Environmental Conflict Management

Dr. Tracylee Clarke is currently an associate professor and chair of the Communication Program at California State University Channel Islands. Her current research and teaching interests include environmental communication and conflict management, collaborative decision-making and policy development, the intersections of narrative, culture, identity and conflict, and the role of dialogue in conflict prevention and resolution. She is a member of US Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution, Morris K. Udall Foundation and teaches a course for the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, Pepperdine School of Law. Dr. Clarke worked as an environmental mediator and policy analyst and has over 18 years of experience in environmental conflict management and collaborative policy development. She has managed and directed large, complex stakeholder processes and mediations for federal, state, local and tribal governments as well as private industry. Controversial issues she has mediated include natural resource management, land use, endangered species protection, water supply and water quality, transportation, energy development and toxic remediation and clean up. As an environmental consultant she has also designed and conducted professional training workshops for governmental officials and environmental managers to enhance collaborative problem solving, negotiation skills and communication competency. Dr. Clarke holds a MA in Communication from the Edward. R. Murrow School of Communication at Washington State University and Ph.D. in Environmental Communication from the University of Utah. She is also certified as a professional mediator.

Dr. Tarla Rai Peterson is a professor of Communication at the University of Texas, El Paso. She also serves as a guest professor of Environmental Communication at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and as an Adjunct Professor of Communication at the University of Utah. Dr. Peterson has published several books on communication, technology and the environment as well as numerous research articles on environmental conflict and public participation in environmental policy-making. Her research program explores how the intersections between communication, democratic practice and policy enable/constrain policy options and public life. She values classroom teaching, and serves as a faculty mentor for graduate teaching assistants. She has developed an active Theory to Practice program that includes design and evaluation of best practices for facilitating public participation in environmental policy planning and implementation. The program is centered on the critical role of communication in facilitating the emergence and operation of sustainable environmental policy. Dr. Peterson’s most recent books examine conflict surrounding housing (The Housing Bomb, published by Johns Hopkins University Press) and energy (Smart Grid [R]Evolution, published by Cambridge University Press) policy. She has worked with environmental conflict in a variety of locations including Australia, El Salvador, India, Mexico, Sweden, and the United States.