Teaching and Research Interests
- Affordable Housing
- Community Economic Development
- Transportation System Analysis
- Urban Land Use Patterns
- Growth and Development of Inner City Neighborhoods
Education
- M.P.A. (1978) Public Administration, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
- M.C.P. (1973) Urban Planning, Harvard University
- B.S. (1971) Sociology and Urban Studies, Dartmouth College
Profile
Ike Heard earned undergraduate degrees in Sociology and Urban Studies from Dartmouth College (where he was a National Achievement Scholar) and earned graduate degrees in Urban Planning from Harvard University (where he was a US Dept. of HUD Fellow) and in Public Administration and 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. Having received his primary and secondary education in Charlotte, Ike returned to Charlotte after graduating from Harvard where he and his wife Patricia have raised a now grown son and daughter. Patricia (MSW, MBA) is the Executive Director of a small United Way supported social service agency and has a private counseling and family therapy practice.
Ike Heard worked for 13 years as a city planner in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg local government, for 3 years with private developers and homebuilders, for 9 years as the Executive Director of the Northwest Corridor Community Development Corporation (associated with Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte) and for 4 years as the Charlotte Office Director for the Enterprise Foundation. In addition, he has maintained a private planning consulting practice working with community-based development groups, local governments, historically black colleges and universities, banks and the federal government in a variety of community economic development projects.
Ike is the former chair of the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Commission. He presently serves on the Board of Directors for the Arts and Science Council of Charlotte-Mecklenburg, the NC Environmental Education Fund, the NC State Bar (as a public member) and the Real Estate Advisory Council for the Belk College of Business Administration at UNC Charlotte. Mr. Heard is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners.