Christopher Burke
Director Community Relations Georgia Tech
Christopher Burke is an educator, strategists, and public relations professional with more than 18 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 the living conditions in Atlanta’s most impoverished neighborhoods.
It was this experienced that spurred Chris’s interest in understanding the correlation of housing policies 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 numerous 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. In 1999 Chris joined the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association as a Government Affairs Representative and in the fall of 2003 was appointed Vice President of Government Affairs where he stayed until November 2010. Chris has authored and published more than a dozen articles on housing economics and land-use topics for APA publications, The Historic Preservation Journal, The Southern Journal for Public Policy, Builder Magazine, and Atlanta Building News.
In April 2011, Chris joined the Georgia Tech Office of Government and Community Relations as Director of Community Relations. In this role Chris works with local government, educators, religious, business, and civic leaders to assure that Tech plays an integral part enriching the metro-Atlanta region, particularly the communities closest to campus.
Chris regularly teaches undergraduate courses in the Georgia Tech Honor’s Program as well as a graduate studio in the School of City and Regional Planning. Chris is an avid music collector and lover of his Fender Jazz Bass guitar. He lives in Snellville with his wife, four children, and energetic Wheaten Terrier.