Carla Mays is the Co-Founder and Head of Global Policy and Research at Vancouver, Canada based #SmartCohort NGO and founding principal at Mays Civic Innovation, LLC in San Francisco. She currently serves as a Board Member for the inaugural City of Santa Monica Land Back and Reparations Task Force and as an inaugural Environmental Leadership Initiative (ELI) Fellow with Liberty Hill Foundation, with funding support from Hewlett Foundation and Packard Foundation.
Mays Co-Founded #SmartCohort in 2016 while attending as an inaugural Singularity Impact Scholar/Fellow at StartupFest Montreal at the launch of the Canadian Government $100M Smart Cities Fund.
Grounded in the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals, #SmartCohort has curated, facilitated and delivered over 150+ knowledge sharing and learning sessions, programs and dialogues and provided 50+ technical assistance programs for over 250+ government, corporate and nonprofit leaders since 2016. She was invited to be 2018 UN Climate Action delegate by then Governor Jerry Brown because of climate advocacy with BIPOC leaders and organizations in California and Florida.
Mays often is invited to cities, consulates, universities and tech companies to provide expertise on equitable smart cities and transportation. She has had international consultations and presentations in Canada, Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands, Japan and Singapore. Mays has held various environmental fellowships including Clean Energy Leadership Institute (CELI), Urban Land Institute San Francisco Pathway to Inclusion, and CORO San Francisco Resiliency – COVID-19 Fellow. She completed her term as a Board member of the American Planning Association (APA) Northern California Chapter as the San Francisco Program Lead (RAC).
Mays was selected to be part of the Inaugural (2024-26) cohort of the Environmental Leadership Initiative (ELI) Fellowship empowering California environmental justice leaders through support from Liberty Hill, Hewlett, and Packard Foundations. Mays is currently researching “Truth and Reconciliation” best practices in British Columbia relating to Land Back, Right Relation, and First Nations smart and sustainable city developments in Metro Vancouver.
Mays is looking to contribute to California’s “Truth and Healing” work with Native and Indigenous governments and leaders on land back, land use, housing for Native and Non-Native Californians.
Mays received both Bachelor and Master of Public Administration from San Francisco State University, is an alumna of UC Berkeley – Haas School of Business Executive Program, and the Executive Global Cities and Future Cities Programs at the London School of Economics and Harvard Graduate School of Design.
About Smartcohort
#SmartCohort is a United States NGO that advances diplomatic relations in climate and digital transformation through applied research, curated programming, and dialogue driven knowledge exchange with Asia Pacific (Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, and China) and the Greater Gulf Coast (Oman, Qatar, and UAE). Co-Founders Carla Mays and David Capelli conceptualized #SmartCohort in 2016 during StartupFest in Montreal and has delivered “cohorts” in Miami, Montreal, California, Wisconsin, Hawaii, Washington DC and Vancouver. #SmartCohort opened a research office at And-Co in Vancouver, BC a year ago.
Areas of impact include decolonized governance, ethics, finance (including Philanthropy) and policy for systems change in climate and digital transformation. #SmartCohort has served and delivered programs with universities/higher education institutions, Fund managers, and public sector leaders (Governors, Mayors and Managers).
#SmartCohort’s multilateral diplomacy work is global through the United Nations (UN), specifically the UN Fund Responding to Loss and Damage, YOUNGO (Official Youth Constituency of the UNFCCC), and Local Pathways/Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN).
Current research topics include: Being in Right Relation, Land Back governance and sovereignty, UNDRIP, Loss and Damage, and comparative public administration in relation to digital and climate transformation.