Martha Rial, Post-Gazette
	A. Fulton Meachem, Jr. is the new executive director of the Pittsburgh Housing Authority.

Pittsburgh Housing Authority board members, gathered at a meeting table, yesterday appointed their new leader without questions, without dissent, without a moment of pause.

A. Fulton Meachem Jr., the authority's new executive director, glanced around a 13th floor conference room at 200 Ross St., smiled, and called his position "a dream."

But then one board member, joining by conference call, interjected. And the voice reminded Mr. Meachem, at once, about the challenge of his job and the reason it opened in the first place.

"You have some big shoes to fill," City Councilwoman Twanda Carlisle told Mr. Meachem, "because [previous director] Keith Kinard was a wonderful [director]."

Mr. Meachem, 37, will guide an agency that oversees some 6,000 public housing units. With U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development subsidies in widespread decline nationally, removing a main source of housing authorities' income, Mr. Meachem hopes to continue a plan set in place by Mr. Kinard -- creating public housing with enough quality to bring money back to the authority.

"We need to think like a developer," said Mr. Meachem, who formerly held a similar position in Winston-Salem, N.C. "Whereas in the past, the mindset was, 'Let's wait for HUD to give us money.' "

In June, Mr. Kinard, who served as executive director for five years, announced his resignation. He took the executive director's job in Newark, whose housing authority was troubled enough that the government had threatened to take control. A Tampa-based consulting firm, and in particular, one woman -- Simone Gans Barefield, CEO of Gans, Gans & Associates -- had been contracted to find somebody for the Newark job.

Ms. Barefield recommended Mr. Kinard.

Pittsburgh, in turn, contracted Ms. Barefield to find a successor.

After a 1 1/2-month search, she narrowed a list of six candidates for interviews. But Mr. Meachem stood out, in part because of similarities with the man he'd be chosen to replace. The two, Ms. Barefield noticed, shared mannerisms and styles.

"They are engaging and respectful -- I keep coming back to that," Ms. Barefield said yesterday. "There are a lot [in the industry] who aren't respectful. They don't treat low-income people the way they treat elected officials and boards. Fulton has an outgoing personality, but not overly. He makes everybody feel comfortable ... like Keith."

When Mr. Meachem begins work Aug. 21, he will lead a team short on experienced executives. Jeffrey A. Bees, the authority's chief financial officer, worked his final day yesterday and will leave for a position at UPMC. Chief Development Officer Lorri Newson said yesterday that she will leave Aug. 11 for a similar position in Chicago. Neither has been replaced, authority spokesman Chuck Rohrer said.

Mr. Meachem, though, faced his own challenges in Winston-Salem. Serving as deputy executive director, he guided the Hope VI program, designed to demolish the poorest public housing and replace it with improved townhouses or apartments.

In October 2005, Winston-Salem's executive director, Reid Lawrence, resigned under board pressure. Under Mr. Lawrence, the housing authority had misused millions of its funds to pay for buildings that did not qualify as public housing.

Mr. Meachem became interim executive director.

"The responsibility [after that] was tremendous," he said. "You had different demands with the public, your staff, families."

Mr. Meachem interviewed twice in Pittsburgh, visiting Mount Washington, learning some native terminology ("like 'redd up,' he said), and figuring at least one way to gain quick favor. Said Mr. Meachem, who played quarterback at North Carolina Central University: "Now my second-favorite football team is the [Carolina] Panthers."