Zac Young – President
Zac is a lifelong cyclist, preferring to take two wheels year-round for his daily commute, exploring the world, and more recently, taking his two children around the Waterloo Region where he has lived since 2010. Zac studied Nanotechnology Engineering at the University of Waterloo, where he was a Junior Fellow with Engineers Without Borders Canada and started the WUSA Bike Rental Program. Today, he is a resident of Kitchener and active advocate for improving sustainability in transport, housing and energy, while leading an water treatment technology start-up, H2nanO.
Janice Jim – Vice President
Janice has been cycling in Waterloo since her undergrad days. She is passionate about active transportation, transit, the environment, social justice and community building. Janice is the Chair of the City of Waterloo Active Transportation Committee. She’s active with Red Raccoon Bike Rescue and KW Famous. Janice is inspired by the work of the Dutch Cycling Embassy who aim to make cycling accessible to all ages and abilities through education, infrastructure and planning.
Tom Strickland
Tom took up cycling again in 2016 after a 40-year hiatus. He is very much an “Interested but Concerned” cyclist and is a passionate advocate for cycling facilities that are fully separated from car traffic. He is a retired actuary, and a member of the Transportation Subcommittee of ClimateActionWR. He was awarded the Wheels of Change award in 2022 from the Share the Road coalition for his work on a ClimateActionWR team that evaluated the Cambridge cycling network plan with an equity lens, and developed a priority ranking model for potential new cycling facilities.
Gemma Ricker-Rampersad
Gemma is a year-round cycling commuter. She grew up in rural Ontario with no access to safe cycling infrastructure or public transit, and moved to Waterloo for school in 2017. Now a proud resident of downtown Kitchener, she is able to forgo car ownership thanks to the bike lanes, public transit, and walkability of the city. She cares deeply about making the Region a place where everyone can feel safe cycling. She is passionate about municipal politics, 15 minutes cities, and all forms of active transportation. She currently works in student life at the University of Waterloo
Priya Soundararajan
Priya grew up in India and moved to Waterloo for school in 2016. Now a resident of downtown Kitchener, she works as a software developer for Google. In 2022, while living in Uptown Waterloo, Priya decided to see if she could use her bicycle for the majority of her daily commuting to reduce her reliance on a gas-powered car, and she hasn’t looked back since.
Biking has brought Priya immense joy, and she is passionate about ensuring that anyone else who wants to ride feels completely safe doing so. While she recognizes that the Region is progressive and has accomplished quite a bit, she is focused on addressing the remaining network gaps and engaging the community to help bridge them.
When she isn’t volunteering with CycleWR, Priya loves exploring the streets of KW to discover new local food spots and can often be found climbing at Grand River Rocks.
