• Cover
• Introduction
• Conference Schedule
• Conference Sessions (alphabetical order)
• Presenters

ECR2008 Conference Presenters

A

• Steve Ackerlund is a chemist and toxicologist who has served as an environmental consultant to industry, agencies and affected citizens for more than 20 years. He also is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Montana’s conflict resolution program. Mr. Ackerlund brings professional experience in the challenges of managing technically complex projects in a multistakeholder setting. His research interest in risk communication and environmental conflict resolution utilizes a Mental Models research method for public participation analysis and practical problem solving.
• Dexter Albert has been actively involved in developing, shaping and employing conflict resolution, outreach, facilitation, joint problem solving and public involvement processes in environmental, community infrastructure and transportation issues for more than 10 years. Mr. Albert is a member of the Association for Conflict Resolution EPP Group, and he is active with the Grand Canyon Chapter of the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2), from which he holds an IAP2 Certificate in Public Participation.
• Heide Andersen has worked for the Town of Breckenridge, Colo., for eight years as the director of the Open Space and Trails Division. She formerly worked as the conservation director for the Colorado Mountain Club from 1997 to 1999 in Golden. Prior to working in Colorado, Ms. Andersen worked as an environmental consultant for SWCA, Inc. She received her B.A. from Williams College and her master’s from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

B

• Anne Badgley is a fish and wildlife administrator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) in Portland, Ore. Currently, she is working on a collaborative problem-solving project for the USFWS in conjunction with the National Policy Consensus Center at Portland State University. Ms. Badgley was the regional director for the USFWS Pacific Region from 1998 to 2003 and the executive director of the intergovernmental Regional Ecosystem Office from 2003 to 2007.
• Richard A. Barfield is associate counsel for Environmental, Historic Preservation and Real Property Law for Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southeast. His education is as follows: Judge Advocate General’s School, U.S. Army, LL.M., 1993; University of Florida College of Law, J.D., 1989; and Wake Forest University, B.A., 1976. He also served as an infantry officer in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1978 to 1987. Mr. Barfield retired from the Marine Corps in 1999 as a lieutenant colonel.
• David C. Batson serves as senior alternative dispute resolution specialist for the Conflict Prevention & Resolution Center of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He is a highly experienced dispute resolution neutral and meeting facilitator with more than 18 years of service to clients involved in environmental, public policy and organizational disputes. In addition, he has served as consultant on the design of dispute systems for a diverse group of federal and state entities. Mr. Batson serves on the Steering Committee of the Federal Interagency ADR Working Group and is the vice chair of the ADR Committee of the ABA Section on Environment, Energy and Resources. Mr. Batson is a frequent lecturer and trainer on the effective use of ADR, mediation ethics, confidentiality and dispute systems design.
• Juliana E. Birkhoff is an experienced mediator, facilitator, dispute resolution trainer and scholar. She combines her theoretical understanding, research experience and group learning and collaboration skills to flexibly respond to complex group planning, problem-solving and decision-making challenges. She has designed and conducted a variety of collaborative and consensus-based multistakeholder dialogues, workshops and scientific review processes. She has particular experience in facilitating and mediating complex scientific and technical issues in politically charged contexts.
• Jessica Block received her Bachelor of Science at UCLA in 2001. After 2 years at the U.S. Geological Survey as a GIS expert, she received her M.S. at ASU in geology and has been working for ASU’s Decision Theater since 2004. Her research interests include fluvial geomorphology and hydrogeology in urban regions focusing on environmental policy and natural resource sustainability for urban regions.
• Greg Bourne has been mediating public policy issues for more than 20 years. He is cofounder and former executive director of the Consortium on Negotiation and Conflict Resolution while at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is currently managing senior mediator for the Center for Collaborative Policy, California State University, Sacramento. Mr. Bourne has worked with numerous federal and state agencies at both the regional and headquarters levels. He is past co chair of the Environmental/Public Policy Section of the Association for Conflict Resolution.
• Sue Boyel (Biography not available)
• Todd Bryan is a senior associate at The Keystone Center and an environmental mediator and facilitator specializing in collaborative ecosystem management. Dr. Bryan holds an M.P.A. from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and M.S. degrees in landscape architecture and water resources management from the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Bryan recently completed his Ph.D. in the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan.
• Paul Burgess is a project manager and research analyst who joined the RI in 2003. His background is in GIS, international development and natural resource management.

C

• Meg Caldwell directs Stanford University’s Environmental and Natural Resources Law & Policy Program. Her scholarship focuses on the use of science in environmental and marine resource policy development and implementation, as well as private and public incentives for natural resource conservation. Since 2004, Ms. Caldwell has been a member of the California Marine Life Protection Act Blue Ribbon Task Force. She served on the California Coastal Commission from 2004 to 2007, including two years as its chairperson.
• Dave Ceppos is a managing senior mediator with a focus on natural resources, multiparty collaborative negotiations. He has an extensive dual background as a mediation/policy specialist and an applied natural resources manager. He last presented at the USIECR conference on the use of humor in mediation.
• Meenakshi Chakraverti is a senior associate and deputy director, International and Science Programs, at the Public Conversations Project, through which she offers dialogue training, facilitation and consultation to U.S.-based and international groups, e.g. Israeli and Palestinian journalists; university students and faculty in the U.S.; community activists and leaders in the U.S.; mediators at the (U.S.) Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals; Indians, Pakistanis and Kashmiris in the U.S.; Burundian conflict resolution professionals; and the U.S. military.
• Nedra Chandler is a facilitator who works with public decisions of all kinds to foster open, accountable governance. With a master’s in geography and a mediation certificate, she has 20 years experience and has taught many courses on communicating risk, public participation and assessment. She is a member of the Native Dispute Resolution Network, ACR, IAP2 and serves on the USIECR’s Roster. She is interested in the possibilities of Operational Risk Management for agencies and citizens.
• Jimmie D. Chew, Ph.D., has more than 20 years experience in the National Forest System (Northern Region and Alaska Region) as a district silviculturist, area silviculturist, forest timber management planner, forest planning team leader and regional office silviculturist. Since 1992, he has been a forester with the Rocky Mountain Research Station, Research Work Unit 4151 – Ecology and Management of Northern Rocky Mountain Forests. He has completed a B.S. degree in forestry at the University of Illinois, an M.F. degree in forest management at Oregon State University and a Ph.D. in ecology at the University of Montana.
• James Coleman joined USGS in 2003 following a 25-year career in the energy industry working on national and international projects. In his current position as team chief scientist of Eastern Energy Resources Team, he oversees research and resource assessment studies on national and international fossil fuel energy supplies and the effects on human and environmental health resulting from resource extraction and use. Mr. Coleman holds B.S. degrees in geology and chemistry and an M.S. in geology.
• Tom Colosi is a private consultant, having previously served with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the American Arbitration Association, as chairman of the federal Foreign Service Impasse Disputes Panel, the Indiana Dispute Resolution Services and on the board of the Institute for Multi-Track Diplomacy. Highly publicized mediator cases include Wounded Knee, Mohawk country, Red Lake Band of the Chippewa Tribe in Minnesota and the U.S. Trainer (federal/international). He is also an author.
• Cindy Cook is a nationally recognized mediator and facilitator and principal of Adamant Accord, Inc. She specializes in environmental dispute resolution and the design and implementation of public involvement processes for complex public policy issues. Ms. Cook serves on the Board of Directors of the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR) and is immediate past co chair of ACR’s Environment and Public Policy Section. She teaches at Vermont Law School and is a fellow of the school’s Land Use Institute.
• Janet L. Crawford has a master’s in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, concentrating on ECR and environmental economics. As a member of the New Zealand Planning Institute since 1976, she conducts training for local authorities, teaches at universities, mediates disputes, and facilitates public policy dialogue and consultation. Since 1995, Ms. Crawford has been involved in a joint planning research project with the University of Auckland and the University of North Carolina.
• Julie Cunningham is the outreach coordinator for the Lake Davis Pike Eradication Project. Prior to this position, she was environmental compliance coordinator for the project. Before working on the Lake Davis Pike Eradication Project, Ms. Cunningham worked as an environmental scientist for the California Department of Water Resources on habitat management planning and riparian restoration on the Sacramento River in California. She has a master’s degree in geography from California State University, Chico, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in human ecology from Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

D

• Betsy Daniels, a senior associate with Triangle Associates, Inc., in Seattle, Wash., helps both governmental and nongovernmental clients work together and with partners and stakeholders. Since 1990, Ms. Daniels has provided alternative dispute resolution services for multijurisdictional natural resource issues. With an emphasis on coastal, marine and watershed-based issues, Ms. Daniels has worked with both small organizations and large agencies on goal setting and visioning, strategic planning, collaborative decision making and conflict resolution. She has worked closely with tribal and nontribal governments throughout the Northwest to design and implement effective collaboration.
• Catherine Darst has been the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Regional Coordinator for Desert Tortoise Recovery in California since January 2008. Dr. Darst recently completed a post-doctoral Presidential Management Fellowship with the Department of the Interior, where she worked in Washington D.C. in science policy and conservation biology. She received her Ph.D. in Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior from the University of Texas, Austin in 2006 with an emphasis in amphibian and reptile biology. She completed her undergraduate degrees in Ecology, Evolution and English from the University of California, Davis. Dr. Darst has published her research in journals such as Nature, The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and The American Naturalist.
• Debra Drecksel has worked in the field of organizational communication for 32 years. She has worked with government agencies and private parties as a facilitator, mediator, lawyer, public speaker and trainer. She is a longtime member of the USIECR’s Roster of Neutrals. Ms. Drecksel has facilitated an ongoing collaboration out of which ADOT’s Project Reference grew. She has an Honors B.A. and M.A. in communication and a J.D., all from the University of Utah.
• E. Franklin Dukes, Ph.D., directs the Institute for Environmental Negotiation (IEN) at the University of Virginia. IEN helps groups find sustainable solutions to complex environmental problems and conflict. His book Resolving Public Conflict describes how public conflict resolution procedures can assist in vitalizing democracy. He is coauthor of Reaching for Higher Ground, which describes how groups and communities can address conflict with integrity, vision and creativity. He received his Ph.D. in conflict analysis and resolution from George Mason University
• Jeremiah Dumas, M.L.A., is an assistant research professor of landscape architecture with the GeoResources Institute. Mr. Dumas has research interests in landscape and urban planning, with an emphasis in community and regional planning and landscape ecology. In addition to his research activities, he is an adjunct professor with the Department of Landscape Architecture at Mississippi State, where his responsibilities include teaching Landscape Architecture 3623 – Urban Planning Theory. Mr. Dumas completed his master’s and bachelor’s of landscape architecture at Mississippi State University.
• Mary Dumas, principal of Dumas & Associates, Inc., is a mediator, facilitator and trainer with 20 years of experience serving clients in the Pacific Northwest. Her work has involved citizens, government agencies, tribes, educational institutions, municipalities, private organizations and nonprofits in facing conflict and change more effectively. Ms. Dumas has expertise in all phases of conflict and stakeholder analysis, public involvement design, facilitation, mediation, and professional training program design and instruction in these subject areas.

E

• Michael Elliot has worked to promote collaboration and dispute resolution in environmental management and planning for 25 years. His particular expertise lies in the design and evaluation of collaborative problem-solving and decision-making processes and in the mediation of public policy disputes. He is an associate professor of environmental planning and policy at Georgia Tech, cofounder and associate of the Consortium on Negotiation and Conflict Resolution and cofounder and director of the Southeast Negotiation Network.
• Sam Elters, P.E., with 20 years experience in Arizona, became state engineer for ADOT in 2005. He oversees highway development, construction and maintenance programs. Before joining ADOT in 1999, he worked at the Mohave County Public Works Department for 14 years. With a B.S. in civil engineering from Northern Arizona University and completion of the Advanced Public Executive Program at Arizona State University, he is a frequent speaker at international, national, state and local forums.
• Kirk Emerson, Ph.D., has been the director of the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution (USIECR) of the Morris K. Udall Foundation since its inception in 1998. She has been instrumental in developing federal ECR policy, integrating collaboration into the NEPA review process and fostering systematic evaluation of ECR performance and practice. Dr. Emerson has convened, designed and facilitated a range of federal and intergovernmental conflict resolution processes dealing with water resources, land use and environmental quality. She received her B.A. in psychology from Princeton University, a master’s in city planning from MIT and a Ph.D. in political science and public policy from Indiana University.
• Michael Eng is a senior program manager with the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution, focusing on collaborative planning and conflict resolution processes involving federally protected areas and wildlife. He has a B.A. in psychology and an M.M.A. in marine affairs. Before joining the USIECR in 2000, Mr. Eng worked for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as a trainer and facilitator and for the National Park Service in natural and cultural resource management of marine parks.

F

• Rich Fairbanks is the Wilderness Society’s forest and fire program associate for the California-Nevada region. Prior to that, he had worked for the Forest Service as interdisciplinary team leader for several major projects, including the controversial Biscuit Fire Recovery Project. Mr. Fairbanks brings a wealth of practical experience as well as governmental and NGO perspectives to the dialog about NEPA content analysis.
• Terry Fenton joined the Environmental Protection Agency in 2004 as a conflict resolution specialist. Much of her time is spent as co-project officer for a $65 million ADR services contract. Prior to the EPA, Ms. Fenton worked for 13 years as a paralegal with the FDIC in the ADR Unit.
• Ona Ferguson is a senior associate at the Consensus Building Institute. She provides convening, facilitation and mediation services to groups and organizations addressing natural resource and land use issues, including affordable housing, coastal management and transportation-related air emissions. She also trains groups around the country in strategies for improving negotiation skills and resolving land use disputes. Ms. Ferguson has a master’s from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.
• Olivia Barton Ferriter became the new director of Conservation, Partnerships and Management Policy for the U.S. Department of the Interior in August 2006, providing leadership for collaboration and partnership efforts. She has broad professional experience gained through Interior management roles, as a senior aide on Capitol Hill and as an award-winning journalist. She served as chief of staff to the Assistant Secretary - Water and Science and was a congressional relations specialist for USGS. Ms. Ferriter served on Capitol Hill as a press secretary and associate staff, House Appropriations Committee. She was a reporter for The Birmingham News and later for Newhouse News Service.
• Janet Fiero, Ph.D., has held lead roles in three AmericaSpeaks initiatives, including the Tough Choices in Healthcare Town Meeting for the Governor of Maine, a 20-month economic revitalization initiative in northeast Ohio and citizen engagement in the 21-city Unified New Orleans Plan Community Congress. Voices & Choices, the northeast Ohio initiative, engaged more than 20,000 people in deliberation about northeast Ohio’s economy and touched hundreds of thousands. She is a roster member of the USIECR.
• Robert Fisher has been mediating environmental, land use, natural resources and public policy issues for almost 20 years. He focuses on constructive dialogue and cooperative action in the public arena and litigation settlement. Leadership and group dynamics in high-conflict situations are a practice and research interest. He is the founder and principal of Fisher Collaborative Services LC, based in Alexandria, VA.
• Margaret Ford is based in EPA’s San Francisco Public Affairs Office (Region 9), where she works closely with the press office on a variety of videos and audio for external (mostly Web) consumption. She also produces internal multimedia and provides consultation on a number of technical issues, both regionally and nationally. Previously, Ms. Ford redesigned and managed the R9 Web site.
• Craig B. Forster, Ph.D., is research associate professor of urban planning. In a previous hydrogeologist life, he modeled fluid flow in geologic systems. He now bridges gaps between science and policy and builds systems models to explore interactions among social institutions and the natural environment. Dr. Forster facilitates large, broadly interdisciplinary, research teams and draws stakeholders and decision makers into community-based research. He teaches interdisciplinary classes and facilitates student service-learning projects within an expanding network of community partners.
• Carie Fox, J.D., M.S., is a public policy practitioner who is a bit like a jackdaw in the sense of borrowing baubles from related fields and mixing them with traditional mediation materials: improvisational theatre, neurobiology, multicriteria decision analysis and learning theory are some topics she has written about and incorporated into her practice. Her lively and highly interactive trainings draw from a wide range of these skills, and always come back to core mediation principles.

G

• Arthur E. Gary, J.D., is associate solicitor for General Law in the Office of the Solicitor, DOI, and has more than 20 years experience in environmental and Indian Affairs law, as well as in the areas of administrative law, ethics, procurement and intellectual property. He has been staff counsel for the Northern Spotted Owl endangered species decision, managed the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Trust Policies and Procedures Project and served as deputy director of DOI's Ethics Office. He is a member of the New York Bar.
• Catherine Garypie, J.D., is currently a co-ADR coordinator for the U.S. EPA (Chicago). She also works as an enforcement attorney for U.S. EPA (Chicago). Her neutral experience includes neutral work for U.S. EPA (Chicago), U.S. EPA (Boston), Metropolitan Mediation Services of Boston, the Greater Boston Federal Executive Board Shared Neutrals Program and the Chicago Federal Executive Board Shared Neutrals Program. She is a graduate of Chicago-Kent College of Law (J.D.) and Hamilton College (B.A.).
• Elena Gonzalez is the director of the Department of the Interior’s (DOI) Office of Collaborative Action and Dispute Resolution (CADR) located in Washington, D.C. The CADR office is responsible for providing leadership and guidance for all bureaus and offices within DOI on full implementation of DOI’s policies encouraging broad use of conflict management and dispute resolution tools in all areas of DOI’s work, including internal conflict within the agency and collaborative problem solving and consensus building with external stakeholders. Ms. Gonzalez has held this position since 2002.
• Susan Goodwin is a conflict resolution specialist with the Department of the Interior’s (DOI) Office of Collaborative Action and Dispute Resolution (CADR). She assists DOI's programs and bureaus with convening and designing collaborative processes with stakeholders. She is involved in evaluating the outcomes of collaborative processes, including negotiated rulemakings that the National Park Service has completed. Ms. Goodwin also mediates workplace conflicts and coordinates the CADR training program.
• David Grachen is an environmental specialist for the Federal Highway Administration. His duties include providing training and technical assistance on a variety of environmental matters on a national basis. Recent emphasis areas include NEPA Processes, Public-Private Partnerships, Section 4(f), Section 106 and the environmental provisions of SAFETEA-LU. Mr. Grachen graduated from the University of Maryland with a B.S. in civil engineering.
• Horst Greczmiel is associate director for NEPA Oversight at the Council on Environmental Quality. He is responsible for overseeing and implementing NEPA and CEQ mandates to ensure that federal agencies integrate environmental values into decision making. Previously, he worked in the Coast Guard’s Office of Environmental Law on policy and litigation involving NEPA, the Endangered Species Act and the National Historic Preservation Act. He received his B.A. from Lafayette College, J.D. from Rutgers and LL.M. from George Washington University.
• Sergio Guillen has a renewable energy engineering background, a certificate in natural resource management from the University of Michigan and is completing a master's in environmental security and peace at the University for Peace. He has worked in ECR since 2000, is an internationally certified mediator and is accredited with the Costa Rican Ministry of Justice. He has taught more than 400 hours of ADR training. He is senior trainer for a Costa Rican national land dispute management program.

H

• William Hall manages ECR case tracking and evaluation systems for EPA’s Conflict Prevention and Resolution Center. His current evaluation activities include the Systematic Evaluation of Environmental and Economic Results project and participation in the Multiagency ECR Evaluation Study. He completed his Ph.D. at George Mason University's Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, where his research focused on process dynamics in environmental negotiation.
• J. Michael Harty, Harty Conflict Consulting & Mediation, combines more than 12 years of dispute resolution experience with perspectives from a decade as a practicing attorney. Mr. Harty focuses on complex natural resource challenges around the western U.S. and has significant recent experience with water right adjudications (New Mexico), water quality (Idaho) and conjunctive management (California). He was “Lessons Learned” co-evaluator for the MLPA Central Coast process and is continuing that role for the North Central Coast.
• Valerie Hauser is a Native American program coordinator with ACHP, where she advises the leadership on policy and historic preservation issues affecting Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiians. She also provides assistance, outreach and training regarding tribal and Native Hawaiian consultation. Before joining the ACHP in 1989, Ms. Hauser was director of archeology at an environmental education center in New York City. She received her Master of Arts in anthropology from New York University.
• John Haydon has more than 30 years experience as an environmental lawyer. Mr. Haydon established the Environmental Law Roundtable of Australia and New Zealand. Holding a law degree from the University of Queensland and a certificate in public participation (IAP2), he is a trained mediator and a fellow of the Salzburg Seminar on Negotiation Theory and Practice in Environmental Disputes and a certified environmental practitioner through the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand.
• Maggie Herzig is a senior associate and one of the founders of the Public Conversations Project. She is coauthor with Laura Chasin of Fostering Dialogue Across Divides: A Nuts and Bolts Guide from the Public Conversations Project. Ms. Herzig has facilitated dialogues on many topics including abortion, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, religion and sexual orientation and forest management. She cofacilitated with Grady McGonagill the Northern Forest Dialogue Project (1994–1996) and the Maine Forest Biodiversity Project (1994–1999).
• Charles “Chuck” F. Howton is the deputy director and senior regulatory analyst of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) Committee Management Secretariat and has more than 25 years experience working with presidential and federal advisory committees. He assists the White House, OMB and executive agency staffs in FACA regulatory and compliance matters. He manages GSA's FACA training, outreach and public information programs and works directly with more than 60 agency FACA Committee Management Officers. He is the principal author of GSA's FACA regulations.

J

• Joshua Jacks has been practicing mediation in the Boston area since 1981. Mr. Jacks joined Metropolitan Mediation Services (MMS) shortly after the program began operation in 1986. Currently, he serves on the clinic faculty for UMass-Boston's Graduate Program in Dispute Resolution. He has provided training to local, state and federal agencies. He also serves as director of court programs for MMS and mediates conflicts between Medicare providers and beneficiaries in Massachusetts.
• Robert Jones, J.D., has served as the director of the FSU Florida Conflict Resolution Consortium since 1990. He oversees the Consortium’s program and serves as a facilitator on a range of public policy issues in Florida. He serves on the Policy Consensus Initiative Board and is the chair of the new University Network for Collaborative Governance. He is a graduate of the University of California, Davis, School of Law and of the University of California, Berkeley.

K

• Mark Keith, WP Carey School of Business, Arizona State University (Biography not available)
• Karen S. Kellen is a senior enforcement attorney and ADR specialist at EPA’s Denver Regional Office. She obtained her law degree from Washington University in St. Louis and clerked at the Missouri Supreme Court before entering the EPA in its Philadelphia, Pa., office. Ms. Kellen has been in the Denver area since 1992. She specializes in Superfund mining sites, Superfund redevelopment, environmental justice, community involvement and facilitation. She is currently the chair of the Denver Federal Executive Board’s Mediation Consortium and conducts employment-related mediations in its shared neutrals program. In her spare time, Ms. Kellen serves on the City Council in Lakewood, Colo.
• Dale Keyes, Ph.D., just completed his tenure as a senior program manager at the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution. His work at the USIECR focused on multistakeholder collaborative problem solving and dispute-resolution processes involving energy development, transportation planning and project development, air and water quality, and waste management. Dr. Keyes has a B.S. in chemistry, M.S. degrees in biochemistry and urban & regional planning, and a Ph.D. in geography. He previously held positions at academic and research organizations, in government and with environmental consulting firms. His plans for retirement are under development but include some conflict resolution work. Creative ideas and suggestions are encouraged.
• John Kirlin is executive director of Delta Vision. He has more than 30 years experience in analysis and consulting on complex public problems. His expertise includes governance, public fiscal systems, and environmental and species protection policies. He served as first executive director for the California Marine Life Protection Act Initiative (2004–2007). An elected fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, Dr. Kirlin held faculty positions at the University of Southern California for nearly 30 years.
• Lynne Koontz has served as a research economist with the Policy Analysis and Science Assistance Program, USGS, since 1997. Her primary research area focuses on helping land managers make decisions, including conducting research on economic impacts of potential management changes. Her dissertation research integrated concepts from decision analysis, political and institutional analysis, and public choice economics into a single, comprehensive approach called Disparate Stakeholder Management to help decision makers better describe, measure, communicate and resolve management issues.
• Jianbo Kuang, Ph.D., is a research scientist with 19 years experience. He studied in China and obtained a Ph.D. in plant sciences from Monash University in Australia. Dr. Kuang is now a senior consultant at EcoDirections International Pty Ltd, as well as a trained mediator. He is responsible for providing consultancy services in mediation and assisted dispute resolution advocacy and assists with developing the Environmental Law Roundtable of Australia and New Zealand.
• Michael Kuenzi currently serves as director for Clackamas County Oregon, where he is responsible for operations and strategic business planning for three sanitary and storm water service districts. Mr. Kuenzi has more than 25 years experience in environmental and sanitary engineering, spanning both public and private sectors. He holds a B.S. in civil engineering from California State University, Sacramento; an M.S. in environmental engineering from the University of Washington; and an MBA from Pepperdine University.
• Marilyn J. Kuray, J.D., is an attorney advisor with the EPA Office of General Counsel whose areas of expertise include FACA, NEPA, preemption and public involvement. She teaches the Legal Session for GSA's FACA Management Training Course and is a member of the CEQ Cooperative Conservation FACA Workgroup. She has participated in EPA workgroups revising agency public involvement policy and NEPA implementing regulations. Prior to EPA, she was in private practice working on environmental and criminal defense issues.

L

• Dick LaFever has built a successful consulting and training company that has worked in Alaska, and the Lower 48, since 1986. He provides organizational diagnosis, consulting and effectiveness to businesses; local, state and federal agencies; and nonprofit groups. He works with business leaders, profit and nonprofit boards, tribal councils and a variety of employee and management teams. Mr. LaFever is an enrolled member of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe in Montana and moved to rural Alaska from his home reservation in 1978.
• Stacy Langsdale‘s graduate work included conducting a collaborative modeling process to explore water resources and climate change futures with selected stakeholders in the Okanagan Basin in Canada (Ph.D. in resource management, environmental studies from the University of British Columbia, 2007) and developing a water quality and quantity systems model of the Walker River Basin in Nevada (M.S. in hydrology, University of Nevada, Reno, 2001). She is currently on a post-doctoral fellowship at the Institute for Water Resources.
• Kevin Lansey, Ph.D., has been an instructor at the University of Arizona since 1990. Dr. Lansey’s interests lie in analyzing water distribution systems and their impact on water quality and the environment. His work attempts to develop simulation and modeling tools to better understand the systems under investigation. His modeling is often integrated with decision support systems to help predict possible outcomes arising from policy decisions. He has co-authored two textbooks and numerous journal articles on the subject. He received his PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Texas.
• William Leach, Ph.D., is the research director for the Center for Collaborative Policy at California State University, Sacramento. His research focuses on understanding when and how government agencies, stakeholder groups and the public can use collaborative strategies to improve democratic practice and policy outcomes. With graduate training in ecology, economics and public policy, Dr. Leach has published his research in the leading journals in political science, public administration, planning, forestry and conservation biology.
• George Leavesley, Ph.D., received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in forestry and forest hydrology from Pennsylvania State University and his Ph.D. degree in watershed sciences from Colorado State University. He spent 30 years with the National Research Program of the Water Resources Division, U.S. Geological Survey, conducting research in the areas of hydrological modeling and modeling framework development. Dr. Leavesley is currently a senior research scientist with the Civil Engineering Department at Colorado State University, where he is continuing his research in modeling and the next generation of modeling frameworks.
• Naicong Li currently leads a research project on spatial decision support systems at the Redlands Institute and has participated in the development of an SDSS to support the DTRO recovery plan. She has experience in agent-based modeling, expert systems and knowledge management. She holds a Ph.D. in linguistics and an M.S. in computer science.
• Gary Light began his career supporting the U.S. EPA with developing hazardous waste regulations. After more than a decade of regulatory development and NEPA experience, Mr. Light led ICF’s corporate research and development of CommentWorks, ICF’s Web-based system for collecting, analyzing and documenting public comments. He now leads a line of business providing public comment process consultation, IT tools and content analysis for NEPA, planning and regulatory development for a wide range of clients.
• Dana Lucero developed a nationally recognized program for Wisconsin on Internet tools for planning, conservation and environmental protection. She conducted training for citizens and professionals alike. Ms. Lucero has spoken at numerous national and international conferences on the subject. Her publications include “Internet Tools Bring Science to Local Decisions in Wisconsin” (ECO States, Spring 2006) and “State-Federal Partnership to Understand the Usefulness of Decision Support Tools for Natural Resource Management (Water Environment Federation’s Watershed 2004 Conference).
• Jan Lucke, M.A., is a program coordinator for the University of Minnesota Center for Transportation Studies. She recently managed a pilot project aimed at developing skills and strategies for consensus building, mediation and problem solving for transportation professionals. She also coordinates research program activities for the Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute, which uses a variety of visualization tools to tackle today’s transportation challenges.
• Robert Luskin is research advisor at the Center for Deliberative Democracy at Stanford University and director of the Center for Deliberative Opinion Research at the University of Texas at Austin. He is interested in the effects of political information on the texture and outcomes of representative democracy. He has been a member of the Advisory Board of the Texas Poll and the Editorial Boards of Political Analysis and the American Political Science Review.
• Oren Lyons upholds the Great Law of Peace of the Hau de no sau nee. He addressed the U.N. General Assembly to open the International Year of the World's Indigenous People and organized a delegation of Hau de no sau nee to the U.N. Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). He is coeditor of Exiled in the Land of the Free: Democracy, Indian Nations, and the U.S. Constitution and professor of American studies at SUNY Buffalo.

M

• Robert Manley serves the Navy as the alternative dispute resolution attorney responsible for day-to-day coordination of ADR policy for procurement and environment. Mr. Manley formerly served as trial attorney in the Navy Litigation Office representing the Navy before the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals, Court of Federal Claims and Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, as well as environmental disputes before the U.S. District Courts. He reports to the Assistant General Counsel (ADR) of the Navy.
• Langdon Marsh is a fellow with the National Policy Consensus Center at Portland State University, where he works with state governments and others on collaborative problem solving for various regional and local issues like watersheds and sustainability. From 1995 to 2000, he was director of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, and from 1994 to 1995, he served as commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, where he had previously held executive level positions since the 1970s.
• Margaret McCaffrey, Ph.D., has more than 10 years teaching experience and more than 25 years experience in wildland fire suppression, prevention, mitigation, and planning. She currently works as a fire mitigation and education specialist for Montrose Interagency Fire in Montrose, Colo. In this capacity, she works in partnership with federal, state and local agencies; organizations; and coalitions to create community wildfire protection plans and federal wildland fire management plans for the lands within the Montrose Interagency Fire Management Unit. She also facilitates for other collaborative wildlife and ecosystem groups, as well as local civic groups. Dr. McCaffrey holds a B.A in history and English from the University of Northern Colorado, an M.A. in linguistics from Colorado State University, and a Ph.D. in rhetoric/cultural studies from Carnegie Mellon University.
• Scott McCreary is cofounder and principal of CONCUR Inc. and has 20 years experience in environmental policy facilitation and mediation. Much of CONCUR's current work focuses on marine and water resource issues. He was lead facilitator for both the Central Coast and North Central Coast study regions of the California Marine Life Protection Act Initiative. Mr. McCreary is an adjunct professor at Vermont Law School, where he teaches Mediating Land Use, Water and Marine Resource Disputes.
• Austin McInerny, MRP, AICP, is a senior facilitator/mediator and natural resource/land-use planner. He has extensive experience developing consensus-based, stakeholder-driven, resource management/infrastructure development review processes involving a wide range of interests. He has considerable management and field experience in watershed planning, environmental assessment, regulatory compliance, habitat restoration and use of Internet-based planning tools. Mr. McInerny received a master’s in regional planning from Cornell University and a B.A. in environmental studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
• Joseph McMahon, Jr., has worked as a decision-making and conflict management professional for the last 16 years and as legal counsel/trial lawyer for the preceding 13 years. He has been a mediator, facilitator and settlement consultant on multiple multiparty cases. Mr. McMahon has served as an engineer and intermediary on water disputes, interstate and intrastate water allocation issues, hydrology and the design and construction of water supply, reservoirs, river improvement, parkways, drainage and irrigation projects.
• Aaron Miles is the natural resource manager for the Nez Perce Tribe and has served in this position since 1999. His responsibilities have included high-profile resource issues in the states of Idaho, Washington, Oregon and Montana such as the Gray Wolf Recovery; anadromous fisheries protection and dam breaching of the four Lower Snake River Dams in southeastern Washington; the Kennewick Man issue; hunting bison for the first time in 140 years in Montana; air quality permitting for tribal members and nontribal members on the Nez Perce Reservation; and the Snake River Basin Adjudication. Mr. Miles and his wife of 16 years have lived in Moscow since 1988 raising their four children.
• Jonas Minton, one of California's foremost experts in water policy, has experience at high levels of government, as well as with advocacy organizations. As deputy director of the State Department of Water Resources, Mr. Minton directed the water supply, dam safety and flood management planning for California and introduced collaborative processes into all aspects of this work. He also directed the Water Forum, the successful stakeholder effort to settle fights over the American River. He currently serves as the senior water policy advisor for the Planning and Conservation League.
• Meg Mitchell has worked for the Forest Service for 22 years and is currently the forest supervisor on the Green Mountain and Finger Lakes National Forests in Vermont and New York. Prior to that, she held positions in Washington D.C., Oregon, Washington State and Alaska. Ms. Mitchell has a bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture from Colorado State University and a master’s degree in forestry from the University of Idaho.
• Jodie Monaghan is an associate mediator. She works primarily on natural resource, multiparty collaborative negotiations. She also focuses on associated public outreach programs and strategic planning activities. She has been the CCP project coordinator and public outreach facilitator for the Lake Davis project.
• Christopher Moore, Ph.D., partner of CDR Associates, has worked in the fields of collaborative planning, multiparty decision-making and conflict management for 30 years. He is an internationally known mediator, facilitator, trainer and author. Dr. Moore has consulted in the U.S. and more than 25 countries. He holds a Ph.D. in political sociology and development from Rutgers University and is the author of The Mediation Process: Practical Strategies for Resolving Conflict (Jossey-Bass, 2003, 3rd Edition).
• Lucy Moore, principal of Lucy Moore Associates, based in Santa Fe, N.M., offers facilitation, mediation, training and consultation services. With a focus on natural resources and public policy, her cases range from multiparty, multi-issue regulatory negotiations to public involvement processes. Having lived more than seven years in Navajo country, and more than 30 years in the Southwest, Ms. Moore has a keen interest in the cross-cultural aspects of conflict resolution and is an active mentor. She often works with a multicultural team of colleagues to offer workshops and other services.
• Michael Mortimer, Ph.D., J.D., is the director of forest policy for the Society of American Foresters in Bethesda, Md. He is also an adjunct faculty member at Virginia Tech’s Northern Virginia Center, where he carries on an active research program currently examining the National Environmental Policy Act and its implications for federal land management. His primary research interests center around public land management, environmental conflict resolution and administrative processes.
• Peter Murchie is a fellow with the National Policy Consensus Center at Portland State University, where he works with state governments and others on collaborative problem solving for various regional and local issues related to climate change and energy. Mr. Murchie has worked for the World Health Organization, the International Joint Commission and other organizations, with a focus on using collaborative approaches to solve environmental health issues.
• Philip Murphy, Ph.D., has 20 years experience designing and building decision support systems for government and industry clients in the U.S., Europe and Australia. Current natural resources projects include online outreach for the BLM’s Western Oregon Plan Revision and designing the underlying DSS for the USFW DTRO Recovery Plan development. He is the founder and CEO of InfoHarvest Inc., which provides MCDA tools and consulting, and is a founding member of the EMDS consortium.

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• MaryAnn Naber has been the federal historic preservation officer at the Federal Highway Administration in Washington, D.C., for the past seven years. Prior to that, she spent 10 years with the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, where she had primary responsibility for U.S. DOT projects and programs. Ms. Naber holds a master's degree in historic preservation from the University of Vermont, is a longtime member of the Transportation Research Board Committee on Archeology and Historic Preservation and has made numerous presentations nationally on preservation and transportation topics.
• Juliana Novotny, U.S. Department of the Navy, Environment (Biography not available)

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• Mary O'Brien has served 26 years as staff scientist for toxics reform and public lands conservation grassroots organizations. She has emphasized alternatives proposals and assessments. She is currently involved in two formal collaborations: (1) urban transportation and wetlands and (2) public lands livestock grazing and conservation. She received a Ph.D. in botany.
• Suzanne G. Orenstein has been a public policy mediator and facilitator for environmental and other public disputes for more than 20 years. She has mediated more than 40 major cases, conducted more than 50 training courses and managed rosters of mediators. Her work has included facilitation of collaborative processes involving complex and controversial public issues and diverse constituencies, including tribes. Ms. Orenstein is the former vice president of RESOLVE, a national public policy dispute resolution organization, and is currently in private practice in Massachusetts.
• Patricia Orr has managed the Evaluation Program for the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution since 2003. She has a master’s degree in environmental economics and is currently pursuing a master’s in business administration while continuing to work full-time at the USIECR. She has worked on several environmental evaluation projects, including helping administer a USAID-sponsored Public Lands Utilization Study in Malawi, Africa.
• Deborah M. Osborne, a certified mediator and anthropologist, holds graduate and undergraduate degrees in anthropology from the George Washington University and Temple University, respectively. Ms. Osborne is certified in mediation from Pepperdine University and negotiation from Harvard University. She is a non-Native member of the USIECR’s Native Dispute Resolution Network. Ms. Osborne is a mediator in the Dispute Resolution Service at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. She served as FERC's federal preservation officer in her prior career.

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• Sarah Palmer is a senior program manager leading the USIECR’s Native American and Alaska Native Environmental Program. She provides collaborative problem-solving assistance to parties involved in environmental and natural resource issues with particular emphasis on issues involving Native American and Alaska Native governments and communities. Ms. Palmer’s professional interests include creating and cultivating learning opportunities that deepen understanding, respect, communication and appreciation of the diverse approaches and attitudes of individuals, communities and governments.
• Franklin Paniagua was born in San Jose, Costa Rica. He went to law school and parallel to his studies did volunteer environmental work. In 1990, he began working at CEDARENA, the Environmental Law and Natural Resources Law Center, where he developed his professional career focus on coastal planning and legislation before turning to environmental conflict management. Based with CEDARENA, he coordinated the Mesoamerican Conflict Management Network—a broad group of organizations—in their use of collaborative approaches to natural resource management. Mr. Paniagua’s later work involved assessing and facilitating environmental conflicts throughout Latin American in places that he learned to love, such as the Araucania, Baja California, Galapagos, Petén and Acre. He is pursuing his Ph.D. at the University of Florida in Gainesville.
• Scott Parkey has served as the team lead for ADOT’s Data Warehouse Project for the past five years, helping to bring data, imagery, documents and other information into a single portal. He has also worked closely with ADOT’s Office of Environmental Services and is a member of the Information Management Storm Water Advisory Team. Mr. Parkey has a B.S. in management information systems from Purdue.
• Brian Patterson has served as president of United South and Eastern Tribes (USET) since 2006, a national Indian organization that represents 25 tribes east of the Mississippi River. He also served as chairman of USET’s Culture and Heritage Committee. He is a Bear Clan representative to the Oneida Indian Nation’s Men’s Council and Clan Mothers, the tribe’s governing body, responsible for directing policy for the Oneida Indian Nation of New York. In addition, he has been active in government-to-government consultations on a variety of issues, such as the Environmental Protection Agency, the federal Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and the Fort Drum Army Base. Mr. Patterson is the father of four children.
• Evan Paul is an associate at AmericaSpeaks and has helped lead the organization’s efforts to support recovery of the Gulf Coast from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and to enable large-scale collaboration in tackling climate change. He has previously presented to the 2006 EPP Section Conference of the ACR, the 2007 EPA Community Involvement Conference and the 2007 ACR Conference. Prior to working at AmericaSpeaks, Mr. Paul was an environmental campaigner for ForestEthics and the State PIRGs.
• Carolyn Penny, J.D., is director of Common Ground: Center for Cooperative Solutions at University of California at Davis Extension. A mediator and facilitator for more than 20 years, she has facilitated multistakeholder, collaborative problem solving for issues including transportation, species recovery, habitat planning, water quality, land use and public health. Among other projects, Common Ground serves as the USDA agricultural mediation program for California and offers continuing education courses and a certificate in conflict resolution.
• Ed Pert, Ph.D., is regional manager for the California DFG South Coast Region. He is also the Lake Davis incident commander/project manager. Prior to those positions, Dr. Pert was the fisheries science advisor and fisheries programs branch chief for the CDFG. He was an assistant professor in fisheries at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. He received a Ph.D. from Virginia Tech, a M.S. from U.C. Berkeley, and a B.S. from Humboldt State University.
• Dick Prather is a 1968 graduate of Northern Arizona University School of Forestry in Flagstaff, Ariz. He is a 36-year veteran of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). He is currently project manager for Western Oregon Plan Revisions. Mr. Prather was the team leader for the Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for Survey and Manage in 2001 and 2003. For 20 years, he was field manager in the Salem District. He was the chair of the Oregon and Washington BLM GIS Field Users Group for many years. He has previously worked in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and Coos Bay, Ore.

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• Ric Richardson is professor of community and regional planning at the University of New Mexico and has been dean of the School of Architecture and Planning, associate dean, and the director of the Community and Regional Planning Program. Before joining the UNM faculty, Mr. Richardson was commissioner of planning for the State of South Dakota, assistant director of planning for the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and a planning consultant in California. He is a senior associate with the Consensus Building Institute, the Lincoln Institute for Land Policy and the Public Disputes Program at the Harvard Law School.
• Holly Richter works for The Nature Conservancy as their Upper San Pedro program director. She represents the Conservancy within the Upper San Pedro Partnership, a consortium of 21 local, state and federal agencies and organizations including scientists, land managers and decision makers working to balance regional water needs between the San Pedro River and current and future residents. She was appointed to the Organizing Board of the Upper San Pedro Water District by Governor Napolitano in 2007 and is currently serving on the National Research Council Committee on Water Resources Activities at the U.S. Geological Survey. She also assists other partner agencies and organizations with coordination of cross-border conservation issues within the larger binational San Pedro watershed. Dr. Richter received her Ph.D. from Colorado State University, focusing on riparian ecosystem modeling.
• Greg Ridgley, Office of the New Mexico State Engineer (Biography not available)
• Tahnee Robertson, M.S., is a mediator and facilitator who has worked on a variety of natural resource management, watershed and community development issues in the U.S., as well as internationally, over the past 12 years. As a team-oriented practitioner, she seeks out and relies on a variety of online and other computer tools to facilitate easier and more effective collaboration with government agencies and other partners. She is the director of Tucson-based Southwest Decision Resources.
• Richard Roos-Collins is director of Legal Services at the Natural Heritage Institute (NHI). Since 1991, he has represented public agencies and nonprofit organizations in water and energy matters. He specializes in settlements and other cooperative solutions. He is a founder and a director of the Hydropower Reform Coalition (Washington, D.C.) and the Low Impact Hydropower Institute (Portland, Maine). Before joining NHI, he was attorney-adviser, Office of General Counsel, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (1986–1989) and deputy attorney general, California Department of Justice (1989–1991). He is a graduate of Harvard Law School (1986).
• Andy Rowe, Ph.D., designed the ECR process evaluation used by the USIECR and other agencies, the ECR results system used by EPA and Interior, and ADR evaluation systems for the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman office at the International Finance Commission and for ADR Alberta Department of Municipal Affairs. A former president of the Canadian Evaluation Society, he has a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics and works primarily in the U.S., Asia and the Pacific.
• Martha Rozelle, Ph.D., has 30 years experience in public policy development, third-party facilitation, process design and conflict resolution for a wide range of sensitive projects and environmental issues. Dr. Rozelle has facilitated a consensus of designed public participation strategies for more than 300 projects for public and private clients. She holds a doctorate in community management and education from Arizona State University, an M.S. in public administration from Florida State University, and a bachelor’s degree in political science from East Carolina University. She is founder and past-president of the International Association for Public Participation (IAPP).

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• Robin Saha, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Environmental Studies Program and School of Public and Community Health Sciences at the University of Montana. Dr. Saha’s research and scholarly interests are in the areas of collaborative environmental problem solving and environmental justice. He recently coauthored a national report, Toxic Waste and Race at Twenty, and he is currently conducting community-based participatory research projects on asthma and housing on Indian Reservations.
• Shari Schaftlein, M.S., APA, has been team lead for program/policy development in FHWA’s Project Development and Environmental Review Office for four years. For 11 years prior, she was with Washington State DOT’s Environmental Office, where she held the positions of water quality program manager, streamlining initiatives manager and deputy director. Ms. Schaftlein has also held environmental management positions with the West Michigan Environmental Action Council and the Quileute Tribe in La Push, Wash. She obtained a bachelor’s and master’s degree in environmental science from Indiana University.
• Matthew Schweisberg has a background in environmental regulation, enforcement and dispute resolution with 28 years of federal service. An experienced mediator and facilitator with the EPA New England Region’s ADR Program, he mediates environmental cases and facilitates both small and large group meetings and conferences. Mr. Schweisberg also serves as a lead mediator for EEO cases for the shared neutrals program operated by the Greater Boston Federal Executive Board.
• Paul Semmer is a community planner for the White River National Forest on the Dillon Ranger District in Silverthorne, Colo. Since 1996, he has served as the primary contact in planning, programming and implementation of district-wide land adjustments, land classification, special uses and minerals management. Prior to working with the Forest Service, Mr. Semmer was a recreation planner for Summit County government in 1984. At that time, he was instrumental in the development of the countywide recreational trail system and review of development proposals for community recreation needs. Mr. Semmer has a B.S. in parks and recreation administration and graduate studies in natural resources planning from Colorado State University in Fort Collins.
• John Senn is based in EPA’s New York City office (Region 2), where he works on Superfund community involvement, climate and general outreach issues. Mr. Senn helps manage, provide content for and design the region’s Web site, including a media center with some of the agency’s first audio podcasts. He holds a certificate in natural resources conflict resolution from the University of Montana and helped develop a collaborative report on strategies to improve agricultural policies in Montana.
• Cherie Shanteau-Wheeler is a senior mediator/senior program manager with the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution. Prior to that, she practiced law and mediated disputes for more than 18 years. At the USIECR, her program responsibilities include administrative proceedings, escalated disputes, litigated matters and courts. In addition to case consultation and management, she provides program design, convening and process management services, mediation and facilitation, as well as environmental conflict resolution and negotiation training. She teaches mediation, negotiation (including complex multiparty negotiation), collaborative competencies, conflict prevention and management skills, and communication. She is additionally qualified to administer the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator©.
• Susan Sherry is the executive director of the Center for Collaborative Policy at California State University, Sacramento. Ms. Sherry founded the Center, a self-supporting unit of the University, in 1992 with herself and a half-time student assistant. The Center, with its 20 employees and 30 consultants, now serves almost all regions of California. The Center specializes in multiparty consensus building on "wicked" policy issues, community and public agency strategic planning and change management, as well as civic engagement on emerging and controversial issues.
• Billy Shott’s work has allowed him to train groups on topics including search and rescue, legal process, policy development, ethics, law enforcement, emergency management and risk assessment as it relates to diverse and dynamic operations. Mr. Shott’s expertise and responsibilities have given him a unique opportunity to see the risks, conflicts and successes prevalent in these operations. With a master’s in allied health/therapy, he’s a branch chief and has been with NPS for 13 years.
• Joseph Siegel, J.D., is an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) specialist and senior attorney with the Region 2 office of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. In addition to ADR, his area of specialty at EPA is air pollution law, and he has worked on enforcement and policy issues for the Agency for more than 20 years. Since 2000, he has been an adjunct professor at Pace University School of Law, Center for Environmental Legal Studies, where he teaches a seminar on air pollution, climate change and emissions trading. He also taught environmental law for 11 years at CUNY Law School at Queens College and incorporates environmental dispute resolution simulations into his teaching.
• Matt Skroch is dedicated to connecting science with grassroots organizing and public advocacy, using principles of conservation biology to form the framework of a conservation formula that places emphasis on public participation. His expertise is public lands conservation policy, having managed multiple campaigns focused on the protection of federally designated Wilderness Areas, critical wildlife linkages and imperiled species throughout the Sky Island region of North America. In 2007, Mr. Skroch was publicly recognized as an Environmental Hero in the greater Tucson area. In addition to his capacities at Sky Island Alliance, he also serves on the board of directors for the Arizona Wilderness Coalition (President), Congressman Grijalva’s (AZ-07) Environmental Advisory Team and Governor Janet Napolitano's Forest Health Advisory Team.
• Carolyna Smiley-Marquez specializes in conflict resolution and group facilitation when cross-cultural issues, diversity or discrimination may be factors. Dr. Smiley-Marquez has 22 years experience facilitating and mediating two-party and multiparty conflicts with private and public employers, labor unions, community groups and nonprofit organizations, including the Bureaus of Land Management, Reclamation and Indian Affairs; the National Park Service; Rocky Flats; and the Kaibob-Paiute Tribe.
• Abe Springer is an associate professor of geology in the Department of Geology at Northern Arizona University (NAU), and he is the NAU water coordinator for the Arizona Water Institute. In the fall of 2007, he was the Fulbright Visiting Chair of Water and Environment at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, studying the ecohydrology of springs of western Canada. He received his B.A. in geology from the College of Wooster and his M.S. and Ph.D. in hydrogeology from The Ohio State University. Dr. Springer and his students study local and regional groundwater flow systems and human impacts on them, apply principles of sustainability to aquifer management through models, quantify the hydrological function of groundwater dominated ecosystems, and study the role of land-use change and disturbance on groundwater flow systems and restoration of riparian ecosystems. With colleagues, he has developed a new, comprehensive spring classification system.
• Susan Springer has more than 20 years of experience in facilitation, mediation, public involvement and community relations. She specializes in environmental, transportation and community-planning projects. Ms. Springer is a certified mediator in accordance with the Texas Alternative Dispute Resolution Act and received her training at the Center for Public Policy Dispute Resolution at the University of Texas School of Law. She lives in the Texas Hill Country, between Austin and San Antonio, Texas, with her husband David.
• John B. Stephens, Ph.D., teaches, writes and practices public dispute resolution for North Carolina state and local government officials at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is author of the Guidebook to Public Dispute Resolution in North Carolina and coauthor of Reaching for Higher Ground in Conflict Resolution (Jossey-Bass, 2000). Most recently, he wrote “Consensus Building and Leadership” for a National Academy of Public Administration publication. He has a Ph.D. in conflict analysis and resolution from George Mason University.
• Peta Stilgoe has more than 20 years experience as a litigation lawyer and is also a trained mediator. She has experience in a wide range of litigation work. In 2007, Ms. Stilgoe became the registrar of the Planning & Environment Court, assisting the workflow of the Court judges and facilitating greater use of assisted dispute resolution mechanisms. She holds a Bachelor of Laws from the Queensland Institute of Technology and a Master of Laws degree from the London University.
• Michele Straube has more than 25 years experience in environmental and natural resource issues as a regulator, private attorney, policy consultant and third party neutral. She designs and facilitates collaborative decision-making and stakeholder engagement processes. She created and teaches an environmental dispute resolution course taken by graduate level engineering, urban planning and law students. She has experience working with stakeholders and computer models to promote collaboration.

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• Ione Taylor is chief scientist, Eastern Region, USGS, and, prior to this, was deputy regional director, involved with DOI partners in bringing science into natural resource decision-making. She joined USGS in 1999 as team chief scientist, Eastern Energy Resources, managing projects in fossil fuels and environmental/health impacts of resource extraction. Previously, she spent 14 years in technical, management and leadership positions in the energy industry. Dr. Taylor holds a B.S. in chemistry and an M.S. and Ph.D. in geology.
• Douglas Thompson, senior mediator and director of the Environmental Practice Group for The Keystone Center, has a background in environmental protection, dispute resolution and management. He spent more than 25 years with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency serving, among other things, as chief of wetland protection, chief of water enforcement, senior mediator with EPA’s New England dispute resolution program and, on special assignment, program associate to the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution.
• Jessica Leigh Thompson’s graduate work included conducting a collaborative modeling process to explore 1) urban air quality science and policy options with community stakeholders, 2) interdisciplinary research team dynamics (Ph.D. in communication, University of Utah, 2007) and 3) an investigation of public understanding of risk and science related to air quality (M.S. in communication, University of Utah, 2003). She recently finished her first book, Interdisciplinary Research Team Dynamics: A Systems Approach to Communication and Collaboration in Complex Teams.
• Elissa Tonkin, an experienced mediator with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Boston office, has served as director of EPA’s premier Regional ADR Program since 1995. Previously, she has worked as a civil litigator in private practice and as an EPA manager and case lawyer. She is a graduate of Amherst College and the University of Michigan Law School.
• Christine Turner, Ph.D., spent much of her career with the U.S. Geological Survey as a research geologist working in the Colorado Plateau region. She is now engaged in public policy matters at the USGS, particularly linking science more effectively to natural resource decision-making. She is project lead for FRAME (Framing Research in support of the Adaptive Management of Ecosystems). The FRAME project strategy is to couple the adaptive capabilities of the USGS Modular Modeling System (MMS) with accepted principles of collaboration. Dr. Turner earned her B.A. in geology from the College of William and Mary, her M.S. in geology from Northern Arizona University and her Ph.D. in geology from the University of Colorado.

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• Marie Venner, ICF International, (Biography unavailable)

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• Debra Whitall, Ph.D., currently works in Washington, D.C., as a social scientist with the Forest Service National Partnership Office. She earned her Ph.D. in public administration and policy from Portland State University and has worked for the Forest Service 27 years. She has worked extensively in California and Oregon, as well as a year in S.E. Australia. She has held various positions from hydrologist and soil scientist to monitoring and appeals coordinator and policy analyst.
• Rich Whitley has worked for the Bureau of Land Management for the last 31 years. He has worked at all levels of the organization from range conservationist/wildlife biologist to associate state director. His last couple of years as executive liaison for citizen stewardship and adaptive management have been the most satisfying of his career, working with people to solve natural resource problems and supporting sustainable communities. He also serves on the board of the Southern Oregon Land Conservancy, the Ashland School District Project Advisory Committee and the Community Dialogue Committee, and has assisted the school district and two local NGO’s in developing strategic plans.
• Janice Whitney, J.D., obtained her law degree from U.M. in 1980. She received NYS certification as a Unified Court System dispute resolution mediator in 1994. She also has ADR certificates from Harvard University, the American Arbitration Association, the Environmental Law Institute and the U.S. Department of State Foreign Service Institute. She is an author published by Cambridge University, England; an advisor, liaison to Haudenosaunee; on Detail with EPA Administrator Browner; a teacher, trainer; and a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
• Byron Kenneth Williams is chief, Cooperative Research Units, USGS, where he oversees a national program of research units at 40 universities in 38 states. He served as executive director, North American Waterfowl and Wetlands Office, USFWS; leader of Vermont Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, University of Vermont; assistant chief, Office of Migratory Bird Management, USFWS; and in science and management positions at USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. He holds M.S. degrees in mathematics and statistics, a Ph.D. in natural resources ecology and is lead author of “DOI Adaptive Management Technical Guide.”
• Greg Wolf worked for seven years as the community policy advisor for Oregon Governor Kitzhaber. In this capacity, he had primary responsibility for programs in the Departments of Transportation, Economic Development, Land Conservation, and Development and Housing. He also served as the Governor's sustainability and dispute resolution advisor. Mr. Wolf brings 23 years of experience working in state and local government and expertise in consensus processes. He cofounded Oregon's Dispute Resolution Program in 1989.

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• Linda Ximenes, third party neutral collaborator and founder of Ximenes & Associates, Inc., specializes in public relations and organizational development. Ms. Ximenes is experienced in designing and conducting innovative activities to increase community participation in the study process. She acts as a liaison between project teams and the local community within and around the study area and coordinating bilingual informational services in San Antonio, Texas.

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