Panelists: Seth Bush, Laura Chu Wiens, Alisa Grishman, Cassandra Masters

Moderator: Daeja Baker

Join us for our kick-off event for this year’s Week Without Driving!

Whether due to disability, age, or income – non-drivers come from all walks of life. The Week Without Driving was developed by disability advocates in Washington state and is now a national initiative, led by America Walks and the National Campaign for Transit Justice.

Locally, we’re proud to join this movement to raise awareness for greater mobility needs in every community. With Pittsburgh Regional Transit’s diminished service, crumbling sidewalks, disconnected bike lanes, and insufficient ACCESS services, the lack of investment in safe and accessible mobility options for non-drivers leaves too many residents stranded and struggling to access basic needs.

Week Without Driving PGH is hosted locally by Pittsburghers for Public Transit, Access Mob Pittsburgh, BikePGH, and Age-Friendly Greater Pittsburgh.

Join us for our upcoming Community Lecture Night! This will be online only. Please register for the event here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/lpBSLwTHSLmWAM-yBOLxaw

• When: September 29th from 6:00-7:30 PM
• Where: Zoom AND streaming on YouTube
• Meeting Accessibility:
  • There will be sign language interpreters and closed captioning available on Zoom. 
  • Chat will be disabled on Zoom during the lecture to better serve people using screen readers. Participants will still be able to message the hosts.
  • When it comes time for the Q&A, people may ask by messaging in the chat so the host can read it out loud or by raising their hand on Zoom so the host can call on them to ask by voice or by ASL.
  • For more information, check out our Technical Info page.

If anyone has any other access needs please contact accessmobpittsburgh@gmail.com as soon as possible, but no later than September 24th.

Speaker Biographies:

Seth Bush is the Advocacy Manager at Bike Pittsburgh where he coaches, trains, and resources leaders of neighborhood biking & walking advocacy groups or “bike/ped committees” across Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. Seth is a graduate of the America Walks Walking College Fellowship and a Professional Certified Coach for social change leaders with over 15 years of experience in grassroots organizing. When he’s not helping neighbors transform their streets, you can find Seth walking his dog around his neighborhood in Swissvale, gardening, or binge-watching Star Trek. Contact him at seth@bikepgh.org.

Laura Chu Wiens has been a member of the PPT board since 2013 and involved in its resident campaigns to restore bus service to transit deserts. She has been PPT’s Executive Director since June 2017. Laura has her roots in labor organizing with Unite HERE, and draws from her experience recruiting and training leaders in the service industry to mobilize transit riders in the fight for equity, access and transparency within our public agencies. Laura is Chinese-American, and believes in the collective power of people to transform their communities. In her free time, she sings with a jazz ensemble and plays with her two babes, Gabriel and Hazel.

Alisa Grishman is a disability activist and founder of Access Mob Pittsburgh, an advocacy group that utilizes positive approaches to making change, such as education and economic incentives. A self-described shameless agitator, Grishman has also been arrested multiple times fighting for disability rights with ADAPT, a national advocacy group. Along with her direct advocacy work, Grishman co-runs Ballots for Patients, an effort that collects emergency absentee ballots from hospitalized peoples on election day. She also sits on the board of directors of Pittsburghers for Public Transit and the Keystone Progress Education Fund.

Cassandra Masters is a community organizer and champion for intergenerational connection. She leads Age-Friendly’s Age Inclusion Campaign, a regional media and learning campaign that celebrates aging in our region. Cassandra is a member of the FISA Foundation’s Beyond Disability Learning Cohort and serves on the Board of the Oakland Planning Development Corporation. She previously led community engagement at ACCESS Transportation and the Alzheimer’s Association and has presented across the country on age-inclusive programming. She holds dual Bachelor’s degrees in History and Political Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Moderator:

Daeja Baker was born and raised in the North Side of Pittsburgh. She attended the Creative and Performing Arts high school for instrumental music and then went on to obtain her Bachelors of Fine Arts and Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Chatham University. After her time in college she began community organizing. In January of 2017 she co-founded Pittsburgh Feminists for Intersectionality, an organization that uplifts and supports the BIPOC, disabled and queer community with community education, mutual aid and community resourcing. In 2020 Daeja co-founded Sunflower Collective, a radical mental health collective that focuses on crisis, emotional and group support for activists and organizers, centering the BIPOC population. In early 2021 Daeja received her peer support specialist certification from the Community College of Allegheny County. From 2021 to 2022 she embarked on training for an integrative community therapy certificate and obtained that certificate in the fall of 2022. Daeja currently serves as the program director at Zakiyah House, a recovery house for people who are recently out of jail or rehab facilities who need housing and support services. She is also studying to get her Masters of Social Work at Howard University’s online program. She resides in Millvale, PA just outside of Pittsburgh where she is running to become the first person of color on the Shaler Area school board.

Funding for this lecture comes from a grant from the Opportunity Fund.