Cara Crisler, MA

Project Officer

Office: 919-843-3298
Fax: 919-843-3083
cara_crisler@unc.edu

Bio

Cara Crisler is a Project Officer at ALBD. She primarily focuses on Fit Community, a designation- and grant-based initiative of the NC Health and Wellness Trust Fund that recognizes and rewards North Carolina communities' efforts to increase opportunities for routine physical activity and healthy eating. She co-developed Fit Community and serves as a technical advisor and coach to local partnerships interested in using community design, policy and related supports to promote healthy behaviors among residents. Cara also represents ALBD in advisory roles for the North Carolina Alliance for Health, Be Active-Appalachian Partnership, and the statewide Eat Smart Move More Leadership Team.

Cara has a range of managerial and nonprofit experience in land use planning advocacy and coalition building, and she reflects, "I love being able to draw on my own personal passions at work, which revolve around how much the built environment can do for each of us. A well-designed community can provide an abundance of daily healthy lifestyle choices."

Prior to her current role, Cara moved through the ranks of the NC Smart Growth Alliance, finally as Executive Director. She was a founding member of the Triangle Smart Growth Coalition, served as a board member of Triangle Growth Strategies, Inc. and The Village Project and volunteered as a trained facilitator for the Orange County Dispute Settlement Center. Before that, she worked with several community planning consultant teams and authored the manual, FutureScapes: Guidelines for Creating Community-based Development Strategies.

Crisler holds a B.A. in geography from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and an M.A. in spatial science (city and regional planning) from the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, the Netherlands. She also completed the National Smart Growth Leadership Training Program at the University of Maryland.

Cara enjoys bicycle commuting, hiking in the mountains, and traveling to new cultures. She loves to garden and cook with her two children, and is currently learning healthy food preservation techniques.

Active Living / Healthy Eating Story

The experience of living and studying in the Netherlands made a big imprint on my life. There, a large population lives in a small land area, and I saw creative and careful planning used to meet this challenge. A distinct edge between urban and rural landscapes exists, along with amazing pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure, which makes it possible to reach diverse activities and destinations on foot or bike. As a consequence, every local street is vibrant and alive with people of all ages! The quality of life made possible by the built environment inspired me to spend the last fifteen years professionally advocating for better community planning processes, as I feel we can do much in the U.S. to move toward a more sustainable use of natural resources while simultaneously encouraging active living. On a personal level, my family of four carefully chooses where we live based largely on our ability to walk and bike safely to daily needs. We find that we are able to avoid driving a car the majority of the time, which allows us to reduce our carbon footprint and enjoy invigorating walks, fresh air and sidewalk conversations with friends and neighbors.

Healthy Eating

As I suppose is true for all parents, I strive to provide my young children with the healthiest foundation in life that I possibly can. In doing so, feel fortunate to draw upon my own childhood experiences from a family culture where we grew, prepared and ate fresh and local foods. I fondly remember hours spent playing in my parents' organic garden, visiting "pick-your-own" farms and stopping at roadside produce stands. Now, I carry on those traditions through gardening, being a committed member of a local food co-op, visiting the local farmer's market on a weekly basis and participating in two community-supported agriculture (CSA) programs (in which we receive a weekly box of local, organic produce/dairy products). We place a high priority on sitting together to eat home-cooked, balanced meals with fresh foods every day of the week. Such traditions will hopefully enrich my children's lives and memories as much as they do my own.