MCRP 2018 Graduate
Specialization: Land Use & Environmental Planning
Hometown: Longwood, FL
Christian’s passion for helping communities understand and adapt to climate change impacts made attending Carolina Planning an easy decision. He was especially drawn to the unique opportunity to pursue the Natural Hazards Resilience Certificate, as well as the program’s national reputation and relatively low cost. He knew his time at Carolina would be challenging, but he felt it would open doors to many more opportunities in the future.
While completing the certificate program on top of his usual graduate courses is difficult, Christian is very happy with the course offerings and opportunities that have come alongside the program. In 2016 he was able to get involved with the first ever Triangle Hazards Student Research Symposium in addition to working part-time with the Hurricane Matthew Disaster Resilience and Recovery Initiative. The Natural Disaster Speaker Series connected him with even more people doing incredible work in the field, such as Dawn Zimmer, Mayor of Hoboken, New Jersey, who lead her community’s recovery efforts after Hurricane Sandy.
Aside from his work and studies, Christian is a member of Plan for All and the Carolina Hazards and Resilience Planners group. He also plays on the UNC Men’s Club Water Polo team and acts as the department’s resident meteorologist – his weather updates can be found at Carolina Blue Skies – Weather Updates.