As an educator, small business owner, and community association president, he has gained a unique perspective on the challenges facing the city and has a record of creative solutions. After graduating from Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania with bachelors’ degrees in anthropology and secondary education, Chris moved to Baltimore in the fall of 2002 to accept a teaching position in the Baltimore
City Public School System. For the next four years, Chris taught at William H. Lemmel Middle School in West Baltimore. While at Lemmel, he co-created the Leadership Academy for troubled youth, which partnered with local businesses to give students a different learning environment. Through this experience, Chris realized that he had a passion not only for serving the students of West Baltimore, but also the larger community. To help realize this passion, Chris ran and was elected president of the Union Square Association for five consecutive years. As president, Chris inherited a neighborhood with a strong history, but a small membership. During his tenure, membership in the association grew from 20 members to more than 100 members representing the racial, economic, and age diversity found within the community. Through collaboration with the association members, crime rates have dropped to levels comparable to more affluent neighborhoods in the city. A private, city, and state partnership enabled the city to pledge $350,000 to restore the park in historic Union Square. A campaign to give away trash cans educated local citizens about managing and maintaining a clean, healthy neighborhood. The results of Chris’s leadership and the active membership of the Union Square Association demonstrate the positive changes that are possible in our neighborhoods. In addition to his work with the neighborhood association, Chris began to design and renovate houses in the city. Since founding Urban Space Developers, Chris and his business partner have completed more than 20 renovations, most of them in West Baltimore. With a focus on green building and innovative design, Urban Space Developers continues to lead the way in energy-efficient home renovations. Chris lives in the Union Square neighborhood with his wife, Megan. Megan is in her tenth year of teaching with the Baltimore City Public School System.
