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The CONCUR Team

CONCUR has worked as a carefully organized team since 1987. John K. Gamman, Ph.D. heads CONCUR's Santa Cruz office. Scott T. McCreary, Ph.D. is in charge of the Berkeley office. John and Scott have created a team of Senior and Associate facilitators and mediators to meet the needs of any specific project or client. All of CONCUR's Senior and Associate facilitators and mediators are highly skilled in integrating the fields of policy analysis, natural resource management and conflict resolution.

Doctors Gamman and McCreary have worked to resolve environmental disputes in the United States, Eastern and Central Europe, Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America and the South Pacific (click here for a summary of CONCUR's project work). The following biographical sketches provide an overview of John and Scotts' training and professional experience, as well as that of the CONCUR Associates. Detailed information about their qualifications is available by contacting either our Berkeley or Santa Cruz offices.


Berkeley Office

Santa Cruz Office

New York Office

   
   
   

John K. Gamman, Ph.D., Principal-In-Charge, Santa Cruz Office

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

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Scott T. McCreary, Ph.D., Principal-In-Charge, Berkeley Office

Scott McCreary received his doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Urban and Regional Planning with an emphasis in environmental policy and dispute resolution. Dr. McCreary previously earned a Master's Degree in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning from the University of California at Berkeley.

At CONCUR, Dr. McCreary serves as a senior mediator, strategic planner, and policy analyst. He has managed over 30 major multiparty projects, many of multiple year duration. This suite of projects has included dozens of negotiation participants across the spectrum of public and private organizations active in environmental decision making. Examples of these parties include CALFED Bay-Delta Program, USEPA, the Santa Clara Valley Water District, other large urban and agricultural water districts, the City of San Jose Redevelopment Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers, defense contractors the California Public Utilities Commission, Pacific Gas and Electric, the National Marine Fisheries Service and US Fish and Wildlife Service, Environmental Defense, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Bay Institute. He has conducted strategic planning assignments for the nonprofits and environmental sectors, including the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Friends of the River, and consortia of international donor agencies and universities involved in sustainable development.

Dr. McCreary serves as lead instructor for CONCUR courses taught at the Clark Kerr campus. He has taught semester-length courses in environmental planning and conflict resolution at UC Berkeley and over 50 specialized training courses in negotiation and dispute resolution. He has designed and taught these courses in Australia, New Zealand, Barbados, the United Kingdom, Canada, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Israel. His international work also includes assignments in Ecuador, Senegal, Taiwan, and Japan. Dr. McCreary has authored over 40 publications including "Resolving Science-Intensive Disputes: Reflections on the New York Bight Initiative" in the Consensus Building Handbook (1999), the book Institutional Arrangements for Managing Coastal Resources and Environments (1990), and chapters in Democratic Design for the Pacific Rim (1999), Collaborative Planning for Wetlands and Wildlife: Issues and Examples (1995) and Managing Land Use Conflict: Case Studies in Special Area Management (1987). He serves 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, Cultural Survival Quarterly, and Oceanus. Dr. McCreary is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, the Association for Conflict Resolution and a member of the Roster of Mediators maintained by the US Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution. 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 a Program Manager at the California State Coastal Conservancy.

Click Here for a PDF of Scott McCreary's Full CV

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Associates

Bennett Brooks, M.P.P., Senior Associate, New York Office

Senior Associate Bennett Brooks heads up CONCUR's New York City office. Bennett is an integral part of the CONCUR team, serving as lead staff on several of the firm's largest projects, currently including the Alaskan Way Viaduct project in Seattle. He is involved in all facets of CONCUR's work, including mediation, facilitation, strategic planning and joint fact-finding, and he is adept at working with senior policy makers. Bennett's project work has included facilitating collaborative dialogues on complex water resource conflicts, public financing, military base reuse and ecosystem restoration issues. He has also managed and facilitated several high-profile independent review panels. Since joining the firm in 1998, Bennett has co-designed and taught more than 15 negotiation/mediation training courses. Trainings emphasize theory, skills and processes necessary to participate in and/or design mutual-gains bargaining initiatives. Before joining CONCUR, Bennett worked as a senior trade and economic development official in the Alaskan government. He also worked as a journalist in the New York metropolitan area and in Asia. Bennett earned his Master's Degree in Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he specialized in housing and economic development.

Click Here for a PDF of Bennett Brooks' Full CV

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Rebecca (Becky) Tuden, M.P.P., Associate, Berkeley Office

Becky has considerable experience facilitating diverse stakeholder groups involving topics related to water quality, habitat and natural resource issues. Her skills include facilitation, strategic planning, regulatory and policy analysis, problem-solving and technical research. She has worked in local, state and federal government and worked for the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for 17 years before joining CONCUR. Becky is now working on the California Marine Life Protection Act Initiative (MLPA) and the Abalone Advisory Group process, and supports the full range of CONCUR projects, trainings, and other initiatives.

Becky has a diverse background involving water quality, habitat, wetlands, groundwater, marine and estuarine issues. In particular, she has directed problem-solving meetings involving local, state and federal regulators, facilitated complex stakeholder dialogues on watershed protection plans and negotiated conflicts on sensitive habitat and resource issues. Becky's recent projects include reaching agreement on an implementation plan in the Tomales Bay watershed to reduce nutrient and pathogen polluted runoff from private homeowners and agricultural landowners. She also also initiated and designed an ad-hoc Task Force for addressing boating and marina needs in Tomales Bay. This effort conducted a joint fact-finding project evaluating the patterns of use for recreational and commercial boaters and their mooring needs and balanced those uses with concerns associated with sensitive benthic habitats, seal haul-out areas and other natural resource issues.

Becky earned her Master's Degree in Public Policy at UC Berkeley's School of Public Policy, where she specialized in environmental policy. Becky has a B.A. in Economics from Tufts University (with a year spent at the London School of Economics). She also completed undergraduate work in environmental science at the University of Pittsburgh.

Click Here for a PDF of Becky Tuden's Full CV

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Rebecca Bryson, M.P.P., Associate, Berkeley Office

Rebecca has played a key role in many of CONCUR's most important cases, and served as an instructor in over a dozen training courses. Most recently, she and Scott McCreary worked together on the Port of Oakland Maritime Air Quality Improvement Plan. She and Scott previously co-facilitated the Guadalupe River Flood Control Project Collaborative, which produced a settlement agreement and Record of Decision to enable completion of the flood control project, restoration of salmon habitat, and creation of a major recreational corridor. She also co-facilitated, with Principal John Gamman, the Santa Clara Valley Water Resources Protection Collaborative, which included representatives from Santa Clara County, 15 cities, the Santa Clara Valley Water District, and several environmental groups to develop and implement a set of jointly agreed upon Guidelines and Standards to address water and water resource protection in the County. She also co-facilitated the Clean Estuary Partnership, a partnership between the Regional Water Board, industry dischargers and several environmental groups designed to improve water quality in the San Francisco Bay.

In addition, Rebecca co-facilitated a convening and independent scientific review process for the North Coast Regional Water Board. The project examined the relationship between timber harvesting by Pacific Lumber company and impacts on beneficial uses in five watersheds in Humboldt County impaired by logging and human settlement patterns. At CONCUR, Rebecca has also developed and taught professional training courses on mediation, negotiation and facilitation.

Prior to joining CONCUR, she was a consultant to the World Bank in Private Sector Advisory Services where she worked with government officials and business leaders to develop private sector legal and regulatory reform strategies designed to improve the governance, accountability and business ethics of firms in Asia and Africa. She has worked internationally in China, South Africa, Botswana, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Taiwan. Rebecca earned her B.A. in International Relations at Stanford University and has a Master in Public Policy from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

Click Here for a PDF of Rebecca Bryson's Full CV

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Office Administration

Amy LeBlanc, B.A., Office Manager & Training Coordinator, Berkeley Office

Amy manages the administrative aspects of the Berkeley and Santa Cruz offices, including website design, vendor and client accounts, and information technology management. Amy supports all ongoing projects and initiatives at CONCUR. As Training Coordinator, she coordinates the firm's training courses at UC Berkeley's Clark Kerr campus and contributes to the development of curriculum materials for CONCUR's customized training program. Amy holds a B.A. in English Language and Literature from the University of Michigan.

Click Here for a PDF of Amy LeBlanc's Full CV

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Interns and Fellows

Gia Brazil, Intern, Berkeley Office

Gia Brazil recently joined CONCUR, serving as the Fall 2009 intern. She is active in the full range of CONCUR projects, in water and marine resources, transportation infrastructure, renewable energy, climate change adaptation, air quality, and fisheries management, as well as our training courses.

Gia earned her Master's Degree in Environmental Science and Management from the Donald Bren School (University of California, Santa Barbara) specializing in Coastal Marine Resources Management and Corporate Environmental Management. She holds a B.A. in Biology and a B.A. in Environmental Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Gia has more than 10 years experience in the environmental sciences working for a large consulting firm, and for local and state governments. She has engaged a wide array of organizations and has expertise in the management, coordination, and technical implementation of projects in the areas of environmental compliance, sustainability, and waste efficiency. She has participated in several trainings on environmental facilitation, negotiation and conflict resolution.

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To learn about career opportunities at CONCUR, please visit our employment page.