Carolyn A. Flowers has over 40 years of leadership experience in the automotive, computer, and transportation industries. She has experience as a C-suite executive and director-level roles in both public and private sectors. She has served on nonprofit, industry association, and corporate boards.

Flowers began her career in financial management with two Fortune 500 companies. She then transitioned to the public sector, spending nearly two decades at the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro) with responsibility for overseeing, among other areas, strategic planning, budget management, operations and safety, and labor negotiations. For her outstanding contributions, she was named chief operating officer at LA Metro. In 2010, Flowers accepted a new position as CEO for the Charlotte Area Transit System, where she spearheaded a $2 billion expansion of the area's light rail and streetcar system. In 2015, Flowers joined the Obama administration as a senior advisor to the US Department of Transportation. She was subsequently appointed acting administrator for the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) by the president. The FTA annually provides over $10 billion in financial and technical assistance to local public transit systems, including buses, subways, light rail, commuter rail, trolleys and ferries. It also oversees safety measures and helps develop next generation technology research. After leaving public service, Flowers joined AECOM, a global engineering firm, as senior vice president of their North America public transit sector, which generated over $1 billion in annual revenue. In 2019, Flowers became a managing partner and co-owner of InfraStrategies LLC, a consulting firm that provided strategic planning, advisory services, and capital planning guidance to large transit system clients. Flowers hold a bachelor of arts and master of business administration from the University of California, Los Angeles.