board in 2015, Kristin had been an occasional Sharing Wheels volunteer since the organization began in 2002. Her past involvement was mostly through her wife Kristi Knodell, who volunteered as the shop manager for many years. The couple owns one car and 11+ bicycles.
Kristin is a long-time bike advocate who formerly coordinated local Bike to Work events and created the Snohomish County Bike Map for Community Transit. She is the past president of B.I.K.E.S. Club of Snohomish County, a member of the Puget Sound Regional Council Bike-Pedestrian Committee, and former board president of the statewide Bicycle Alliance of Washington (now Washington Bikes). She has also been active in local Healthy Communities work through the City of Marysville and the Snohomish Health District.
Board Members Wanted
Make a difference in your community by becoming a volunteer board member with Sharing Wheels. Learn more about what we a looking for and what you can gain as a member of a nonprofit board in our blog post “Seeking Board Members”.
Board elections are each January at our annual meeting. Board members may also be appointed throughout the year.