Meet The Team

Christina “Chris” Benton is a powerhouse in cultural resource management, blending deep expertise in archaeology, forensics, environmental compliance, and disaster response with sharp project management and logistics skills. As the founder and CEO of CHRIS, she leads with a multidisciplinary edge—bringing clarity, strategy, and cultural integrity to complex projects across the Southeast and beyond.

Chris specializes in African diasporic archaeology, bio archeology, cemetery preservation, and mortuary studies. But her impact goes far beyond the trowel. With a background that includes death investigations, disaster deployments, and environmental permitting, she’s built a firm designed for both routine compliance and rapid response. Whether managing multi-acre land developments or mobilizing to protect sites during emergencies, Chris ensures projects move forward without erasing the past.

She holds degrees from Howard University and the University of Tennessee, and pursued doctoral work at the University of South Carolina. Her academic training is matched by boots-on-the-ground experience—dig sites, burial grounds, field labs, control rooms, and emergency zones. Her career has been shaped by a commitment to cultural equity, operational excellence, and preserving the untold stories buried beneath our feet.

Juan Brown serves as Director of Strategic Operations at CHRIS, supporting the company’s growth through high-level operational planning, logistics coordination, and strategic decision-making. While he doesn’t manage day-to-day activities, Juan plays a critical behind-the-scenes role in shaping how CHRIS runs—especially when it comes to financial direction, business infrastructure, and field logistics.

As an entrepreneur and business owner himself, Juan brings a pragmatic, solutions-driven mindset to CHRIS’s leadership team. He collaborates regularly with the CEO to evaluate business moves, streamline systems, and ensure the company’s operations remain efficient, scalable, and aligned with its long-term goals.

Juan’s role is foundational to CHRIS’s success, helping to balance vision with execution and ensuring the operational engine is always primed—whether for a new contract, a field deployment, or a strategic pivot.

Averie Brooks is a junior at North Carolina A&T University , pursuing a major in Psychology with a minor in Criminology. At CHRIS, she supports a wide range of research, documentation, and project coordination tasks that intersect with her academic training in human behavior, critical thinking, and systems of justice.

Her background in psychology gives her a unique lens through which to approach descendant engagement, oral history analysis, and the interpretation of cultural landscapes. With criminology coursework grounding her understanding of legal systems and social inequality, Averie contributes meaningfully to CHRIS’s mission to document, preserve, and honor marginalized histories.

She assists with archival research, stakeholder coordination, and the preparation of cultural and environmental reports, helping ensure each project reflects ethical responsibility, historical sensitivity, and community relevance