Akron200, Inc: Akron's Bicentennial Commission

An Akron native, Mark Greer is an economic and community development professional and currently serves as the Executive Director of the Akron Bicentennial. Greer recently served as the City of Akron’s Great Streets Administrator and Small Business Manager, where during his tenure over $4 million in grants were awarded to entrepreneurs, community development corporations, merchants associations, and neighborhood organizations. He is the Founder and Principal of Ulysses McNeal Consulting, a full-service consultant firm specializing in economic and community development, business growth strategies, neighborhood planning, urban renewal & spatial justice, organizational culture, and grant writing for nonprofits.

As a public speaker, Mark enjoys engaging audiences through personal experiences and historical accounts of courage, ingenuity, adversity, redemption, and triumph. Recent engagements include the Akron Cleveland Association of Realtors Home For All Podcast, Ohio CDC Association Annual Conference, Mayor’s Citizen’s Institute, Leadership Ohio, Leadership Akron, Roetzel & Andress Annual Associates Retreat, Greater Summit County Minority Business Association, Love Akron Connect, All-Akron Student Engineering Program, PechaKucha Akron, Torchbearer’s Capstone Event, and the Akron Black Male Summit. He has presented on a wide array of topics, including community development, urban renewal, economic development, placemaking, leadership, diversity, inclusion & belonging, education reform, the abolitionist movement, arts education, and community and governmental relations. Interviews and features include Crain’s Cleveland, Spectrum 1 News Ohio, Fox8 News Cleveland, Akron Beacon Journal, The Reporter, Socially Good TV, and The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. His co-authored article, “How Akron, Ohio is expanding economic opportunity by investing in Neighborhood Business Districts,” was published by the Brookings Institution. His recent documentary, Beyond the Innerbelt, chronicles the history of urban renewal and the Akron Innerbelt, which razed several predominantly Black neighborhoods and displaced over a thousand families during the 1970s and 80s.

A 2022 Graduate Fellow of Leadership Ohio, Greer serves on the Board of the Summit County Continuum of Care, Tuesday Musical Association, Akron Bicentennial Commission, Spark Akron, Downtown Vision + Redevelopment Plan Steering Committee, West Akron Neighborhood Plan Steering Committee, the Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance Visioning & Planning Committee, and the Advisory Board of the West Hill Neighborhood Organization. A member of Torchbearer’s Class of 2020, he served on the Leadership & Development Committee and the Diversity & Inclusion Task Force. Greer was named a 2022 Ohio Black Women’s Caucus Significant African American Males awardee, a 2022 recipient of the We Are The Ones We Serve award, a 2021 recipient of the Greater Akron Chamber’s “30 for the Future” award, and received a special Congressional Recognition from Representative Shontel Brown. He previously served as Program Coordinator at Leadership Akron, where his programs included Diversity on Board, Edge Young Professionals, the Green Community Learning Initiative, and Junior Leadership Akron. Prior to joining Leadership Akron, he taught on the faculties of Malone University, The University of Mount Union, Kent State University, the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia, PA, and was Advertising Manager for The Piano Magazine: Clavier Companion, and the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy.

Greer graduated from Bowling Green State University with a B.M., magna cum laude, in Music Performance, and Kent State University with a M.M. in Piano. Praised as a “visionary musician... with virtuosic technique and masterful playing, which was perceptive, brilliant and elegant, showing a musical intelligence beyond his years,” he is an accomplished pianist and composer, making his Carnegie Hall debut at Weill Recital Hall, his orchestral debut with the Heiligenstadt Chamber Orchestra under Theodore Albrecht, and has been featured live on Vermont Public Radio. Honors include first prize in the state finals of the OMTA Collegiate Buckeye Competition, prizewinner of the Tuesday Musical Competition, honors in the OMTA Graves Young Artist Competition, the National Olga Klein Nelson Award, and winner of the Bowling Green State University Piano Concerto Competition, where he was the recipient of the College of Music’s Steve Vun Cannon Memorial Award. An avid writer, historian, and documentarian, Mark maintains a private piano studio in Greater Akron, and serves as Assistant Pastor at The Family Church, a non-denominational ministry in Akron’s University Park Neighborhood