Christopher Ard

Adjunct Lecturer in Historic Preservation 

Christopher Ard is a certified Geographic Information Systems Professional (GISP) and 11th generation New Orleanian trying to answer that eternal New Orleans question – Where y’at? His career in geographic information systems (GIS) has included time with the Orleans Parish Communication District (OPCD), the US State Department, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), and now serves as the City of New Orleans’ Enterprise Data Manager and US Census liaison where he continues to guide the city’s GIS efforts to make New Orleans a data-driven city by creating the city’s enterprise addressing system.

Chris holds a Master of GIS Management from Salisbury University and a Bachelor’s degree in Geography from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, and is currently finishing his MBA in Sustainability from Bard College in Brooklyn, NY.

Throughout his career, the problem of finding people, places, and things that no longer exist has driven his interest in GIS and the built world around him. From finding the source of radiation leaks following an earthquake, to matching foundations to destroyed homes in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans, to locating villages destroyed in Darfur, Sudan, or even to finding adjudicated homes in New Orleans for auction, Chris has a passion for leveraging geospatial data to build and preserve climate resilient and equitable communities–especially New Orleans.