Courtney Johnson Rose’s resume is a mile long and yet despite her titles and accolades—which include CEO, president and director—she exudes humility, describing each of her accomplishments as “opportunities” and her impacts as “blessings.”
“I've always had the philosophy of walk through the door that God opens,” she says. “I've just walked through the doors and always worked hard and did my best.”
A meaningful legacy, she says, would be “she made a difference.”
On Thursday, Johnson Rose received the National Association of REALTORS®’ Fair Housing Champion Award in recognition her years of leadership and, in particular, two initiatives she led as the 2023–2025 president of the National Association of Real Estate Brokers (NAREB), the oldest minority trade association in the country.
One was the Building Black Wealth Tour, and it came in response to troubling trends showing declining mortgage loan applications. On April 12, 2025, NAREB co-hosted 110 homeownership events with churches, fraternities and sororities in more than 110 cities across the U.S. Those events brought seminars, workshops and one-on-one sessions about homeownership and other wealth-building opportunities to more than 50,000 consumers.
“We needed to sound the alarm because we know home ownership is the number one way to build wealth in this country,” Johnson Rose says.
The other was the NAREB Developer’s Academy. Johnson Rose, a Houston broker and developer, launched the six-month cohort-style training back in 2023 to give real estate agents and brokers the education and network to grow their business into real estate development. The training emphasizes developing affordable housing in underserved areas. More than 300 professionals have graduated from the program. The fair housing impact of these graduates continues to multiply, as developers apply what they learned and invest in neighborhoods across the U.S.
“I still have so much more that I want to do—and plan to do—to continue to influence our industry positively,” Johnson Rose says.
Early Education in Real Estate
Johnson Rose was raised in the world of real estate.
When she was young, her father, George Jr. Johnson, owned a successful Century 21 franchise in Houston, where Johnson Rose would go after school.
Her father also served as president of NAREB's Houston and Texas chapters. NAREB was founded in 1947, a time when Black Americans were excluded from many local REALTOR® associations. Its mission is to promote “democracy in housing.” Her father instilled in Johnson Rose the importance of contributing back to the industry.
“Sometimes we'd have board meetings at our office. Courtney was a little girl, and she was supposed to be playing, but she would always seem to listen in as to what we were talking about,” George Jr. says.
He adds beaming with pride, “She didn't realize it then that she was going to be in the business, and I know she didn't realize it at that time, that she would not only be the board president [and] the state president, but would go on to be the national president of the real estate association.”
The Century 21 franchise eventually became George E. Johnson Real Estate and Development. As the youngest child with three elder brothers, it wasn’t immediately clear Johnson Rose would take over the family business. In 2001, after a few years in the consulting world, she took a leap of faith and dove into residential real estate, before mastering commercial and development.
“Real estate development is certainly a male-dominated industry, and it was very intimidating for me to try to do commercial real estate and development,” she recalls. "And even though I had a family background and I had mentors like my father, it still didn't change the fact that the industry is male dominated and it's typically dominated by white older males. I was the complete opposite as a young Black female. So how [did] I make it work? My strategy was really around education and preparation.”
Johnson Rose earned a CCIM designation and got a Master’s degree in community development from Prairie View A&M University (where she’s been an adjunct professor for the past 15 years). She also holds a doctorate in organizational leadership.
She saw how agents gravitated toward her dad to receive advice on making the jump to development and recognized how incredibly privileged she was to have a lifetime of exposure to a pro. That realization was the genesis behind NAREB’s Developer’s Academy, which provides emerging developers with a curriculum, a credential and cohort of peers.
“Real estate development, particularly as an emerging developer, can be very lonely,” Johnson Rose says. “So, to be able to create a cohort-style environment where people in your city and your region are doing development—that network, that ability to share resources and share data and encourage each other, has been really, really important.”
Zeke Morris, 2025 REALTOR® Party Director for NAR and currently vice chair of NAR’s Fair Housing Policy Committee, was among the first graduates of the academy and says the program is advantageous for both developers and neighborhoods.
“If you are in the neighborhood that you grew up in [and] servicing neighborhoods that are important to you, then you can do a better job,” Morris says. “And I think that’s what the academy has done is it's given you the extra tools that you need to be successful within your community.”
Houston’s Tiny Homes
Andre Beraud, another NAR member and an early participant in the academy, is perhaps the perfect example.
“Because of NAREB’s Developer’s Academy, I was able to get the tools and the [connections] to help me avoid the pitfalls of new construction,” he says standing in the middle of his under-construction development in Houston’s Frenchtown neighborhood.
Beraud remembers when a teacher called him up to the front of the class in elementary school.
“He said, ‘Andre, you will never amount to anything.’ I remember as if it’s today,” says Beraud, who witnessed both his mother do drugs and whose father die at a young age. “I’m here in the same neighborhood, the same community that I grew up in ... and all of this happened here in the same area that we are building in.”
He adds, “So anytime I meet someone and they aspire to do great things, I always go back and tell them the journey that it took to get to here, because there's no ‘here’ without my past.”
In 2023, industry advocates including the Houston Association of REALTORS® helped pass zoning revisions that allow for more flexible housing types in the city. That enabled Beraud to pursue his vision of creating a tiny homes community.
“Because of the Livable Places ordinance here in Houston, we are able to do more with less,” Beraud says. “So here we have 15,510 square feet to be exact, and we will have nine homes on this lot. Before the Livable Places ordinance, we would have had to do three- or four-story homes, and then we'd be in the price range of 400-some thousand, which would have knocked us out as builders.”
“For the Houston community, this is a meaningful step toward ensuring the city remains a place of opportunity,” HAR’s Director of Governmental Affairs and Advocacy Amber Burton Alfred says. “By increasing the supply and diversity of housing, the ordinance helps create more attainable options for residents at different income levels while supporting smart, responsible growth.”
Beraud has already built and sold two of the tiny homes to first-time buyers, including teacher Jerriah White, who says it was love at first sight.
“Literally the first time that I saw them, I immediately was like, ‘Yes, I'm going to put in an offer,’” White says.
What makes the project extra special: Beraud is intentionally selling the homes for about $20,000 less than their appraised value to give buyers instant equity. Giving back to the community is a principle stressed at the Developer’s Academy.
Beraud joined Johnson Rose on a trip to meet with the Acting Secretary of Department of Housing and Urban Development Adrienne Todman and presented his tiny homes vision.
“Dr. Courtney Johnson Rose brought exposure to a whole other level,” he says, adding that he has more projects in the pipeline to bring another 60 homes to market.
As if that wasn’t enough, Johnson Rose also helped create a fund to help finance projects after the program ends.
“The NAREB Development Fund is set up to be that first-stage funding source for emerging developers building projects in underserved communities across the country,” she says.
Leading by Example
Johnson Rose’s penchant for transforming neighborhoods and commitment to the real estate community doesn’t stop at NAREB—it's part of who she is.
In 2007, she was recognized by REALTOR® Magazine (now REALTOR® News) as a rising star under its “30 Under 30” program, which noted her involvement with HAR and NAR events geared toward boosting homeownership among minorities. In 2011, then-NAR President Ron Phipps appointed Johnson Rose as committee liaison of NAR’s Housing and Diversity Group.
“She gets it,” Phipps says, reflecting on the appointment as one of his best choices of leadership. “She understands how to be effective, she’s a subject matter expert, she’s brilliant, she’s persuasive and she’s got the presence that really requires respect and acknowledgement.”
Additionally, in 2019 she was appointed to the Texas Affordable Housing Corporation (TSHAC) Board of Directors. The legislatively created nonprofit works to preserve and expand affordable housing in Texas.
That penchant is also part of her business. Courtney is also part of the Community Collective for Houston, which recently acquired The Power Center, a 110,000-square-foot multipurpose facility that includes a small business incubator, event center, urban farm and private school.
On top of that, her company is currently developing an 80 new affordable single family home community in Houston’s District K.
“It is my extreme honor to have the opportunity to work alongside Dr. Courtney Johnson Rose,” Houston Mayor Pro Tem and Councilmember Martha Castex-Tatum who represents District K and has been a member of NAR of 20 years. “She is an icon in real estate. ... She is a giver. She has a heart for making sure that Houston is one of the most affordable cities in the country.”
For someone who speaks so modestly about her work, Johnson Rose is making an unmistakable impact across Houston. By all accounts she has already done what she hoped for most: She has made a difference.
