Christopher Swartz

Chris Swartz is Contracts Officer at SEI-US.

At SEI, Chris has contributed to the development of water resource planning and management tools that incorporate a range of environmental and economic considerations.

Chris returned to SEI-US in 2022 as a Special Projects Advisor to the Finance and Operations team after being away for several years. Though his academic training is as an environmental geochemist and hydrogeologist, Chris developed a passion for non-profit financial and organizational management while helping to establish the US Center, and he served as the founding Financial Director for SEI-US from its formal creation in 2006 to 2019. Chris was also a Senior Scientist in the Water Program during that time.

In 2019, Chris left SEI-US to serve as Managing Director for Silent Spring Institute (SSI). While at SSI, Chris focused on automating the Institute’s financial systems, developing organizational policies on grant stewardship, recruitment and staff promotion, and helping the Institute navigate the COVID pandemic. On the research side of things, he managed a study of PFAS chemicals in children’s products and contributed to an analysis of socioeconomic disparities in exposure to unregulated contaminants in US public water supplies while at SSI.

In addition to his responsibilities at SEI-US, Chris is a consultant to the Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition (MBCC), which founded Silent Spring Institute in 1994. He manages finances and operations for MBCC, and he also develops funding proposals to support its mission.

Chris received his PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from MIT and his BS and MS degrees in Geological Sciences from the Ohio State University.