Some people talk about improving Milwaukee. Darryl Johnson has spent more than three decades actually doing it.
Born and raised in the Harambee neighborhood, Darryl has dedicated his career to rebuilding neighborhoods, creating pathways to homeownership, expanding financial opportunity, and transforming overlooked spaces into places people are proud to call home.
Throughout his career, he’s helped turn big ideas into real community impact, from the Beerline Trail and the Kuumba Art Park to Milwaukee’s only free Financial Empowerment Center.
Let’s dive in.
What is your background?
Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Any stories from your youth that define your path?
My first job out of college was managing a not-for-profit agency called Parkside Housing Co-op, located in the heart of the central city. It was owned and operated by its members which were largely people of color. We acquired properties that were eyesores and vacant. These properties were single families and mostly duplexes, and we tried to acquire homes that were close to each other to create a neighborhood feel.
For six years, I worked for the City of Milwaukee Department of City Development managing the Homestead program. The city government owned a lot of blighted properties in the central city. The Homestead program helped diverse families get into homeownership for the first time.
By the mid- 90s, I ran for city alderperson in the 6th District, but I lost to Marlene Johnson. I left the City of Milwaukee a year later to work for Lisbon Avenue Neighborhood Development, or LAND. I was the LAND Executive Director and held that position for eight years. We helped rehab homes in that area of the inner city. We also developed a health care clinic. I stayed in that position until 2003, and then I took this job as Executive Director of Riverworks Development Corporation.
It was great to come back to the neighborhood where I grew up and still have family and friends and hoping to bring back the greatness of a community that gave me so much in my early years of my life.
Where did you study (if you did higher education)?
- Cardinal Stritch University, Master Business Administration
- University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Bachelor of Arts
What do you do for work now?
My role as Executive Director of Riverworks Development Corporation is to lead the organization by implementing the board policies and programs, accounting for all funds, meeting with community residents, elected officials and businesses, fundraising for the different Riverworks’ entities, leveraging resources, and managing RDC’s staff and real estate market, development programs and projects that bring positive momentum to the area.
How’d you get to where you are now?
I grew up in the Harambee neighborhood in the 1960s, the youngest of five children in a Black Roman Catholic family living near First and Keefe where most residents were white and of German descent. I went to a Catholic elementary school, St Elizabeth, and its neighboring church. Then, I matriculated to Riverside University Public High School, which was a good experience because of its diverse student population.
Can you talk more about your community involvement or volunteer experience?
I am an action-oriented community development professional with thirty-plus years of proven experience in successfully creating and managing multiple projects, developing, and achieving strategic vision and motivating community members, employees, and volunteers to achieve success.
I am experienced in establishing and developing nonprofit board governance structures and training. I have demonstrated the ability to influence collaborators, partners, and new perspective donors through diplomatic, tactful presentations and experienced proponent of diversity.
I see myself as a skilled manager, team leader, and facilitator with exceptional ability to foster cooperative opportunities that support big-picture thinking and carrying out organizational values of community development activities to local governments, foundations, and business community, which has resulted in community investments, strong community relationships, and successful fund development.
What are some ways you have impacted the community in your line of work?
Riverworks predominantly work with Black, low- and moderate-income Milwaukee residents seeking financial stability, economic mobility, creating safe public spaces, and wealth-building opportunities.
Under my leadership, Riverworks has grown into one of Milwaukee’s most trusted neighborhood development organizations and established the Riverworks Financial Clinic, the city’s only free Financial Empowerment Center. The Clinic now helps hundreds of residents each year reduce debt, build savings, improve financial capability, access tax credits, and create pathways to long-term wealth.
Working on transforming the Beerline Trail/Kuumba Art Park into a signature public asset and advancing visionary ideas with practical execution. I have worked hard to align innovation with measurable economic outcomes and position RDC as a cornerstone of Milwaukee’s neighborhood-based economic growth.
What has been your favorite project or initiative you’ve worked on for the Riverworks Development Corporation?
Since 2004, I have been deeply involved in the redevelopment of an abandoned railway corridor called the Beerline. Today, it is called Beerline Trail, and working with residents, the City of Milwaukee and stakeholders, we have transformed a former rail corridor into a multi-use trail connecting the Harambee and Riverwest neighborhoods and providing space for community gatherings, performances, and public art. The Beerline Trail also serves as an anchor for creative place keeping and equitable economic development in the surrounding neighborhoods.
The Kuumba Art Park on the Beerline Trail, adjacent to a permanent home in Harambee Neighborhood for the Community Farmers Market, promises to activate, beautify and nourish the community.
Kuumba, the Swahili word for creativity and restoration, has been selected as the new name for the Kuumba Art Park to better reflect the sensibilities of the Harambee and Riverwest communities. The park will run from the newly developed Connector Building on Keefe Ave and Richards along the Beerline Trail, with artistic flourishes embedded throughout.
- Kuumba Art Park and enhancing amenities along the Beerline Trail (running from Capitol Drive to Keefe Avenue):
- A park and safe space with benches and tables for gathering, recreation and connection with neighbors and nature in an area lacking green space
- A playground for youth
- Wellness Oasis featuring exercise machines as requested by the community
- Focus on arts that reflect the community, with murals, sculptures and artistic flourishes, trail markers, benches and more throughout the park and trail
- Adjacent to a permanent home for the Riverwest Farmers Market, which provides access to healthy produce in a food desert
- Active transportation connections: the Beerline Trail connects to other bicycle and pedestrian trails within the region, including the city of Milwaukee’s 50 miles of trails currently under construction. Kuumba Art Park offers an attractive destination along these trails.
This project has been and will continue to be a community-driven project that will provide equitable trail access to residents in Milwaukee residing in primarily black and low-income neighborhoods. This critical connection will provide access to the existing Beerline Trail at Capitol Drive and the proposed trail segments west of I-43 by weaving together neighborhoods that have been separated by the state’s Interstate.
The project will also advance the City’s climate change goals of eliminating pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Transportation accounts for roughly 29% of total emissions, making it the largest contributor of greenhouse gases. This project will improve climate conditions by providing non-motorized transportation options for black and brown Milwaukeeans, who research has shown are more likely to be impacted by the effects of climate change, and in turn, reduce single-occupancy vehicle trips
What is the Riverworks Development Corporation?
Riverworks Development Corporation (RDC) is a Milwaukee-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 1992 to strengthen the Harambee, Riverwest, and surrounding neighborhoods through economic opportunity, neighborhood revitalization, and financial empowerment. For more than 30 years, RDC has worked alongside residents, businesses, and community partners to create pathways out of poverty and build stronger, more resilient neighborhoods.
Today, RDC’s work spans neighborhood development, small business support, workforce initiatives, and financial capability. At the heart of this work is the Riverworks Financial Clinic, Milwaukee’s only free, citywide Financial Empowerment Center, which serves more than 1,500 households annually through individualized financial coaching, tax preparation, benefits navigation, anti-displacement assistance, and wealth-building services.
What does it mean to be nominated for the BizTimes Media’s 2026 Nonprofit Excellence Awards?
I am very appreciative of the nomination and being recognized for my commitment to making Milwaukee a better place for the people we serve. But most of all, the impact my Board and Staff, working together with residents and stakeholders, are making; we are actually making a difference in people’s lives, bringing the communities together and inspiring young people to be involved in changing their environment and lives for the better.
What do you like about living in Milwaukee?
The City of Milwaukee offers a lot, one of the best lakefronts in country, great neighborhoods, great places to dine and hang out, good sport teams and most of all great people will to go the extra mile to help out where needed.
What do you want to see for Milwaukee’s future?
A strong cross-sector partnership between the nonprofits, government, and the private sector is committed to ensuring that Milwaukee families have safe public green space and the tools, resources, and opportunities needed to achieve lasting economic mobility and generational wealth.
Anything else we should know about you, your job, community involvement, or life in general?
I have learned to listen to the voices of the community, take their concerns, and figure out ways to develop them into something positive for the community.
My philosophy, when there are positive things happening in our community, how can we should maximize it to create other opportunities to better people’s lives and not let others stop us from doing it?
It is always my desire to make sure it happens. My objective is to pull people together to make sure a project gets done. I believe in myself, and I also believe that other people out there want to see good things happen.