As executive director of Community Relations in the Office of Institute Relations, Chris spends his days enriching current relationships and cultivating new ones on behalf of Georgia Tech. Chris Burke is an educator, strategist, and public relations professional with more than twenty-years of experience in education, urban planning, and community development. Chris began his professional career working as a housing coordinator for The Atlanta Project, a non-profit created by former President Jimmy Carter focused on improving living conditions in Atlanta’s most impoverished neighborhoods.  It was this experienced that spurred Chris’s interest in understanding the impact housing policies have on equity and quality of life.

Chris continued his career joining the research staff at the American Planning Association (APA) where he was a contributing writer for APA Publications including Zoning News, PAS Memo, and Planning Magazine. While at APA Chris’s research centered on zoning as an economic development tool to improve quality of life indicators such as access to food, transportation, and employment opportunities. After leaving APA, Chris joined the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association as a government affairs representative, and later as vice president. Chris is Board Chairman for the Partnership for Southern Equity, and also serves on LAB Atlanta, Centennial Academy, and Field of Dreams Academy.