Rodney Harrell, PhD

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

Aging, livable communities, housing, community revitalization, economic development, equity, strategic planning.

ABOUT

Rodney Harrell, PhD, is vice president, family, home and community (FHC) for AARP. In that role, he leads AARP Public Policy Institute’s FHC team of experts on long-term services and supports, family caregiving and livable communities, and he is an enterprise lead across AARP on housing and livable communities issues.

Dr. Harrell first joined AARP in 2008 and served as a senior advisor and as a director in the Public Policy Institute prior to becoming a vice president. He led the team that created the award-winning AARP Livability Index™ platform, which measures the livability of every neighborhood and community in the United States, and builds on his research on housing preferences, neighborhood choice, and community livability. 

Before joining AARP, he was an independent research and evaluation consultant, and a researcher and instructor at the University of Maryland. He has also been a CPAR Research Fellow at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and a Maryland Governor’s Policy Fellow leading programs in the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development/Maryland Heritage Areas Authority. 

Dr. Harrell is a member of the board of trustees of the National Building Museum, is chair of the Champions Council of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, and a board member and past 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 has severed on several local boards and committees 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.

Read Rodney Harrell's blog posts.

CONTACT

Email: rharrell@aarp.org

X: https://twitter.com/DrUrbanPolicy

For media inquiries, call 202-434-2560 or e-mail media@aarp.org.