About The Common Wheel Meet Our Team
Adriana Atencio (she/her)
Co-Executive Director
Adriana has been a part of The Common Wheel since it’s very first Marketing Committee. She joined the board in 2015 specializing in community outreach and development. In 2017, she joined the staff as the Director of Outreach and Resources. In 2019 she left TCW for a short stint in the for-profit world. Adriana realized that bikes are where her heart is and found her way back to The Common Wheel. In 2021, Adriana was selected as a Baldwin Leadership Fellow to explore bicycle advocacy throughout the USA. Her passion and focus are increasing accessibility to get more booties on bikes!
A native of Lancaster, she lives in the city with her son Dante. She’s an alumna of Franklin and Marshall College and McCaskey High School where she spent a lot of time reading books in a lot of different languages. She loves riding her 1989 converted single-speed Miyata, reading books, and feeling guilty about beating people in Scrabble.
Mikhail Zapata-Rotz (he/him)
Co-Executive Director
Mikhail Zapata-Rotz is the Co-Executive Director at The Common Wheel. He hails from Annville, PA. A Penn State graduate with a degree in Materials Science and Engineering and a minor in Science, Technology, and Society, Mikhail is uniquely suited to work on bikes. His 7+ years in the bicycle industry along with his ability to work with children make him the absolute best person to run our programs.
Mikhail loves cats. Like, he LOVES cats a lot. He also really loves his Klein which is tricked out with pizza, cacti, and other fun stuff…don’t be jealous.
He co-leads our organization with Adriana Atencio.
Chris Caldwell
Founder & Executive Director (2015-2020)
Read more about Chris’s involvement in starting The Common Wheel »
Job Openings
We are a community bike shop run by a small team of young, hard-working people. Here is what we stand for:
- We’re for making a positive impact on our community and culture
- We’re for building a kick-ass urban bike community in our special little city
- We’re for helping people realize their dreams on two wheels
- We’re for providing employment training and job opportunities to the underserved youth in our city
- We’re for building awesome bikes, providing impeccable (and friendly) service, and selling great products that improve people’s experiences
- We’re for facilitating all of those small, magical moments that bikes can create
There are no current job openings.
Our Board of Directors
[ Accordion Closer - Hidden ]
Zach Love - President
Zach works for PNC Bank helping local businesses with banking solutions. He volunteers with the Lancaster Chamber’s Young Professional Network, Leadership Lancaster, and helped co-found a volunteer project called Lancaster PATH. When Zach isn’t training for a triathlon he enjoys cooking, traveling, hiking, and of course biking! He believes The Common Wheel has the ability to unify a community and influence healthy behaviors.
Emily Wilson- Vice President
Travis Oot - Treasurer
Katie Walsh
Larry Keating
Arjun Sanyal
Arjun is a Central PA native who as a kid loved nothing more than jumping curbs and going on adventures on his sweet Redline BMX with mushroom grips. He stopped riding after college while living in the bike-unfriendly cities of the time.
His love of bikes was rekindled two years ago after getting his daughter her first “real” bike, and cycling in all its diversity has become a major part of his life. Arjun advocates for improvements in bike policy and infrastructure and believes The Common Wheel’s mission is a force for positive change across Lancaster’s many communities. He believes everyone deserves to have the same feeling of freedom, enjoyment, and safety on two wheels as he did growing up.
When not riding his bike, Arjun works to make healthcare smarter with technology as a veteran of the Harvard Medical School and several Silicon Valley startups.
[ Accordion Closer - Hidden ]
Angela Diaz
Angela Diaz was born and raised in Lancaster and still resides in the Cabbage Hill area where she grew up. After learning about bike commuting through books, blogs, and videos, she purchased her first “real” bike in 2009. Once she began pedaling around the city, she became very passionate about bike commuting and loves sharing her tips and experiences to encourage others to try it.
Outside of her love of getting around on a bicycle, she loves vegetable gardening, cooking, knitting, camping, reading, and spending time with her family. She works for an investment firm in downtown Lancaster and is a Business Administration student at Albright College.
Liz Castillo
Liz is a Lancaster native with an international background. She is the sister of twelve internationally adopted siblings. She holds a degree in International Development from the George Washington University and worked abroad for four years in La Paz, Bolivia. Returning to Lancaster, she delivered services to refugees and immigrants at Church World Service (CWS). She is now earning her law degree with a full merit-based scholarship at the Temple University Beasley School of Law and hopes to offer immigration and employment legal services in the Lancaster area.
Liz’s love for bikes started on the PA rail trails and Ocean City boardwalk and continued as a city commuter. Now, she loves riding around Lancaster city especially for market days. Liz believes that bike commuting is a way to keep us connected with our community. Her commitment to the Common Wheel’s mission solidified with the smiles of her CWS clients as she saw them ride around the city on their Bikes for All wheels.
Brittany Smith
Professionally, Brittany is the Agricultural Project Coordinator for the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay.
Born and raised in Lancaster County, Brittany can trace her roots back to the very first settlers of the area. She graduated from Messiah College in 2010 with a degree in Humanities and History.
For the past decade, she has been developing a diverse conservation background through work with the National Parks Service, Lancaster County Planning Commission, Warwick Township, and Lititz Boro. She also spent several seasons traveling throughout the country teaching environmental education through experiential learning programs. Most recently she worked for Lancaster County Conservation District, performing grants management and agricultural conservation.
Brittany has always cherished the outdoors, recognizing the deep connection conservation has with our human experiences. This knowledge particularly hit home when backpacking the wild mountains of West Virginia communicating with 8th grade students just what it means to live in and be responsible for our natural world. She is a firm believer that people will only care for what they know, and as conservationists, it is our job to inspire wonder and curiosity to others to explore, learn, and care more for their natural environments.
As a member of the Backyard Fruit Growers Association, Slow Food International, and Lancaster Beekeeping she keeps busy through gardening, cooking, and preserving foods. In her free time, you can find Brittany hiking through the forest to forage for wild edibles, or camping. When not tinkering around with DIY projects at home, Brittany will most likely be practicing yoga, biking, reading, writing, and exploring new places.