Howard Rodgers

New Orleans Council on Aging

Howard L. Rodgers, III has been working to benefit older Americans for nearly 40 years. Starting in the early 1980s he created and coordinated adult recreation, education and adult care programs and trained senior center staff to work with aging clients. He is a certified aging planner with a Masters degree in social work. He taught graduate-level social work courses as an adjunct professor at Southern University. Since 1999, Rodgers has served as Executive Director of the New Orleans Council on Aging/Area Agency on Aging.

Through decades of working with and advocating for the aging in Louisiana, Rodgers has faced and overcome a range of challenges – from rebuilding a network of senior centers after Hurricane Katrina to finding ways to keep senior center members engaged during the worst of the COVID-19 social distancing.

His close work with the aging in our communities gives Rodgers a unique understanding of, not only the challenges faced by people as they grow older, but also how the diversity of life experience enhances people’s ability to accomplish great things.