Rodney Harrell

 AREAS OF EXPERTISE

Housing, livable communities, residential patterns, community development, universal design, housing equity, and urban planning.

ABOUT

Rodney Harrell is vice president, family, home and community for AARP. In that role, he is the enterprise lead on housing issues, and leads AARP Public Policy Institute’s team of issue experts on long-term services, family caregiving and livable communities. Harrell’s research on housing preferences, neighborhood choice, and community livability are integral to the groundbreaking Livability Index, which measures the livability of every neighborhood and community in the United States.

Before joining AARP, Dr. Harrell was a Research and Evaluation Consultant working with a range of local and national clients, and an instructor at the University of Maryland. Prior to that, he was a Maryland Governor’s Policy Fellow leading programs in the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development / Maryland Heritage Areas Authority.

In addition, Dr, Harrell is a Champions Council member of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, and Vice Chair of the Board of Visitors for the University of Maryland School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. He formerly served as the Vice Chair-Policy for the American Planning Association’s Planning and the Black Community Division, and sits on several community boards in Maryland. He is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi honor societies, and was named to the initial class of Top Influencers in Aging for his work with AARP.

He holds a doctorate in urban planning and design from the University of Maryland, earned dual master’s degrees in public affairs and urban planning from the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, and graduated summa cum laude from the honors program at Howard University with a bachelor’s degree in political science.