Outstanding leaders take helm of East Coast Greenway board

Following years of dramatic growth, the East Coast Greenway Alliance is pleased to announce board leadership roles that are poised to help keep the organization growing, developing and achieving even more impact from Maine to Florida, according to Executive Director Dennis Markatos-Soriano.

At its fall 2022 board meeting, held in December in Portland, Maine, the Alliance Board of Trustees approved the following leadership positions, effective Jan. 1, 2023: 

• Chair: Brandon Douglass (Columbia, Maryland)

• Vice Chair: Atiba Mbiwan (Atlanta, Georgia) 

• Treasurer: Joe Impellizeri (Boston, Massachusetts) 

• Secretary: Lori Bush (Cary, North Carolina) 

A Maryland-based attorney, Douglass has spent much of his life along the East Coast Greenway route. Originally from Baltimore, Douglass went to college in Providence, Rhode Island, (Brown University), received his Juris Doctor in Boston (Harvard) and now lives in metro Washington, D.C. 

Last year, Douglass served as co-chair alongside Larry Silver, who remains on the board in 2023. Douglass has a passion for public health and can be found getting exercise as a fitness trainer, Spartan Race participant and father of two young children.

“I am grateful for Larry’s outstanding dedication to the East Coast Greenway Alliance during his three years as board chair,” Markatos-Soriano said. “His leadership has been invaluable during the challenges of the pandemic and a period of unprecedented growth for our organization. And he has passed the baton to an amazing leadership team, led by Brandon, that is ready to build on our momentum in 2023.” 

Mbiwan, Atlanta-based executive director of the Zeist Foundation, brings a wealth of experience to his role as vice chair. Like Douglass, he has lived and worked throughout the Greenway corridor, from Providence, Rhode Island, to New York City to Brunswick, Georgia. After learning to ride his bike around Queens as a teenager, Mbiwan continued his learning journey at Brown University. For more than two decades, he has been a leader in philanthropy in Georgia, where he has served on nonprofit boards for the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition and Park Pride. Mbiwan leads youth cycling adventures with the BRAG (Bike Ride Across Georgia) Dream Team, including the Gullah Geechee Youth Bike Tour in 2015 that covered the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor along the East Coast Greenway from central North Carolina to Northeast Florida. 

Returning to the role of treasurer and based in Boston, Impellizeri is a chief financial officer consultant with more than 30 years of experience. He is a principal at Richwood Associates, where he provides financial leadership and oversight for a variety of companies and has a track record of asking tough questions to ensure the Alliance’s financial health through the ups and downs of the economy. Impellizeri has biked much of the East Coast Greenway as a member of the Week-a-Year Tour. 

New to the role of secretary, Bush has served as a trustee since 2020. She lives in Cary, North Carolina, where she serves on the town council. In this role, Bush has been a big part of making Cary a leading community in terms of East Coast Greenway development. While also working in education technology for Cisco Systems, Bush is an avid cyclist and has served on many boards from the Friends of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences to the Triangle J Council of Governments. Her knowledge and experience in local government helps to inform the Alliance’s effort to make the most of this infrastructure moment. 

Thanks to these new leaders of the board and the dedicated and experienced staff working in partnership with them, the Alliance is poised for even stronger impact in the future after doubling capacity and attracting $750 million in Greenway infrastructure investment these past two years.