Commissioner: Isaac Heard

Mr. Heard earned undergraduate degrees in Sociology and Urban Studies from Dartmouth College (National Achievement Scholar) and graduate degrees in Urban Planning from Harvard University (HUD Fellow) and Public Administration from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He was also a Fannie Mae Foundation Fellow at the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government’s Executive Program for State and Local Government.

Mr. Heard is an urban planning and community economic development consultant and analyst. He serves as an Adjunct Lecturer and Visiting Assistant Professor of Geography and Urban Planning at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC). His primary subjects are environmental, transportation and urban planning, and community economic development. He also lectures in the UNCC Master of Public Administration Program with courses in Urban Politics and Intergovernmental Relations.

Mr. Heard worked for 13 years as a city planner in Charlotte-Mecklenburg. He has also worked with private developers, as the Executive Director of a CDC, and as a Director for the Enterprise Foundation. He is the former chair of the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Commission, and has served on the Board of Directors for the Arts and Science Council of Charlotte-Mecklenburg and the NC Environmental Education Fund. He has also served on the NC State Bar and on the Real Estate Advisory Council for the Belk College of Business Administration at UNC Charlotte.