Chris Frye

Glen Burnie, MD, USA

Community Development Director, Opportunity Alabama

Chris joins Berkeley’s Master of Real Estate Development + Design program after many years of experience in the community development sector. Most recently, Chris was the Community Development Director at Opportunity Alabama (OPAL), a Birmingham-based economic development organization focused on transforming Alabama’s communities through public and private investment in physical spaces and places. He spent nearly four years at OPAL helping to design and launch several community development technical assistance programs and building a portfolio of impact-oriented real estate deals from across the state. His first job in real estate was as a Construction Crew Leader for New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity, where he led volunteers in building low-income housing in New Orleans East and the Lower Ninth Ward. Chris also worked in the private sector as a financial analytics consultant at Zehnder Communications, a New Orleans-based marketing agency, and in the public sector as an NYC Service Fellow in the Office of the Mayor of New York City. His professional experiences with Habitat for Humanity and OPAL helped develop a passion for affordable housing, which he plans to explore further during the MRED+D program.

Chris is a graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park with a B.S. in Environmental Science and Policy with a concentration in Environmental Economics. A native of the Greater Baltimore region, he is excited to move to California with his wife, who works as an urban designer. In his free time, Chris loves reading, running, watching as many movies as possible, and incessantly talking about them.