Majora Carter was born on October 27, 1966. She is an American expert in helping cities improve and a radio show host from the South Bronx area of New York City. From 2001 to 2008, she created and led a nonprofit organization called Sustainable South Bronx, which focused on solving environmental justice issues. In 2008, she began working in the private sector.

Early life

After graduating from the Bronx High School of Science, Carter went to Wesleyan University in 1984 to study film and received a Bachelor of Arts. In 1997, she received a Master of Fine Arts from New York University (NYU). While she was at NYU, she returned to her family's home in Hunts Point.

Career

In August 2001, after choosing not to run for a position in the New York City Council, Majora Carter started an organization called Sustainable South Bronx (SSBx). She led this group until July 2008. During this time, SSBx worked to improve the Hunts Point Riverside Park, which had once been a place where trash was illegally dumped. Carter also helped start the Bronx River Alliance, and SSBx continued her efforts to restore the Bronx River waterfront. In 2003, SSBx began a program called the Bronx Environmental Stewardship Training, which was one of the first programs in the United States to train people for jobs in environmental fields. Other SSBx projects focused on health, creating a community market, and improving air quality. In 2007, Carter helped start an organization called Green for All with Van Jones. A 2008 article in the New York Times called Carter "The Green Power Broker" and said she was one of the city’s most well-known people who fight for fair treatment in environmental issues. However, the article also mentioned that some South Bronx activists claimed Carter took credit for work others did and for projects that were not finished. Other activists said her recognition was deserved.

Carter carried the Olympic torch during the San Francisco part of the 2008 Summer Olympics. Many parts of the torch relay, including San Francisco’s, had protests about China’s policies toward Tibet. Although Carter signed a contract promising not to use the event for political or religious reasons, she pulled out a small Tibetan flag from her shirt during the relay. Members of China’s security team removed her from the event, and San Francisco police officers pushed her into the crowd. Some other torch-bearers, including a retired firefighter and a retired police officer, criticized her actions.

Carter gave one of the first six TED talks when the TED website launched in 2006. She gave another TED talk in 2022, making her the only Black woman who is not an entertainer to speak at TED twice. She has appeared on TV and radio shows, including HBO’s The Black List: Volume 2, American Public Media’s Market Place, and PRX’s This I Believe. She also hosted programs about urban sustainability on Discovery Communications’ Science Channel.

Carter has been in videos and ads for companies like Cisco Systems, Frito-Lay, Intel, Holiday Inn, HSBC, Visa, Mazda, and Honda. In 2014, she was the host and voiceover for a documentary called Water Blues – Green Solutions, which focused on green infrastructure in American cities. In 2015, she acted in a movie called Ricky and the Flash, directed by Johnathon Demme.

From 2007 to 2010, Carter co-hosted a TV segment called The Green, which focused on environmental issues and aired on the Sundance Channel. The first season had short studio segments, and the second season had interviews with people who used creative ways to solve environmental problems.

In 2008, Carter and Marge Ostroushko made a radio show called The Promised Land, which won a grant and was played on over 150 radio stations. It won a Peabody Award in 2010 but later stopped producing new episodes.

Carter co-wrote a report on reducing urban heat and a scientific article about pollution levels in areas affected by heavy truck traffic. In 2022, Penguin Random House published her first book, Reclaiming Your Community: You Don’t Have to Move Out of Your Neighborhood to Live in a Better One.

In 2024, Carter talked about her work and the book The Power Broker by Robert Caro on the 99% Invisible podcast. After leaving SSBx, she started a consulting firm called Majora Carter Group, LLC (MCG). In 2010, Fast Company magazine listed her as one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business. In 2014, MCG was recognized as one of the "Best for the World" by B Corporation.

In 2012, MCG helped FreshDirect, a company, connect with local groups before it planned to move to the Harlem River Yards in the South Bronx. Some activists said the city and FreshDirect did not do enough to study the environmental effects or talk to the community. A lawsuit and boycott were started to stop the move, but both were dismissed. SSBx, the group Carter founded, opposed the move. Later, Bronx Community Board 1 and the NYC Industrial Development Agency approved the move. The project started in December 2014 and was planned to finish by the end of 2016. FreshDirect began hiring in the Bronx before the move. A study later found that the new warehouse increased traffic more than expected, especially at night.

In 2007, while working with SSBx, Carter brought MIT’s first mobile fabrication lab to the South Bronx. This lab was an early version of a space where people could create things using technology.

In 2013, Carter joined the advisory board of the Bronx Academy of Software Engineering High School. In 2012, she co-founded StartUp Box #SouthBronx, a social enterprise that helped people join the tech industry. She later started StartUp Box #QA, a service that helped launch Mayor Bill DeBlasio’s Digital.NYC in 2014. StartUp Box won a contest at the Blogher Conference in 2015 and received prizes in other competitions in 2016.

Carter is listed on BusinessInsider.com’s "Silicon Alley 100" and co-founded the Bronx Tech Meetup. She judged a design challenge for the NYC Office of Digital Media.

• 2024 Commendation for Outstanding Teaching, Princeton University
• 2020 Edmund N. Bacon Urban Design Award
• 2017 Visionary Leadership Award – Arts & Ideas
• 2016 MIT Inclusion Innovation Competition – Finalist
• 2016 Digit /think