Marjora Carter: Green Job Creator

Majora Carter was born, raised, and continues to live in the South Bronx. Her career has taken her around the world in pursuit of resources and ideas to improve the quality of life in environmentally challenged communities. She founded Sustainable South Bronx in 2001 after writing a $1.25M Federal Transportation grant to design the South Bronx Greenway with 11 miles of bike and pedestrian paths connecting the rivers and neighborhoods to each other, and to the rest of the city. That project secured over $20 million in funds for first phase construction and serves as alternative transportation, economic development anchor, storm water management infrastructure as well as healthy recreation.

She has been instrumental in creating riverfront parks, building green roofs, working to remove poorly planned highways in favor of positive economic development, and successfully implementing the Bronx Environmental Stewardship Training (BEST) program— a pioneering green-collar job training and placement system -- seeding a community with a skilled workforce that has both a personal & economic stake in their urban environment.

These accomplishments grow from her notion that self-image is influenced by surroundings—so those surroundings should be beautiful! Her vision, drive, and tenacity earned her a MacArthur "Genius" Grant. She started 2007 as one of Newsweek’s “25 To Watch”, ended the year as one of Essence Magazine’s “25 most Influential African Americans”. She has been named one of the “50 most influential women in NYC” by the NY Post for the past two years, and "NYC's most influential environmentalist" by the BBC World Service. Majora is president of the Majora Carter Group, LLC, a board member of the Widerness Society, and host of a special national public radio series called “The Promised Land”.