Merja Spott

Project Coordinator

Merja Spott is a geographer who has worked on several projects for Friends of the Earth to promote cycling since 2004. She has worked on the national as well as on the local level. Currently she is responsible for transport policy and advocacy for the Hamburg section of the German Cycling Federation. She received her master’s degree from the Free University of Berlin in Geography and Transport Science. At EURIST she is working on the EU Project QUEST. 

Sandra Thielisch

Programme Coordinator



Sandra Thielisch is an environmental scientist specialized on planning, management and communication and has been working in the transport sector since 2009. She has coordinated health care and transport projects in the northeast of Uganda, which aimed to improve and enable access to health facilities for the rural population. In 2011 she was involved in creating the Make A Move Campaign that she now supports as a Programme Coordinator. Before, Sandra undertook research in Best Transport Practice Research in Europe and evaluated European Climate Action Plans. 





Nicole Foletta

Research Coordinator



Nicole has a diverse background in sustainable transportation work. She has international experience, having worked in San Francisco, Barcelona and Hamburg. Additionally she has experience in academic research, private consulting and non-profit work. She completed a Dual Masters Degree program, earning a Masters of City Planning as well as a Masters of Science in Transportation Engineering from UC Berkeley in 2007. She was also the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship to work on efficient bus network design research at the CENIT research center in Barcelona in 2008. Her areas of expertise include the relationship between transportation and land use planning, transportation demand management and public transportation system enhancements (including bus rapid transit). 



Franziska Borer Blindenbacher

Research Coordinator



Franziska Borer Blindenbacher has been working as an international consultant in the fields of transport and environment for eight years. Her clients are from the public and private sector, among them the US Department of Transportation, Transport Canada, Think Swiss, PostAuto Switzerland. She was also teaching at the George Washington University in Washington D.C. on sustainable transportation and environmental policy.

Prior to do consultancies she worked for ten years for the Swiss Federal Department of Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC) and was part of the team that developed and implemented the distance- and emission-related heavy vehicle fee (HVF) in Switzerland. One focus of her work is on the social and external costs of transportation and the market pricing mechanisms to internalize them. She has extensive experience in crafting and implementing sustainable transportation policies on the local, national and international level and is also an expert on urban transportation.

She earned a Master degree in political economy, political science and international law from the University of Berne, Switzerland.

Michael Amabile

Research Coordinator



Michael is an urban planner working with various entities to promote sustainable transport since 2007. He has been involved with transportation and planning projects in New York City including bus rapid transit, variable rate parking programs, mobility management and programs that link cycling and transit. He has worked at the Pratt Center for Community Development and the New York City Department of Transportation. He received his Master's of Science in City and Regional Planning from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. He is one of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation's 2011-2012 German Chancellor Fellows. He will research best practices from Germany and Europe on linking transit and cycling and urban planning practices that support non-motorized transport.

Winfried Weiss

Chief Operating Officer

After training as a merchant in rail transport and road traffic at Deutsche Bahn, Winfried joined the IT centre of the German defence administration centre in Düsseldorf. He later joined the communication provider D2 Vodafone, where he managed internal and external projects such as the Sarbanes Oxley Act (s404) and the customer care & billing system. In addition, he has consulted for external audit institutions. Winfried is currently a volunteer at EURIST, providing communication and project assistance.



Patrick Kayemba

Sustainable Transport Expert for

Developing Countries

Patrick Kayemba is a Development Practitioner, Researcher, Trainers, NGO Manager, Planner and Social Development Change Agent with an MA in Community Based Development of Nkumba University. He has over 15 years of experience in coordinating and managing development projects of all nature that include structural development, evaluation of programs, support in agro based enterprises, and  poverty alleviation initiatives.

He has special expertise in advocacy for good governance and promotion of Non-motorised Transport solutions, poverty eradication issues, and unfairness in trade and food insecurities at household level. His extensive involvement in programs includes proposal writing as a fundraising strategy, carrying out participatory research, baseline surveys, program designing and implementation based on the logical framework analysis. He has been involved in monitoring and evaluation plans for different programs. He has vast experience in working with and managing people/ communities of different cultures and ethnic settings. This experience involves hands on in community mobilization, participatory planning processes using different participatory approaches. As a development worker, he is involved in developing strategic directions for varying organisations as an approach to achieving quality and sustainable outputs.

Patrick is currently the Program Director – FABIO (First African Bicycle Information Organisation, Jinja/Kampala, Uganda) and Inhouse - expert of EURIST.



Joachim Bergerhoff

Policy Analyst 

Joachim Bergerhoff earned his Master degree in political sciences with a thesis on Local Government facing the Challenge of Mobility in 1992.  Since that time, he has been active on all fronts of sustainable mobility as secretary of the bicycle advocacy GRACQ and founding member of ProVélo (Brussels).  He continued his career in a regional consultancy working for the EU THERMIE programme, dealing with energy efficiency and land use planning.  He then joined the general secretariat of the International Association of Public Transport (UITP), where he focussed on public transport organisation, statistics, marketing and product innovation, until he was nominated Deputy Head of Staff of the Minister of Transport of the Walloon Region (Belgium), from 1999 to 2002. In that position, he was involved in the supervision of the regional public transport company, the national railways policy, in the elaboration of numerous municipal mobility plans, the support to mobility NGOs and the launch of the first Car Sharing scheme in Belgium. He then gained hands-on experience in as manager of the Geneva transborder region public transport fare consortium.

From 2007 to 2011, Joachim was the transport & mobility expert of the UN-HABITAT Municipal Spatial Planning Support Program in Kosovo, where he advised several municipalities and the central institutions on transport planning issues, the organisation of public transport and the promotion of “active mobility”, i.e. walking and cycling.

He now is Senior Strategic Analyst with STIB-MIVB, the public transport operator of Brussels, where he lives with his wife and three children. Joachim also takes special interest in West African urban transport and mobility issues, which he has studied during several visits over recent years.



Judith Adeniyi

Strategic Initiatives and Communication Officer

Judith Adeniyi joined EURIST in April 2011 as an intern. Currently she works on EURISTs website management and public relations. Her research is focused on urban transport in developing and transition countries; she was involved in creating the Make A Move Campaign and since January 2012 has been researching international transport funding principles on the UBA project. Judith is currently finishing her Master Degree in environmental policy and communication.