Dr. Carolyn Johnson is a Strategic Futurist, Commercial Real Estate Developer, and the Founding CEO of the BCZ Community Development Corporation (BCZ CDC). A native of East Oakland, she has spent over 30 years managing public, private, and non-profit institutions with a focus on Finance, Healthcare, and Real Estate. In 2019, she served as the first Executive Director of the East Oakland Black Cultural Zone Collaborative and, alongside the community, led the creation of the BCZ CDC in 2020.

As a Systems Architect, Dr. Johnson is a co-designer of the foundational blueprint for the RISE East initiative, a $100M collecƟve impact model. In 2025, she co-led the creation of the Centers of Excellence Network, representing the natural evolution of the BCZ CDC. She holds an Honors MBA from Columbia Business School in Corporate Finance, Real Estate Finance, and Marketing, an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from Saint Mary's College, and an MPH in Health Policy and Administration from UC Berkeley. Her leadership integrates Teal principles and collaborative hierarchies to secure cultural sovereignty through permanent community ownership.