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We kicked off the new year and decade with our Annual Meeting the first week of January, where we welcomed three new board members — Victor Sanchez, Jackie Marchand and Arian Horbovetz.

Victor is a long-time volunteer for Reconnect Rochester, doing a lot of heavy lifting for our major events through the years. Jackie assisted our Reconnect Rochester/Rochester Cycling Alliance transition team with the Cycling Coordinator candidate search & interview process, and has volunteered on our membership committee. Arian has worked with our communications team to provide content for our blog, as well as provided invaluable background research on e-scooters that shaped our recommendations to the City of Rochester about smart, safe implementation.

Welcome, Jackie, Victor and Arian! Thank you for volunteering your time and talent to hop aboard our train.

ARIAN HORBOVETZ, PHOTO CREDIT: KENDRA FEE

Arian Horbovetz was born in Chicago Illinois, but has spent most of his life in the Greater Rochester Area. Aside from working in clinical trials for the University of Rochester, Arian has owned and operated a professional photography company, ArianDavidPhotography for over a decade.  Five years ago, Arian’s love of urban living and passion for the revitalization of our Upstate New York cities led to the creation of his online urbanist publication, The Urban Phoenix.  Spurring conversation about our cities today, the history behind why our cities are the way they are, the importance of public transit, walkability, and cycling infrastructure are just a few of the topics raised in the nationally-enjoyed blog and podcast. Nearly 40 of The Urban Phoenix’s posts have been republished by Strong Towns, a national leader in the New Urban conversation. Calling himself an “Urban Influencer,” Arian takes pride in challenging the long-held misconceptions about cities, how we live, and why our urban cores face the hurdles they do in a changing world.

JACKIE MARCHAND

Jackie Marchand received an undergraduate degree from the University of Albany and an MBA from the UR Simon School. After working in nonprofit development and then a decade of making bikes and biking apparel for women at Terry Bicycles, she knew she wanted to help make cycling more accessible to more women and purchased WomanTours in 2004. Since then, she has quadrupled the size of the company. In all, Jackie has worked in the Rochester bicycle community for 25 years. When not biking to the office, she’s on the road planning and designing new tours to share her love for cycling with more and more women every year. Jackie travels quite extensively, in fact, having visited all seven continents and at least 45 countries. She’s witnessed how multimodal transportation can transform cities around the world, bring people together, and create more vibrant communities. Jackie wants to help bring the successes from other places to our very own region.

VICTOR SANCHEZ

Victor Sanchez is a Virtual Design and Construction Administrator for Wegmans Food Markets. Victor was born in Mexico and later moved to White Plains, New York. He graduated from RIT with a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering Technology. Victor is the immediate past Chair of RocCity Coalition, an organization focused on young Rochesterians. He has represented the Coalition in the Regional Economic Council, Roc-The-Riverway Management Entity Committee, and Re-imagine RTS Advisory Committee. Victor volunteers on several committees with the Out Alliance, Human Rights Campaign, and Genesee Land Trust. Victor also serves on the Boards at Trillium Health, New Pride Agenda, and Rochester People’s Climate Coalition.

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