First elected to City Commission in 2019. Current term expires November 2027.
Chris Praedel was first elected to the Kalamazoo City Commission in November 2019. He is serving his second four-year term after re-election in 2023. He has served as liaison to the Planning Commission, Kalamazoo Area Transportation Study (KATS), and the Pension Board.
His roots run deep. He was born and raised in Kalamazoo. He is a proud graduate of both Kalamazoo Central High School and Western Michigan University, earning a BA in Management. He also attained the rank of Eagle Scout in local Troop 205.
Chris currently resides in the Milwood neighborhood with his partner, Erin, and three boys: Lincoln (9), Simon (7), and Felix (3). They are animal lovers and have a golden-doodle named Roz and a cat named Iggy.
Chris is especially passionate about housing, infrastructure, and youth in our community.
Chris currently serves as Executive Director of Community Homeworks, a local nonprofit which provides critical home repairs and empowering education to income eligible homeowners.
Immediately following graduation, he committed to two-years of national service in the AmeriCorps program, Teach for America. He taught in a self-contained third grade classroom in South Chicago and Los Angeles during his service term. He also earned an MA in Teaching from Dominican University. He has mentored two area teenage boys through Big Brothers Big Sisters.
Chris has remained active in a number of other area non-profit organizations in recent years, including serving on the board and campaign cabinet of the Kalamazoo Literacy Council (2011-2022). He was honored by the organization as the 2016 Literacy Advocate of the Year. Chris served on the 60th State Representative District Service Office (DSO) and Community Services Charity (CSC) Board of Directors, where he serves as treasurer from 2021-2023. He is currently serving the campaign cabinet of El Concilio.
In 2015, Chris was appointed to the City of Kalamazoo’s 21-member Blue Ribbon Panel on Revenue. The Panel was instructed to research, study, and explore revenue options that, when considered together, would address the City’s General Fund structural budget imbalance.
Chris successfully organized a Guinness World Record attempt in 2016 for the most marriage vow renewals in one place at Western Michigan University. During his tenure at WMU, was honored with the 2018 WMU Spirit Award and 2017 Make A Difference Award, both peer-to-peer honors.