Seeing Yourself in a Shared Micromobility Role
To complement NABSA’s Building a Better Shared Micromobility Industry: Best Practices for More Diverse and Inclusive Workplaces toolkit and strategy to increase diversity in the shared micromobility workforce at all levels we launched “Workforce Diversity Wednesdays”. This blog and social media series spotlights jobs in shared micromobility throughout the year. We post interviews with individuals in the shared micromobility industry highlighting their work and role with the hopes of encouraging more diversity and representation in the field.
Meet Roshin Kurian! Roshin (she/her) works with the Portland Bureau of Transportation and the BIKETOWN bikeshare system. She says that her lived experience as a bike-loving, woman of color who grew up with limited means makes this work personal and important and reminds her that she gets to be a voice for those who get left out of the conversation. Roshin is a current NABSA board member. Read more and learn about her journey to shared micromobility below:
How did you come to arrive at working in shared micromobility and your current role?
A colleague and sweet bike friend in Brooklyn connected me to bike share and shared micromobility – CitiBike in its early years. It was 2016, and I was working in emergency preparedness and response for NYC. I was drained from responding to the disaster mental health needs of NYC during Hurricane Sandy, keeping Ebola out of the US at the JFK Quarantine Station, and from playing other roles on the front lines fighting off Zika, Legionella, TB, STDs, rats, end of times – you get the idea. It was time for a change, having less than 3 cell phones strapped to my belt like a winner.
I learned about a role in the NYC Health Department/Center for Health Equity connecting community-based initiatives to state funding focused on Creating Healthy People and Communities. I was able to get to my passion of connecting the thing to the folks, but this felt different. It felt preventative, yet timely – and joyful! I piloted the Prescribe a Bike program in Brooklyn and didn’t want to stop there.
In 2018, I moved to Portland doing my public health epidemiologist thing, stoked and hoping to recreate similar programs that can last, connecting health and transportation in shared micromobility, and finding through ways for funding.
What is your favorite thing about your job?
I get to be in the community and see the impact of my work. I get to see that sweet and excited bikey smile when someone gets on an e-bike for the first time and just *gets it*. Or witness that nostalgic joy when someone gets back on a bike after many years. I get tickled every day I connect within and outside my communities through the development of programs that attempt to reach EVERYone. I get to tell stories through data in the spaces of transportation, urban planning, public health, the arts, and beyond. I love the simple tool of a bicycle to provide mobility, freedom, access and connection.
Overall, I love the simplicity of bikes as a solution to so many problems, and finding those connection points in an oh-so-complicated world.
What has surprised you most about your job?
It is so intersectional! We have learned that the things we have access to in our environments play a critical role in shaping our health outcomes and quality of life. We cannot show up if we cannot get there! Physical connectedness connects our joy to others, health, jobs, schools, recreation and our own well-being. As a med school dropout, preventative medicine is the kind of medicine that feels worthwhile to me, including unlocking access to basic needs. I’m invigorated to create practical ways to connect physical and mental health, including social connectedness and addressing actual quality of life through movement.
