A YEAR OF IMPACT: HOW CHRIS TOOK ROOT AND WHERE WE’RE HEADED NEXT

One year ago, CHRIS started as a simple idea: a small, determined cultural heritage firm built

on experience, urgency, and respect for the past. I didn’t have a full team. I didn’t have a full

roadmap. What I did have was vision, discipline, and the stubborn belief that communities

deserve better care for their history than they’ve ever been given.

Year One proved that belief right.

We began by taking on the projects that most people overlook: the quick-turn assessments, the

long-forgotten cemeteries, the drowned shorelines, the places with no champions. Along the

way, CHRIS built a reputation for being the shop that shows up, figures it out, and delivers work

that stands.

We built partnerships across North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and beyond. We

stepped into spaces where cultural resources were at risk and moved with clarity: protect what

we can, document what we must, elevate what’s been ignored. The work was hard. Sometimes

quiet. Sometimes heavy. But always meaningful.

This first year wasn’t about chasing volume. It was about building foundation. We created

systems, sharpened our services, expanded our skill set, and started defining our lane in the

larger heritage and environmental world. Even as a young company, CHRIS earned trust from

state agencies, land developers, descendants, municipalities, nonprofits, and federal-leaning

clients. That doesn’t happen by accident. It happens by doing the work every time.

We also grew. Not explosively, but intentionally. We added capacity, refined our methods, and

built out offerings like Rapid Resource Assessments, shoreline compliance, cemetery

documentation, and community-centered heritage planning. We stepped into emergency

response work. We began shaping a new model for cultural salvage, rapid deployment, and

technical support for vulnerable historic spaces. What started as an idea is now an arm of

CHRIS with real weight and purpose.

And now we’re entering Year Two with a different kind of energy.

Year Two is about scale. It’s about moving from “proving ourselves” to “expanding strategically.”

It’s about stabilizing the systems we built and multiplying their impact. We are positioning

CHRIS as the premier resource for cultural and environmental review across the Southeast. We

are strengthening partnerships, entering new markets, building internal teams, and pushing

toward larger, more sustained contracts. We’re creating opportunities for workforce

development, community engagement, and emergency preparedness that haven’t existed in

this field before.

Most importantly, we’re building toward legacy. That means continued excellence in the field. It

means protecting more African American historic spaces. It means giving communities real tools

for preservation, not just reports. It means preparing for federal-level work, disaster

deployments, and long-term collaborations with agencies that need exactly what CHRIS brings

to the table.

We are only one year in, and already the ground beneath us has shifted. The next twelve

months will be bigger, louder, and more intentional. We’re moving with purpose, and the work

will speak for itself.

Here’s to Year Two: higher stakes, higher standards, and higher impact. CHRIS is just getting

started.