Richard Bell

Richard Bell

Project Officer

Office: 919-843-3078
Fax: 919-843-3083
rich_bell@unc.edu

Job Focus

Provides guidance, resource referral and other technical assistance for Active Living By Design grantees. Rich serves as Active Living By Design’s lead resource and point of contact for: Planning, Land Use, Transportation, Smart Growth, Community Development, Affordable Housing, Community Gardening, Crime Prevention and Safe Routes to School.

Why am I working at Active Living By Design?

I'm working at Active Living By Design because I believe that the environments in which we live influence our opportunities, our choices, our habits and our quality of life. Communities that are designed to promote routine physical activity for everyone will help people adopt healthier lifestyles, prevent disease and improve their quality of life. Such communities also tend to be more sociable, sustainable, fair and efficient.

Bio

As project officer for ALBD, Rich works directly with active living community partnerships and collaborates closely with his colleagues on our interdisciplinary Project Team. He provides guidance and support for grantee partnerships and their leaders regarding strategic and program planning, program implementation, and sustainability. He speaks on active living topics, develops educational materials and tools for advocates, and represents Active Living By Design with national partners in his areas of expertise. He also serves as ALBD’s liaison to the planning process for Carolina North, a future satellite campus for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Rich has wide-ranging experience in managing nonprofit organizations and projects, planning, building and supporting community partnerships and initiatives, training community-based organizations and leaders, fundraising and providing strategic advice and technical assistance in the fields of land use, transportation and the environment, affordable housing, community development, urban gardening and adult basic education.

Prior to his current role, Rich was the founding Executive Director of the North Carolina Smart Growth Alliance.

Before that, he served as Executive Director of South Eastern Efforts Developing Sustainable Spaces (SEEDS), Director of Resource Development (U.S. Western Region) for Habitat for Humanity International, Inc. and as a Community Planner and Project Manager for the Spanish Speaking Unity Council as it launched the Fruitvale Transit Village. Rich began his work with nonprofit organizations by serving as Director of Development and Community Relations, and later as Executive Director for Literacy Volunteers of America-California. He also worked as a Writer/Analyst for Pagan International, an issue management firm in Washington, DC, and as an Economic Assistant in the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Colombia.

Rich earned a BA in Economics from Brown University and an MCP from the University of California at Berkeley. He lives in highly walkable Carrboro, NC with his partner, Jennifer Curtis, and his daughter Carly (7).

At home and in the community, Rich likes to walk his talk. He walks Carly to school and commutes by bicycle daily. He recently built an affordable, one-bedroom cottage in his backyard that he currently rents to a young couple and their son. He has actively campaigned for sidewalks and traffic calming in his neighborhood and for active living policies in the Town of Carrboro.