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Jay Carson

Chief Deputy Mayor
City of Los Angeles

Jay Carson brought over a decade of senior-level strategic and policy experience in government and politics to his most recent job as Chief Deputy Mayor for the City of Los Angeles. As one of the youngest major city deputy mayors in the country, Carson's portfolio in Mayor Villaraigosa's administration included much of the governmental function of the city, specifically all departments that report to the deputy mayors for education, energy and environment, transportation, and economic development. As Chief Deputy Mayor, Carson led a highly successful overhaul of the city's economic development and job creation efforts. He completely revamped the economic development team with dollar-a-year Deputy Mayor Austin Beutner, he implemented a strategy to leverage the city's considerable assets for job creation, and he led the long-overdue reform and restructuring of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. He was responsible for major education policy and staff changes, which led to significant improvements at both the city school district and the Mayor's Partnership Schools. He led the city's groundbreaking transportation policy efforts by heading up the now-nationally renowned 30-10 mass transit acceleration plan, commonly referred to as "the national model for municipal mass transit." He also implemented major policy changes to ensure that the city's substantial sustainability efforts were both environmentally and economically sustainable and, where possible, focused on job creation.

After working on Senator Charles Schumer's successful upset Senate campaign in 1998 and Bill Bradley's presidential campaign in 2000, Jay served as the Deputy Communications Director for Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle. While with Senator Daschle, Jay was a member of the Senator's senior staff and worked closely with the legislative and policy teams. Jay left the Leadership's Office to become a top adviser for Governor Howard Dean's groundbreaking 2004 presidential campaign.

After the Dean campaign, Jay worked as a Senior Adviser to New York City's 2012 Olympic Games bid and Mayor Bloomberg's Administration, focusing on approval of an NFL/Olympic stadium in Manhattan. In 2005, Jay became one of the top advisers for the William J. Clinton Foundation, President Clinton's international non-profit organization based in New York City. As a member of the senior leadership team at the Clinton Foundation, Jay helped shape some of their signature programs including the Clinton Global Initiative and the Clinton Climate Initiative while also working with President Clinton on AIDS treatment, rural development, and the Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts.

Jay was a senior member of now-Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton's staff on her barrier-breaking 2008 presidential campaign. He traveled with Secretary Clinton throughout the campaign and was the on-the-record spokesman for the traveling press corps, the senior briefer for the candidate and the substantive liaison between headquarters and the traveling party. Following this, Jay was a Senior Vice President at Shangri La Industries promoting and developing sustainable, eco-friendly projects.

Jay has lived overseas in the Republic of Georgia and Estonia where he worked in their respective national governments to combat corruption. His work in the Republic of Georgia helped introduce the concept of subpoena power to the newly-created Legislature.

Jay is currently an Adjunct Professor at USC's Annenberg School and a Senior Fellow at UCLA's School of Public Affairs.

Born in Macon, GA, Jay received his B.A. from Columbia University in New York City where he was a member of the Columbia rowing team.