Randall Russell

Strategic executive and consultant with 30+ years leading organizational transformation across the nonprofit, philanthropic, and government sectors. Known for diagnosing socially intractable problems — chronic homelessness, HIV/AIDS health disparities, fractured coalitions, stalled organizations — and building the visioning, assessment, and strategic-planning frameworks that turn analysis into funded, sustainable solutions.

Track record: $100M+ raised and administered, a $200M foundation built from the ground up, a 300% organizational scale-up, 250+ housing units developed, and technical assistance delivered in 30+ states. Congressional testimony and Presidential Advisory Council service under three administrations. Currently completing a Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification (MMTC), integrating contemplative practice into executive leadership and coalition facilitation.

Principal at R2 Consults, LLC (2024-01 – Present)

• Founded a national consulting practice providing strategic planning, visioning, assessment, and federal technical assistance to nonprofits, foundations, and government agencies.
• Engagements include statewide affordable-housing executive placement, interim CEO leadership for a national youth-homelessness organization, and grant strategy for multiple nonprofit clients.

Senior Director at Collaborative Solutions, Inc. (2023-01 – Present)

• Lead systems-change and technical-assistance engagements in HIV/AIDS housing policy, community coalition building, and rural capacity building across the South.
• Direct HOPWA transition planning, federal housing-funds tracking, and community landscape assessments for municipal and nonprofit clients, including the City of Marietta HOPWA five-county transition and the PALSS, Inc. (Columbia, SC) contract.

Founding President & CEO at Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg (2015-01 – 2022-12)

• Built a $200M health-conversion foundation from the ground up following a nonprofit hospital sale, establishing mission, governance, and grantmaking strategy from scratch.
• Established an explicit antiracism framework — selecting race as the strategic lens on social determinants of health — among the first place-based foundations in the country to do so.
• Raised an additional $5M in the foundation's first two years and engaged 6,000+ community members through the Pinellas County Center for Health Equity.

Chief Executive Officer at Lifelong (2011-01 – 2015-12)

• Led a statewide nonprofit with a $40M budget delivering food, shelter, case management, and prevention services to 5,000+ people per month.
• Grew the organization roughly 300% through merger and alignment with Washington State Medicaid; secured Gates Foundation funding to launch the state's first ACA care-coordination program.
• Generated $2M+ in Medicaid savings by keeping clients stably housed and out of institutional care.

Founder & Chief Executive Officer at AIDS Alabama (1993-01 – 2006-12)

Founded and grew AIDS Alabama from a $365,000 start-up into a $6.5M enterprise. Also founded Collaborative Solutions, Inc.

• Founded and grew AIDS Alabama from a $365,000 start-up into a $6.5M enterprise, developing 250+ housing units including the state's first HIV assisted-living facility.
• Co-founded the Southern AIDS Coalition, the National AIDS Housing Coalition, the Low-Income Housing Coalition of Alabama, and PASWHA; served as President of the National AIDS Housing Coalition.
• Delivered national technical assistance (1997–2005) to housing and service-delivery organizations in Dallas, Miami, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Honolulu, and beyond — work that grew into the 2002 founding of Collaborative Solutions.
• Led the advocacy campaign securing Alabama's first dedicated ADAP appropriation, eliminating the state's medication waiting list.

Master of Social Work in Social Work – Academy of Certified Social Workers

Adjunct Instructor in Grant Writing, Program Design & Budgeting – University of Alabama (1997-01 – 2001-12)