For 18 years, 2005 through 2023, Chris George was the Executive Director of IRIS (Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services), Connecticut's largest refugee resettlement agency. Based in New Haven but working with community groups all over the nation, IRIS has welcomed thousands of refugees and immigrants.  Chris was central to IRIS’s commitment to piloting private sponsorship models in the US.  And IRIS is a founding member of the Welcome Corps consortium.

Since stepping down from IRIS, Chris has been a consultant for Welcome Corps, and in the Fall he will teach a course in refugee resettlement at the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs.

Prior to leading IRIS, Chris spent most of his professional life living and working in the Middle East, including 12 years in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He served as Chief of Party and in other leadership roles at organizations such as Save the Children,  the USAID Legislative Strengthening program in Palestine, and the American Friends Service Committee in Lebanon.  Chris negotiated the terms of the first fact-finding missions to Syria and Iran as Executive Director of Human Rights Watch – Middle East. His international career started in 1977 as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Muscat, Oman. Chris has a BA from from the University of Pennsylvania.  He speaks Arabic.