Biography

Ashley Z. Hand, AIA, LEED AP BD+C is Co-founder and Partner of Cityfi, an urban change management practice. A licensed architect and urban sustainability professional, Ashley advises across sectors on the future of smart cities and new mobility in an era of rapid change. Her award-winning work incorporates a systemic approach to change management and civic innovation, from public policy and performance management to urban design, organizational change and human behavior as new technologies are reshaping our cities. Starting with a people-first approach, Ashley's work is centered around ensuring that urban change improves outcomes for everyone in an equitable, transparent and sustainable way.

Previously, Ashley served as the Transportation Technology Strategist for the City of Los Angeles where, as a fellow, she developed and is now implementing one of the nation’s first strategies to address the future of shared mobility and autonomous vehicles. The framework, “Urban Mobility in a Digital Age,” includes public policy, a transportation happiness metric to benchmark user experience across all modes, an action plan and pilot program recommendations to help Los Angeles meet its goals for a more equitable, accessible and safer transportation network. Prior to her role with the City of Los Angeles, Ashley served as the first Chief Innovation Officer for the City of Kansas City, Missouri where she created the nation’s most comprehensive smart city. She convened multiple stakeholders across sectors and silos to work together to problem-solve and meet the city's goals. She created partnerships with local universities and young civic leaders, developed the city's first digital roadmap, and launched the Innovation Partnership Program to bring entrepreneurs to work with city hall.

Prior to her work in the public sector, Ashley worked for Eric Owen Moss Architects and AECOM as a designer and program manager and has led a variety of grassroots initiatives to advance sustainability, public education and Vision Zero in cities across the country. She is an active board member of BikeWalkKC, Carnegie Mellon University Mobility 21 Center, KCMO Brownfield Commission, Teach for America KC Champions Board and the vice-chair of the Kansas City Regional Transit Alliance. Ashley has a bachelor of arts in political science from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec and a master of architecture from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York and currently resides in Kansas City, Missouri with her husband and three children.