The International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) and the Southern Off-Road Mountain Bicycle Association (SORBA), IMBA’s Southeast Region, have jointly hired a full-time professional advocate in the role of IMBA Associate Region Director. Terry Palmeri will work closely with Tom Sauret, IMBA Region Director and SORBA Executive Director, helping serve the 38 SORBA chapters in Sauret's territory of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.
Palmeri is currently the president of the Ellijay Mountain Bike Association in Georgia, one of the oldest SORBA chapters, and is the office manager for the Cartecay River Bicycle Shop. Her mountain biking career started in 2004 when she met her now-husband, Mike Palmeri. After 12 years of road bike riding, she was introduced to natural-surface riding on a trip to Wales. After touring that country's premier mountain biking trail systems, she was inspired to help her adopted community of Ellijay, Ga., become a mountain-biking destination.
Palmeri has successfully worked with the U.S. Forest Service on mountain bike projects in the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest, with the Army Corps of Engineers on the Carters Lake trail system, and with Georgia State Parks. Thanks to her years of experience in both bicycle advocacy and bicycle retail, Palmeri will contribute enormously to IMBA-SORBA’s efforts to accomplish its mission.
SORBA is the largest nonprofit mountain biking organization in the Southeast and has been IMBA’s official southeast region for six years. Through advocacy, education, and recreational opportunities, IMBA-SORBA carries out its mission to promote land access, trail preservation and new trail development in order to enhance mountain bike touring, racing, fun and fellowship for all mountain bicyclists in the southeastern United States.
