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The CONCUR Team
Scott T. McCreary, Ph.D., Principal, Berkeley OfficeAt CONCUR, Dr. McCreary serves as a senior mediator, strategic planner, and policy analyst and has led some of the most complex environmental policy negotiations in the United States. He has managed more than 80 major multiparty projects, many of multiple year duration. This suite of projects has included hundreds of negotiation participants across the spectrum of public and private organizations active in environmental decision-making. These parties include USEPA, NOAA-NMFS, Army Corps of Engineers, USBOR, US Forest Service, Department of Defense, US Fish and Wildlife Service, CALFED Bay-Delta Program, the Santa Clara Valley Water District, the California Public Utilities Commission, Pacific Gas and Electric, Port of Oakland, State of Washington Department of Transportation, Columbia River Gorge Commission and the Hawaii Longline Association, as well as the Environmental Defense Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, the Natural Heritage Foundation and the Ocean Conservancy. Dr. McCreary has convened and facilitated a dozen independent scientific review panels. He has conducted strategic planning assignments for the NSF EPSCoR Projects in Nevada, South Dakota and Mississippi. His strategic planning work also includes assignments for the nonprofits sectors for the Bullitt Foundation, the Johnson Foundation at Wingspread, the Hewlett Foundation, and consortia of international donor agencies and universities involved in sustainable development.
Dr. McCreary
serves as lead instructor for CONCUR training
courses taught at the Clark Kerr campus. He has taught semester-length
courses in environmental planning and conflict resolution at UC Berkeley
and more than 70 specialized training courses in negotiation and dispute
resolution. He has designed and taught courses in Australia, New Zealand,
Barbados, the United Kingdom, Canada, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Israel. His
international
work has included assignments in Trinidad, Ecuador, Senegal, Botswana,
Angola, Namibia, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea.
Dr. McCreary has authored or co-authored more than 40 publications
including "Science-Based
and Stakeholder-driven Marine Protected Area Network Planning: A Successful
Case Study from north central California" (2010), "Refining
and Testing Joint Fact-Finding for Environmental Dispute Resolution:
Ten Years of Success" (2001) and "Resolving Science-Intensive
Disputes: Reflections on the New York Bight Initiative" in
the Consensus Building Handbook (1999). He served on the
Editorial Board of Coastal Management Journal and has
published articles in the Journal of the American Planning Association,
Environmental Impact Assessment Review, Risk Assessment,
and Cultural Survival Quarterly.
Dr. McCreary is a member of a the Roster of Mediators maintained by the US Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution and the Roster of Senior Mediators maintained by the Oregon Dispute Resolution Council. Before forming CONCUR with Dr. Gamman, Scott held research appointments at the MIT-Harvard Public Disputes Program, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and the UC Berkeley Center for Environmental Design Research, and served as Program Manager at the California State Coastal Conservancy. Scott McCreary received his doctorate from MIT in Urban and Regional Planning with an emphasis in environmental policy and dispute resolution. He previously earned a Master's Degree in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning from the University of California at Berkeley and a B.A. in Biology and Environmental Planning from UC Santa Cruz (highest honors). Click Here for a PDF of Scott McCreary's Full CV John K. Gamman, Ph.D., Principal (on leave)Dr. Gamman earned his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the field of Environmental Planning and Policy Analysis with a concentration in conflict resolution, environmental policy implementation and cross-cultural communication. John also received a Master's Degree in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he focused on organizational development and institutional behavior, and a BA from UC Santa Cruz in Environmental Studies/Natural Resource Planning and Analysis (summa cum laude). As a partner in the CONCUR firm, Dr. Gamman works as a senior mediator, strategic planner, policy analyst and trainer. His most recent work includes managing and co-facilitating statewide projects in California for the State Resources Agency on the options for decommissioning the State's offshore oil and gas rigs and for the California Ocean Protection Council on development of a new collaborative fisheries research program. John has designed and led facilitated negotiations and mediations on a range of large-scale environmental policy projects and programs, all involving complex issues, many stakeholders and parallel structured joint fact-finding processes. Clients have included agencies of federal, state and local government, such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Minerals Management Service, the California Attorney General, California Water Quality Control Board, the Santa Clara Valley Water District, private clients from the oil, chemical and electronics industries, and community and environmental organizations such as the Sierra Summit and Friends of the River. Dr. Gamman's international clients include the U.S. Agency for International Development, New Zealand's Ministry of the Environment, the Canberrra Institute for Resource Management and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States. Dr. Gamman's work with the U.S. Agency for International Development focused on one of the first attempts to use mediation and conflict resolution practices to improve the quality of overseas development projects. His book, Overcoming Obstacles in Environmental Policymaking: Creating Partnerships Through Mediation, was published in 1994 and is available through CONCUR's publications. Prior to his partnership with Dr. McCreary in CONCUR, from 1974 to 1985, Dr. Gamman worked as a consultant for public agencies and private clients on a range of industrial, commercial, residential and public works projects to integrate environmental protection and economic development strategies. Dr. Gamman has earned numerous awards, fellowships and citations for professional and academic achievement and community service. In 2008 John was named by the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board to the roster of the international Senior Specialists Program, enabling him to work with partnering academic and governmental institutions on national and regional environmental conflicts. Dr. Gamman holds dual citizenship in the United States and the European Community. Click Here for a PDF of John Gamman's Full CV Rebecca Bryson, M.P.P., AssociateRebecca has played a key role in many of CONCUR's most important cases over the past 12 years - most of them involving watersheds and water resources - and served as an instructor in over a dozen training courses.
At CONCUR, Rebecca has also developed and taught training courses on mediation, negotiation and facilitation for public audiences, PG&E, and the State and Regional Water Quality Control Boards. Click Here for a PDF of Rebecca Bryson's Full CV Megan Vinett, M.S., AssociateMegan Vinett recently joined CONCUR as an Associate. She previously worked for CONCUR as our Summer-Fall 2010 intern. She will be active in the full range of CONCUR projects, including water and marine resources, land use, transportation infrastructure, renewable energy, climate change adaptation, and fisheries management. Megan will also be active in designing and executing our training courses and research inquiries. Megan received her Master's in Conflict and Dispute Resolution at The University of Oregon in 2011. Coursework included Environmental Conflict Resolution, Water and the Urban Environment through the University's Department of Planning, Public Policy and Management, and the Water Governance and Conflict Management capstone class for the Oregon State University Graduate Certificate in Water Conflict Management program. Her graduate terminal project work assessing the different types of conflicts associated with exempt wells and how the collaborative decision making processes and water governance systems can lead to successful water management and conflict resolution was published as the article "Conflicts Associated with Exempt Wells: A Spaghetti Western Water War" in the Universities Council on Water Resources Journal for Contemporary Water Research and Education, Issue 148. She earned her Bachelor's Degree in Studio Art from The University of Tennessee where she specialized in sculpture. Click Here for a PDF of Megan Vinett's Full CV Meredith Cowart is involved in the full range of CONCUR projects, training courses, and research inquiries, including CONCUR's current work examining ways to strengthen Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning and to apply Joint Fact Finding techniques in new arenas. Her professional and educational background lies at the nexus of the scientific, human and economic dimensions of natural resources management. When not at CONCUR, Meredith conducts research and analysis in biomass energy and forestry issues for The Irland Group. Meredith is a recent graduate of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (Master of Forestry, 2011), where she studied the biophysical sciences, particularly forestry and soil science, at the intersection of community and economic development. Her deep interest in the theory and application of the social sciences to natural resource management issues flourished while taking several classes including Foundations of Natural Resource Policy and Management, Palo Verde, Costa Rica: Advanced Social Science Research Methods and Practice, and Management Plans for Protected Areas. Her studies in quantitative data collection and statistical analysis were put to good use in her Master's thesis on Shade and Management Effects on Soil Carbon Fractions in Organic and Conventional Coffee Agroforestry Systems in Costa Rica. She was pleased to apply these studies and gain further community development and on-the-ground forest management experience while working for the Yale Myers Forest (YMF), both helping build the successful Yale Myers Forestland Partnership and while marking timber as a YMF forest apprentice. Meredith's studies at Yale built upon her degree in Government, with a focus on international development, earned at Wesleyan University (BA, 2005).
Violetta has joined CONCUR as an intern and will be involved in the full range of CONCUR projects, training courses and research initiatives. Violetta Pristel is a master's candidate in coastal and watershed science and policy at California State University, Monterey Bay and holds a BS in biochemistry from the University of Melbourne, Australia. Her coursework has included environmental modeling and remote sensing to assess a variety of resource management issues. She is interested in sustainable development, particularly the water conflicts which arise from urban and rural development. Violetta's master's thesis involves developing an alternative compliance framework for stormwater management in the Central Coast Region and will recommend a methodology to help municipalities in the Region develop stormwater fee-in-lieu programs. She has previously interned at UNESCO's water and sustainable development division and has worked in wine production and vineyard management.
CONCUR AffiliatesCONCUR is building a Roster of Affiliates who will team with our core staff on case-specific opportunities to engage and resolve high-stakes environmental issues and organizational challenges. We choose Affiliates based on a commitment to collaboration, rigorous application of best practices in environmental and public policy dispute resolution, strong dual substantive expertise in science and policy, excellent communication skills, and compatible sensibilities in approaching challenging projects. With our Affiliates, we can form teams to respond to the unique needs of each client and project. .::. Senior Affiliate Bennett Brooks is a highly experienced practitioner who specializes in mediating and facilitating a wide range of public policy disputes. Bennett is adept at working with senior policy makers, and he puts a premium on structuring dialogues that forge understanding among parties with diverse viewpoints and backgrounds. He is teaming with CONCUR to develop new initiatives in the areas of fisheries and oceans, water resources management, food systems, and climate change adaptation. Bennett's work has encompassed a wide array of projects - from fisheries, water resource conflicts and transportation, to ecosystem restoration, military base reuse issues and economic development - and he has led or co-facilitated more than three dozen stakeholder dialogues ranging in length from single-day meetings to multi-year deliberations. For the past five years, Bennett has facilitated a series of consensus agreements among fishermen, conservationists, researchers, biologists and others on a suite of actions intended to reduce the incidental bycatch of marine mammals in several U.S. commercial fisheries. He has also co-facilitated a series of high-profile, high-stakes expert panels intended to resolve controversial issues related to water conservation potential, agricultural water measurement and public finance. Bennett is based in New York City and currently works as a Senior Mediator with the Consensus Building Institute. He served as a Senior Associate with CONCUR from 1998 to 2012. Bennett is a member of both the US Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution's Roster of Mediators and the Roster of Senior Mediators maintained by the Oregon Dispute Resolution Council. Bennett earned his Master's Degree in Public Policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and holds a B.A. in Political Science from Tufts University. .::.
Dr. Raab has served as lead facilitator/mediator for many cutting edge energy and environmental related stakeholder processes, including Northeast Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), New England Demand Response Initiative (NEDRI), Cape Wind Stakeholder Process, Renewable Portfolio Standard rulemakings, Energy Efficiency System Benefits Charge (SBC) Collaboratives, and the greenhouse gas stakeholder processes for Maine, City of Boston, and Rhode Island (which received US EPA's Outstanding Climate Protection Award in 2005). Dr. Raab was the lead consultant/facilitator for Tennessee Governor Bredesen's Energy Policy Task Force and for Alberta's Electricity Market Participant Rules Committee. He was also retained by California to evaluate the stakeholder process used to implement its landmark Marine Life Protection Act. Prior to starting Raab Associates, Dr. Raab was the Assistant Director of the Electric Power Division at the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities. He has a Ph.D. from MIT (Energy and Environmental Policy, and Resource Economics), an M.S. from Stanford's Civil Engineering Department (Infrastructure Planning and Management), and an A.B. (distinction) in Social Sciences also from Stanford. Dr. Raab has taught the Energy Policies for a Sustainable Future course at MIT for 5 years, and has run the New England Electric Restructuring Roundtable for over 15 years. For further information, see raabassociates.org. .::. Peter Bluhon brings deep experience in urban planning and design, and coupled with extensive facilitation expertise to CONCUR's Affiliate Roster. He has worked with CONCUR for 15 years on projects involving Delta water supply and habitat restoration, marine spatial planning, coastal land use planning, urban park design and programming, and university investment in climate change education and research. In his 20 years of practice Peter has applied consensus building and negotiation principles to resolve complex urban and environmental planning projects in California and Europe. He is both a practicing urban designer and facilitator. His practice, Bluhon Collaborative Solutions, provides public involvement, facilitation, and mediation services to public agencies in site planning, land use planning, and urban development. Peter has applied his design expertise in facilitating many public design charrettes and workshops. He has also lead strategic planning sessions for city- and regional-scale policy initiatives, such as infrastructure funding and biodiversity protection. Mr. Bluhon was process designer and facilitator/mediator on a series of site-specific projects and policy initiatives - all constructed or implemented. These include a new 36-unit Habitat for Humanity affordable housing project in the municipality of Redwood City, California; design and programming of Kaiser Permanente's new $350 million Oakland Medical Center; an $80 million sales tax initiative for multi-modal transportation funding along Highway 101 in Marin County, California. He was also engaged in process design and convening for the Danube River Strategy in Budapest Hungary, as part of the eight-nation EU Strategy for the Danube Region. Mr. Bluhon maintains a separate landscape architecture practice. He has a B.A. in Philosophy from Pomona College and a Master's in Landscape Architecture at U.C. Berkeley's College of Environmental Design. .::. Dr. Eileen F. Babbitt is Professor of International Conflict Management Practice, Director of the International Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Program and co-director of the Program on Human Rights and Conflict Resolution at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy Tufts University. She is also a Faculty Associate of the Program on Negotiation at the Harvard Law School. Her research and policy interests include identity-based conflicts; coexistence and trust-building in the aftermath of civil war; and the interface between human rights concerns and peacebuilding. Her 20+ years of practice as a facilitator, mediator, and trainer has included work in the Middle East and the Balkans, and with the United Nations (UNDP, UNHCR, UNAMI), U.S. government agencies, regional inter-governmental organizations, and international and local NGOs. Before joining the Fletcher faculty, Professor Babbitt was Director of Education and Training at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C. and Deputy Director of the Program on International Conflict Analysis and Resolution at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University. She has also had extensive experience as a facilitator and trainer in U.S. environmental and public policy disputes, working for Endispute, Inc. on facility siting and regulatory negotiations. Professor Babbitt's latest publications include Human Rights and Conflict Resolution in Context: Colombia, Sierra Leone, and Northern Ireland (2009), co-edited with Ellen Lutz and published by Syracuse University Press; and Negotiating Self-Determination (2007), co-edited with Hurst Hannum and published by Lexington Books. Dr. Babbitt holds a a Ph.D. from MIT and a Master's Degree in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She also holds a Master's degree in Public Health from UC Berkeley. .::. Michael DeLapa/DeLapa Consulting is an independent consultant who specializes in managing public and private environmental initiatives. In 2005-6 DeLapa and CONCUR collaborated on the California Marine Life Protection Act Initiative, which established the first network of marine protected areas in the United States. His more recent assignments include interim chief operating officer of New Leaf Paper, the leading distributor of recycled paper; interim vice president of marketing for the Cleantech Group, a cleantech research firm; and executive coach and facilitator to Mal Warwick Associates/Donordigital, an online direct marketing and fundraising firm. Previously, he helped launch and manage a number of business and nonprofit ventures, including the California Fisheries Fund, a $5M revolving loan fund to support sustainable fisheries; the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, a "community foundation" for the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary; and Sea Studios Foundation, a nonprofit natural history television production organization. Michael received his Master of Business Administration degree and Public Management credential from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and its Public Management Program. He also holds Master of Science and Bachelor of Science degrees in biology from Stanford University. For further information, see www.mdelapa.com. .::. Ralph A. Qualls, Jr. P.E. During his tenure as Director of Public Works for San Jose and Cupertino, Ralph worked with CONCUR on several projects, most notably helping to create multi-party agreements for the Guadalupe River Flood Control Project and the Santa Clara Valley Water Resources Protection Collaborative. In the case of the Guadalupe River, Ralph was instrumental in helping parties find a cost-effective flood control solution that also enhanced habitat enhancement and recreation needs of the river corridor.
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Stewart received mediation and facilitation training from the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution (Certificate for Collaborative Skills for Environmental Leaders), the United States District Court Northern District of California Alternative Dispute Resolution Program, and the California Court of Appeal ADR Program. He also assists in teaching mediation skills to new members of the court's programs. Stewart served for several years as Chief of Complex Litigation in the City Attorney's Office for San Francisco. He graduated from UC Hastings College of Law in 1974, and from UC Berkeley with a B.A. in Political Science in 1971.
To learn about career opportunities at CONCUR, please visit our employment page.
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