One year after hiring our first statewide organizer, Transit For All PA is growing its footprint! Joining the team for the first time at our Organizing Spring Training, we’re deepening our statewide relationships through three regional organizing fellows in Lancaster and the Lehigh Valley. Read below to learn a bit about the people surveying transit riders and workers, and building the movement for transit in the Lehigh Valley.
Megan Lysowski (She/her)
Why I love the Lehigh Valley: I love living in proximity to the mountain and the city.
Bio:
I hail from the car-dependent suburbs of Pittsburgh, PA. After spending time in transit-rich American cities, like San Francisco and Washington, DC, I am now back in the small, charming Pennsylvania city of Bethlehem. I am an elementary teacher by trade and transitioning to transportation and city planning affairs. Outside of thinking about the built environment and zoning, I enjoy reading, gardening, and napping – especially in the sun. I live with my three small dogs, Yogi, Abbey, and Andor, and wonderful husband, Eric. We are expecting our first child this August.
Andi Ahrens (they/them)
Why I love the Lehigh Valley: I love the Lehigh Valley because it has a wonderfully diverse population and landscape. There seems to be about two degrees of separation between everyone and I can visit the country, city, or suburbs as I please.
Bio:
I’m a criminal justice and paralegal student, single mom, and survivor of domestic violence. I am only here because of well-funded government services; I survived because my family was fed and had access to high quality health and child care. My two-year degree was free through the KEYS program.This has allowed me to organize with my community because some of the stresses of poverty have been alleviated. Because I believe in doing all the good I can, everywhere I can, my organizing is rooted in being with and of the people. Together, we can create a better world.
Ben Felker-Quinn (He/They)
Why I love the Lehigh Valley: I love the stocky hills and mountains, the winter crows flocking east by morning and west by evening, the wind sounding out the big tall trees, the taste of the water. I love strolling the miles of alleyways, the multiple optional routes to traverse, the meridians of neighbors (and foxes!) I bump into along the ways…
Bio:
Ben Felker-Quinn is a poet, media-maker and educator. He grew up in a little cement town in the Lehigh Valley, which is-was Delaware-Lenape land fraudulently seized in 1737. He studied philosophy and literature in Russia. Over the last 15 years, he has supported a range of antiauthoritarian movement-building across the U.S. but primarily in Philadelphia around prison abolition and community media. He worked with the Media Mobilizing Project, Bonfire Media Collective, Reconstruction Inc. and national anti-poverty organizing through the Poor Peoples’ Campaign. He currently lives in Bethlehem, PA.
