Brian H. Hurd (he/him)
Director of Planning + Implementation
Originally from Virginia Beach, Virginia, Brian has been with Rise since 2003. He is the Technical Assistance Program Manager providing organizational capacity building and management, training along with housing development consulting services to nonprofit organizations, financial institutions and government partners.
As Director of Planning + Implementation, Brian helps bring Rise’s value chain for collective impact to help transform neighborhoods and communities by aligning planning, investments, and partnerships. He is a nationally recognized leader at the center of racial equity and trauma-informed planning and sustained community improvements. His efforts also involve providing technical assistance and capacity building to community-based organizations and institutions, government, banks, and other private sector clients. Brian serves as the lead for the St. Louis region as a member of the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP), a network coordinated by the Urban Institute that connects independent partner organizations in more than 30 cities across the nation. NNIP has a mission of ensuring all communities have access to data and the skills to use information to advance equity and well-being.
Brian oversees Rise’s Rising Star internship program, helping to develop the next generation of planners and community development professionals who are better equipped to address social and physical determinants of health and who are better able to work in marginalized, under resourced communities with historic disparities. He is also a field instructor for the Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis, where he supervises master’s level social work, public health, and MBA students with a concentration in social and economic development. He is also an adjunct professor at the University where he teaches a popular course in the University College’s Sustainability Program titled, Planning Sustainable and Racially Equitable Urban Communities. Brian has a passion for young people. He is also a best-selling author, publishing a book for young people titled, Dream It! Plan It! Be It!: A Playbook for Today’s Youth.
Brian received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Organizational Communications from Saint Augustine’s University, an Historically Black College/University, in Raleigh, North Carolina. He has a Masters in Community and Regional Planning from Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. And he holds a University of Missouri–St. Louis Chancellor’s Certificate in Planning and Zoning.
He serves on several boards and commissions, including:
- Alpha Terrace Development Corporation
- East Side Aligned, Inc.
- Fathers & Families Support Center, Inc.
- Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority – St. Louis County, Missouri
- Missouri Gateway Green Building Council, Inc.
- STL VentureWorks, Inc.
Brian has received several individual awards and recognitions, including:
- 2020 Dwight F. Davis Outstanding Planning Advocate Award from the American Planning Association Missouri Chapter-Illinois Chapter St. Louis Metro Section
- 2021 Outstanding Alumni Design Achievement Award Presented by the Iowa State University College of Design
- 2023 Trailblazer – Wall of Champions, Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis
