Christina Danis, Ph.D., AICP, is the Director of the Centralina Community Economic Development Department. She is responsible for Centralina’s work related to regional and community economic growth with a focus on urban-rural prosperity, economic resilience and the creation of equitable housing and communities. Her work is dedicated to empowering local governments and regional stakeholders to work collaboratively to create a prosperous and globally connected greater Charlotte region for all.

Christina leads the Centralina Regional Resilience Collaborative (RRC) program. The RRC program leverages the strengths of emergency management leaders, local government staff and community and non-profit partners to work collaboratively on the development of recovery plans and processes to bolster the disaster preparedness capacity and economic resilience for the nine-county region. The RRC informs the Centralina Economic Development District’s, five-year Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) plan resilience and equity components.

Dr. Danis is the former Director of Planning and Science for the New Jersey Water Protection and Planning Council and has more than 25 years of experience in environmental planning, economic development, regional land-use planning and hazard resilience public policy. Christina holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy from the University of North Carolina Charlotte, a Master’s in City and Regional Planning and a Master’s in Environmental Science from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ and a B.S. in Biology from Stockton University in Pomona, NJ. She is also a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP).