Executive Director, Cumberland CID

Malaika Rivers is responsible for leading the efforts of the Cumberland Community Improvement District (CID). The Cumberland CID raises seed funding through local commercial property taxes, leverages them against public funds and reinvests them back into the community. With 19 years of experience, Rivers works with commercial investors, developers, government partners and other stakeholders to improve infrastructure in the Cumberland submarket in northwest Atlanta, Georgia.   

Since its inception in 1988, the CID has successfully leveraged $100 million local dollars into more than a half billion dollars in constructed projects. The CID’s current workprogram is focused on advancing another quarter-billion dollars worth of enhancements in the community.

Rivers began with the Cumberland CID in 1996 when she was brought on to develop and manage the Transportation Management Association (“Commuter Club” TMA) for the CID, which was also the first in Georgia. In 2006 she was named the first full time Executive Director of the CID to oversee the CID’s growing portfolio of projects, including road, streetscape, trail, transit, commuter services, land use planning, beautification and more.

Under Rivers' leadership, the CID and its initiatives have been recognized and awarded nationally and internationally by the US EPA, US DOT, International Downtown Association, Georgia Planning Association, Association for Commuter Transportation, as well as notable coverage by the Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio, ABC World News and more.

Rivers has been named a “40 Under 40” by both Georgia Trend and the Atlanta Business Chronicle, a “25 Power Women to Watch” by Atlanta Woman magazine and a “Woman of Achievement” by the YWCA. In 2011, Rivers was appointed by the Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives to serve on the House Study Committee on the Horse Racing Industry. Rivers also sits on the Board of Directors for the Council for Quality Growth and the Livable Communities Coalition and is an appointment of the Chairman of the Atlanta Regional Commission to the Environment and Land Use Committee which provides guidance on development in the Atlanta region.

Prior to her current position, Rivers was with the Atlanta Regional Commission and before that, with private industry in Washington, DC and Northern Virginia. Rivers is a graduate of Virginia Tech and lives in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia.