Christian A. Nill (Bio)
Chris Nill is a community development specialist with close to thirty years of experience serving communities and organizations in upstate New York and abroad. Across the state Chris has worked with local leaders, volunteers and nonprofit managers on countless community development projects, strategic initiatives and other activities all aimed at building sustainable paths to the future.
Chris earned his Bachelor’s degree in natural resources management at Cornell University. Shortly after graduating he enlisted as a Peace Corps Volunteer, and for the next three years (1978-81) Chris contributed his expertise to the development of an extension program in agroforestry and soil conservation in a remote Guatemalan community.
After the Peace Corps, Chris remained in Guatemala for six more years managing various community development programs for CARE, the well-known international relief and development organization. During this period he was project manager for programs in agroforestry, community water supply, health clinic construction, small-scale aquaculture, and mother/child nutrition. (…Not all at the same time!) The wide-ranging projects in Chris’s management portfolio while he worked with CARE reflect — and to a large extent informed and stimulated — his current interest in integrated community development.
Chris returned to Cornell in 1987 to pursue graduate studies in natural resources policy and planning. In fulfillment of his Masters degree requirements he completed a thesis entitled Roadside Development, Rural Values, and the Protection of Highway Utility: a multidisciplinary inquiry into the impact of roadside development on the utility of primary roads and on the social and environmental values associated with the rural landscape. The data and examples for his thesis were mainly from upstate New York. This ambitious program of research brought Chris into close contact with many of the local planning issues and challenges which would continue to preoccupy and fascinate him for the next two decades.
During the ensuing years Chris has grappled with the challenges facing communities and community-based organizations on a daily basis. From local environmental infrastructure development to transportation and land use, from calculating the life cycle costs of a greener landfill operation to strategic planning for a community-based organization, or taking the pulse of local public opinion through a community needs assessment and visioning survey, Chris has applied his advanced training, his acumen and his very special perspective on integrated community development to help people meet challenges and advance their goals in a rapidly changing world.
