Dr. Chris Elisara
Dr. Chris Elisara, who served on the founding R400 Leadership team (2018-2019), is a champion of urban design and placemaking that makes places better for all. Dr. Elisara has an extensive history of helping to revitalize America’s cities and towns through his association with the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) where he served on the board from 2016-2018. In 2016 he co-founded the CNU Members Christian Caucus. Dr. Elisara extends his leadership internationally through a long relationship with UN-Habitat, including serving on the secretariat of UN-Habitat’s World Urban Campaign (WUC) as co-chair of WUC’s Civil Society Partners Group from 2020-2022, and is the current chair of WUC’s Media Partners. Dr. Elisara also chairs the task force for UN-Habitat’s signature program, SDG Cities. In the area of faith, as a Senior Fellow at Duke Divinity School’s Ormond Center (2020-2022),
Dr. Elisara created the Studio for Placemaking. Dr. Elisara also founded, and now co-directs, the World Evangelical Alliance’s Sustainability Center (2012 – present). In this role Dr. Elisara represents evangelical perspectives on creation care and urban issues in national and international arenas including the World Economic Forum, United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), UNFCC, and UN-Habitat where he led an evangelical delegation to Habitat III in 2016 that produced The Gospel and the Future of Cities: A Call to Action statement. Rounding out his ecosystems approach to urban development, Dr. Elisara co-founded the award-winning film studio, First+Main Films, who’s mantra is “a story can change a city.” He also founded the international Better Cities Film Festival hosted annually in Detroit, and the UN-Habitat Better Cities Film Festival hosted every two years at the World Urban Forum, to advance the essential role of storytelling in revitalizing cities and towns. Current projects includes project director for a Templeton Religion Trust grant entitled “Religion and the Development of Thriving Cities, and is a consulting expert and team member of the World Economic Forum’s Faith in Action project (report is scheduled for release Jan., 2024 in Davos, Switzerland).