by Noelle Lagueux-Alvarez
We’ve been lucky to have Christopher Hansard here at the AOC for 9.5 years. Christopher began his AOC career as a Research & Statistical Analyst. From there, he was promoted to Research Manager and further promoted to his current role as Division Director for Judicial Services. In his current role, Christopher oversees millions of pieces of data each year from every class of court from all 159 counties in Georgia. Christopher and his staff aggregate those data points from thousands of sources to paint a picture of the state as a whole.
More specifically, Christopher is tasked with calculating case counts for all appellate courts, trial-level courts, accountability courts, and parental accountability courts. He is also responsible for regulating court professionals (interpreters and court reporters), tracking continuing education for municipal court judges and clerks, and testing for process servers.
Christopher is very dedicated to his job and has a long history of going to extraordinary lengths to do what is needed to get the job done. You see, as a requirement for his scholarship while pursuing his master’s degree in public administration at UNC, Christopher was assigned to be a research assistant for the Orange County Solid Waste Management Department where he was responsible for a “recycling audit.” That might be one of the greatest euphemisms of all time. To conduct the “recycling audit,” Christopher had to dig through trash!
Working out of a rented space in a strip mall, Christopher was tasked with collecting trash from every county department and combing through it to see if recyclables had been improperly thrown in the garbage instead of being recycled. Christopher had another unusual job while pursuing his undergraduate degree at UGA where he was a “class checker.” That meant that he was responsible for verifying whether student athletes were attending their classes. Indeed, Christopher will roll up his sleeves to get the job done right.
In his work with the AOC, Christopher enjoys getting to work with a variety of people. He says he rarely sees exactly the same thing twice. There always seems to be a twist on even an age-old challenge. While he went to school to pursue a career in local government, working at the state level means he’s in touch with local government. Christopher enjoys sharing best practices statewide and site visits all around the state.
Christopher earned his B.A. magna cum laude from UGA with a major in political science and a minor in religion. Christopher earned his MPA from UNC and still uses concepts that he learned there every day especially in matters dealing with opportunity cost, cost analysis, and communication. One of his biggest takeaways from his communications professor was to be succinct and to be vigilant about self-editing. While at the AOC, Christopher has completed a fellowship at the Institute for Court Management.
Christopher and his wife have two daughters ages 4 and 2. He is an aficionado of tea parties, the movie Frozen, and toy fire trucks. Christopher loves reading with his daughters and especially likes the book, Kitten’s First Full Moon, which features a cat that doesn’t understand that the full moon isn’t a bowl of milk.
In his free time, Christopher can often be found digging up bugs and worms with his beloved girls. He’s also a techy and loves tinkering with his self-built computer. Be sure to swing by Christopher’s office sometime. He’s on a county quest—to see every county in the U.S. He tracks his travel on a giant map that hangs on his office wall.
