Chris Hite
President at Dix.Hite + Partners – Longwood, FL
www.dixhite.com
1987 graduate of the BLA program
“I wouldn’t know it until years later when I had more professional experience, but the BLA from UGA gave me the exact tools I needed to build my professional life in landscape architecture. From the solid technical and ecological foundation to the insight and inspiration provided through cultural and design inspiration gained from the Cortona program I’m now working on projects I love, and I am thankful for the grounding I received there.”
Bio
Chris didn’t set out in her younger years to become a top recognized CEO. Rather, she was a designer, adventurer and environmentalist who applied her artistic talents to become a world-class landscape architect. Along the way, she learned that planning for business success can be similar to planning for project success.
Since taking the helm at Dix.Hite, a 35-person firm with offices in Florida, Georgia and Alabama, Chris has led double-digit growth for the firm while also managing an ownership transition, as her co-founder Jeff Dix, prepared to move into retirement. Chris still designs, too, and is proud of her work creating quality destinations such as parks, multi-family and mixed-use development.
As president of the firm, Chris provides visionary leadership to a flourishing practice. Her exemplary leadership recently was recognized by the Orlando Business Journal and i4 Business Magazine, both of which named Chris a 2017 CEO of the Year for Central Florida. She now shares as a mentor, teaching other leaders how running the business is more manageable and successful with the use of the firm’s “6D” design approach: dreaming, discovering, designing, discussing, documenting and delivering.
Chris’ design work celebrates the unique characteristics of a place’s social and geographical context, with a special focus on local ecologies, cultural identity, history, native plants, local materials, urban form, regional character and quality of life.
In addition to managing a portfolio of projects ranging from multi-family residential developments to citywide plans, she advances the practice of landscape architecture by sharing her professional experience and knowledge with young professionals, students, community leaders and clients in both the public and private sectors.
She also is on the Dean’s Advisory Council for the University of Georgia’s College of Environment and Design and on the advisory council for her other alma mater: the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Florida. Chris taught as an adjunct professor at UF and served as volunteer president of the alumni association for the Georgia program. She has volunteered her time to provide pro bono help to communities in need in Central and northern Florida and in Southeast Asia.