Avondale Development Corporation Promotes One and Hires Two

Avondale is the largest African-American neighborhood in Cincinnati. It is also the City’s hottest, with billions of dollars in development happening in and around its borders and an aggressive effort to ensure residents benefit from the revitalization.

            At the center of it is the Avondale Development Corporation, a nonprofit organization founded in 2011 to help improve the quality of life for residents of Avondale. ADC addresses critical housing needs in Avondale, helps create jobs and economic opportunities for residents and leads organizing, engagement and advocacy efforts to foster a community of neighbors who know each other and work together for common goals.

            ADC recently bolstered its staff to handle the increasing workload and take advantage of the opportunities by hiring Derek McCain and Jerita Simpson and promoting Patrick Cartier.

Cartier is well-known to Avondale residents, having served previously as ADC’s community engagement and communications manager. He has been promoted to director of operations and community engagement, where he’ll be responsible for connecting Avondale residents to existing civic organizations in Avondale and coordinating all neighborhood communications. Cartier leads an engagement committee with a variety of local partners, produces digital communications and manages ADC’s community engagement activities.

            Simpson has been hired to be project director of ADC’s Quality of Life initiative, the official master plan for Avondale. Developed in partnership with Avondale residents and passed by unanimously by Cincinnati City Council in 2020, the initiative touches on all aspects of the neighborhood’s revitalization, from housing and retail needs to safety, social services and opportunities for advancement. Simpson most recently served as community projects/community engagement manager for the Center for Closing the Health Gap. She brings nearly two decades of social service and community-based program administration and management to ADC, including initiative development and implementation.

            McCain has been hired as ADC’s director of real estate and community development. He will manage ADC’s real estate and economic development activities in partnership with community stakeholders and ADC’s leadership and board of trustees. McCain most recently served as senior development officer and development manager for the housing division of the City of Cincinnati’s Department of Community & Economic Development. He brings a decade of planning and community development to ADC.