Russell hairston - adc executive director

rhairston@growavondale.org | 513-861-2232 ext. 100

Russell Hairston became the Executive Director of the Avondale Development Corporation in January 2017, where he is responsible for administration, fundraising and sustainability development. He has more than 25 years of experience developing and implementing high-impact, award-winning strategies to improve urban neighborhoods.

Mr. Hairston is a former Housing Division Manager with the City of Cincinnati’s Department of Community and Economic Development. During his time with the City, Mr. Hairston led award-winning public-private Cincinnati neighborhood transformations in the Betts-Longworth/West End, Evanston, Over-the-Rhine, Walnut Hills and Avondale neighborhoods and formed a successful strategic partnership with Kingsley and Company within the Cincinnati neighborhoods of Clifton Heights, University Heights and Fairview Heights. Mr. Hairston also facilitated creation of two Citywide community development stimulus programs: a Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) program for housing developers and a pilot CORE FOUR program to align public and private funding for housing development in eight strategically targeted neighborhoods.

Mr. Hairston is also President of RH Consulting LLC, which specializes in public-private partnerships (P3’s) that result in catalytic community development. He is an expert in community engagement and neighborhood transformation. Among his many awards and achievements, Mr. Hairston was co-recipient of the 2015 President’s Award from the Ohio Conference of Community Development and received the 2015 Executive Director’s Award from the Avondale Comprehensive Development Corporation (predecessor of ADC) for dedicated service in making Avondale a Choice Neighborhood.

Mr. Hairston holds a Master’s Degree in Community Planning from the University of Cincinnati College of Design, Art, Architecture and Planning (DAAP) and is passionate about improving the human potential, public policies and physical environments of communities. He lives in the Cincinnati neighborhood of Clifton with his wife, Julia.