Cindy Ma, AICP is Director of Career Development in the Abbey Master of Real Estate Development + Design program. In this role, she will use her experience in mentoring and coaching and creating professional development and growth programs to close the gap between education and professional practice and meet the needs of current and prospective students, and alumni of the Abbey MRED program.
As a professional urban designer and planner with over 15 years of experience, Cindy continues to collaborate with multidisciplinary professionals to envision and realize community development, facilitate stakeholder outreach, and manage programs through her consulting firm Intersect Planning Urban Design Consulting, LLC.
Prior to starting her own practice, she was the Director, Planning at KTGY where she led Oakland’s Community Planning Urban Design studio, working closely with other teams to study, create, and deliver community plans and entitlements resulting in thousands of housing units and homes, and mixed-use developments in communities throughout the Bay Area, Sacramento Valley, Central Valley and Nevada.
Cindy is actively involved with organizations that share the same values and missions of building equitable, resilient, and sustainable communities. She currently serves on the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Urban Plan Steering Committee and is a frequent volunteer of the program, and she is on the American Planning Association Asian Pacific Islander (APA API) Steering Committee. Previously for 9 years, she was the Diversity Co-Chair of the APA CA Northern Section.