Rebecca Rusch

Recognized as an icon in endurance sports, Rebecca Rusch is an athlete performance and mindset expert with over three decades of experience as a world champion adventure athlete, exploring the limits of strength, resilience, and human potential in mountain biking, adventure racing, climbing, and paddling.

Her Emmy-winning documentary Blood Road follows her journey to her father’s crash site in Laos, a journey that transformed loss into healing and deepened her belief in movement as medicine. Through her nonprofit, the Be Good Foundation, Rebecca uses the bike as a tool for healing and community impact, from removing unexploded bombs in Laos to expanding access to cycling and movement to everyone.

Rebecca’s Athlete Operating System framework draws on her elite experience to help individuals and communities build strength, resilience, and lifelong vitality. As host of the podcast What’s the Rusch, she leads honest conversations about identity, mindset, and the deeper stories behind achievement. She inspires audiences to embrace movement, nurture well-being, and lead lives of purpose and connection reminding us that strength, in all its forms, is the foundation for healthy communities.

Carter Lavin

Carter Lavin is a climate and transportation advocate and consultant who works with organizations and community leaders to build strategy, organize effectively, and create safer, greener, more accessible communities. His work focuses on advancing car-free and alternative transportation solutions such as bike lanes, bus lanes, safer crosswalks, wider sidewalks, and car-free public spaces. He has supported and trained nonprofits, grassroots groups, businesses, and community leaders to advance initiatives at the local, regional, and state levels, and his writing has appeared in Streetsblog and Convergence Magazine. He is the author of If You Want to Win, You’ve Got to Fight.

Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, he helped lead a successful initiative to reverse a planned $4 billion funding cut to transit and secure an additional $1 billion in funding. He has trained bike and pedestrian advocates in more than 36 states and will lead an “Ask the Expert” session at the Summit, sharing practical strategies and lessons that local leaders and advocates can put into action to help build healthier, more connected communities.

Individual Session Speakers

• Marie Barry – Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative
• Charlie Carlin – Gathering Waters
• Alora Correa – Wisconsin Bike Fed
• Dr. Kristina Fields – UW-Platteville
• Wendy Furrer – Host | Central Wisconsin
• Rachel Goochey – Wisconsin Bike Fed
• Renee Griswold – Wisconsin Interscholastic Cycling League
• Willie Karidis – Route of the Badger
• Christopher Kilgour – Color in the Outdoors
• Shawn Koval – Wisconsin Bike Fed
• Chloe Machula – Wisconsin Bike Fed
• Cas Marburg – Rails to Trails Conservancy
• Megan McBride – UniverCity Alliance
• Chris Morgan – National Park Service
• Cherie Morgan – Tamarack Health
• Christopher Nafziger – Three Eagle Trail Foundation
• Anne Marie Nardi – UW-Madison Extension Natural Resources Unit
• Ammar Nsoroma – Red, Bike and Green
• Kietra Olson – Office of Rural Prosperity
• Jamie Polley – Wausau & Marathon County Parks, Recreation & Forestry
• Ben Popp – American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation
• Randi Pueschner – La Crosse 906 Adventure Team
• Craig Ruhland – Metro Mountain Bikers
• Dr. Courtney Schultz – Health & Technology Partners
• Kelly Schwartz – TEDCOR
• Brian Udovich – Cedar Corporation
• Jen Walker – 1000 Friends
• Tim White – Visit Wausau