Board of Directors
Matthew first started commuting by bike in the 6th grade, and has now been an avid bike commuter in the city of Boston for more than 20 years. For him, biking has long been more than a way to get around. It is freedom, connection, and one of the clearest ways to experience a city at a human pace. Riding in Boston over two decades has given him a firsthand view of both the joy of getting around by bike and the daily barriers that keep our streets from feeling safe and welcoming for every body.
Matthew has been involved with the Boston Cyclists Union community for many years and is a founding organizer of Bos/treal, one of BCU’s signature events. Through that work, he has helped build not just a ride, but a tradition rooted in adventure, community, and leadership development. He cares deeply about making the BCU a strong, durable organization that can grow its membership, support its volunteers, and win safer streets for people across Greater Boston.
Erica Cannon is a passionate advocate for empowering youth and strengthening communities. Raised in Roxbury, she is committed to positively impacting the lives of children and residents. As the School Age Director at Ellis Memorial, Erica successfully managed the school-age program, creating an empowering student environment. Her dedication to community empowerment led her to serve twice as an Americorps member, spearheading initiatives in Madison Park and Jamaica Plain that fostered positive change and strengthened community bonds.
Today, Erica is a dedicated Teacher Counselor at the Cambridge Housing Authority, where she manages the Workforce Middle School Program. Through her efforts, she has built a powerful program that empowers youth through self-advocacy and social-emotional learning workshops. Erica effectively supervises a team and collaborates closely with Cambridge public schools Teachers to foster success in Out of School Time initiatives. Her commitment to supporting youth's personal growth and success is at the core of her work in the community.
In addition to her passion for youth empowerment, Erica deeply loves biking, which has been an integral part of her life. Through her work with BCU, Erica aims to make biking more accessible and inclusive, promoting it as a means of transportation and recreation. Her dedication exemplifies her commitment to creating a more equitable and sustainable community for all.
Emma Cayen
(details coming soon)
Montell is a Ghanaian-American, of Lebanese origin, passionate about leveraging Politics, Philosophy, and Economics to create positive change. He holds a BS in PPE from Northeastern University, where he also minored in Law, Public Policy, and Data Science.
His professional experience spans both public and private sectors, with a focus on community-focused initiatives and engaging diverse stakeholders. Prior to joining AHMA, he served as a Councilor for the City of Boston's SPARK Council, advising on policy impacting younger generations and influencing youth development funding. As Lead Youth Organizer at Bikes Not Bombs, he developed civic education curricula, managed community organizing projects, and oversaw stakeholder relations. His background also includes roles at Morgan Stanley and McKinsey & Company, where he contributed to diversity & inclusion efforts and public sector research, respectively.
Outside of work, Montell is dedicated to civic organizing and strengthening community ties. An avid cyclist and sustainability advocate, he is deeply familiar with Greater Boston communities. He is bilingual in English and French, conversational in Spanish, and a beginner in Arabic. On a sunny day, you can find him hammocking along the Esplanade or enjoying one of the delicious restaurants that call the city of Boston home.
Peter Furth grew up riding a bike in Washington, DC, coached by his Austrian father who didn’t believe in chauffeuring kids, and who taught him, “Don’t worry, Peter; the cars are more afraid of you than you are of them.” At a young age, he determined that one mark of success in life was to not lose the pleasure of everyday bicycle riding when he became an adult. Peter reports that he has been successful.
Peter earned his BS, MS, and PhD degrees at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and has been a professor of Civil Engineering at Northeastern University since 1981, teaching a full range of transportation planning and engineering courses, and serving as Department Chair from 2001 to 2007. He has published more than 40 papers in the field of public transportation, traffic signal control, and bicycle transportation. Peter is a member of the Institute of Transportation Engineers, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Transportation Research Board, and the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals.
As a teacher, Peter has supervised student project designs of more than a dozen bikeway projects in the Boston area, of which some have been built and others are in planning stages. In the summers, he teaches a study-abroad course in the Netherlands in the field of Sustainable Transportation. Through that course, as well as a year that he spent living in the Netherlands with his family, he has become familiar with Dutch bicycle traffic planning and engineering practice. As a bicycle planner, he has been a featured speaker at the Transportation Research Board, Move Mass, the Livable Streets Alliance, and at bicycle advocacy meetings in places as far away as Boise, Idaho. Peter has also been active in bicycle advocacy himself, including service on the Bicycle Advisory Committees of Boston and two neighboring communities, and as a member of the Technical Advisory Committee of MassBike.
Peter Cheung was born and raised on the tropical island of Aruba. He has lived in Boston since the age of 16. He survived cycling in the city during the whole “Big Dig” construction. His extensive knowledge of the streets and alleys in the city has helped him plan and lead most of the Boston Bike Party rides for the past six years. He is often recognized for his lime green gear and boisterous music trailer in tow . Boston Bike Party is an inclusive, monthly party on wheels that brings together hundreds of people to have fun biking and getting to know the city better. Peter has also led group rides for several organizations such as Boston Cyclists Union, MassBike, Livable Streets, the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, and JP Bikes.
Four years ago, Peter founded Ghost Bikes Boston, an all volunteer group that builds and installs ghost bikes in the Boston area to honor those who have lost their lives while bicycling. Unfortunately, the important work he does will never end. Fortunately, though, advocacy by Boston Cyclists Union and others has played a key role to push for improved cycling infrastructure in the areas surrounding the ghost bikes.
By day, Peter is the Senior Video Production Specialist at Thermo Fisher Scientific. Peter’s multicultural upbringing has helped him communicate with a wide range of people; he speaks five languages: English, Spanish, Dutch, Chinese and Papiamento - the official language of Aruba. Peter is a longtime resident of Jamaica Plain.
Tina (she/her) is excited to join the BCU Board of Directors to help establish safe streets for everyone in Boston. Her participation with the BCU includes Bos/treal, BP400, and various other events. She believes the BCU is an active agent of social change that drives social transformation in communities. Tina believes that by challenging systems, inspiring collaboration, and working with and leading others through change, much more can be done to improve Boston’s street infrastructure from where it is to where it needs to be: safe and accessible for all.
Tina originally rode her bicycle for exercise and as a cost-effective method of getting around, but she soon realized the freedom, joy, and movement that riding her bicycle brought her. She believes in the power of the bicycle to enable people to be healthy, independent, empowered, and closer to their communities.
Tina works as a social sciences and data librarian at MIT Libraries. As she believes in student success and uplifting others, Tina has mentored first-year students of color at MIT, library and information science students, and early career librarians. She is also active in her profession after having been the coordinator of a library sustainability group and the president of a library organization, both all-volunteer national non-profit organizations.
Anne learned her ABCs (Always Be Cycling) from her bike commuting father and is thankful for the manifold gifts of active transportation to experience life in the city at a human-powered pace. She has worked as a grassroots safe streets and climate change activist for over a decade. As part of the all-volunteer BCU Labs group she supports their mission of incorporating data, visuals, and storytelling to help people reimagine our streets into spaces where diverse communities thrive, and opportunity and equity abound.
In 2025 she organized The Boston "Ride of Silence", dedicated as "Gracie's Ride", to memorialize lives lost to traffic violence in Boston. She continues to ride with an understanding that the history of our streets tells a story of communities divided, but aspires towards a greener transportation future enabling connection and possibility.
Anne is a member of the Garrison Trotter Neighborhood Association in Roxbury and Abundant Housing Massachusetts. She recognizes the deep connection between transportation and land use policy and how the struggles for mobility are tied to our need to build enough housing for all who desire to live in the Boston region.
Having grown up in several locations (PA, CA, and Mexico), Hank chose to settle permanently in Boston after attending Boston University. He is now a long time resident of the Roslindale neighborhood where he has raised a family and participated in community activism. As an enthusiastic bike commuter, he believes strongly in the goal of a Boston in which people are easily and safely able to make many trips by bike: for transportation, for neighborhood errands, and especially for joyful recreation.
Hank's career has spanned more than 30 years working in non-profit finance and administration (primarily health care related), currently serving as the Director of Fiscal Planning and Analysis at NeighborHealth. Along with enthusiasm for the many programmatic offerings of the BCU, he finds great pleasure digging into the fiscal component of Board oversight. His activism focuses on healthy lifestyles, particularly addressing food and housing scarcity, active transport, and broadening participation as we work to address these issues. Hank's favorite places to bike in Boston are on the Neponset River Greenway, the Mass Ave bridge, and anywhere that might involve the question of how to get there on two wheels.
