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Affiliated Faculty and Collaborators

Kirk Emerson, Ph.D.
School of Public Administration and Policy
The University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ

E-mail:kemerson@u.arizona.edu
phone: 520-690-5970

Curriculum Vitae

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Kirk Emerson is a Research Associate at the Udall Center and the School of Government and Public Policy at the University of Arizona.Emerson is also a Research Associate at the Program for Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration, Maxwell School, Syracuse University and in 2009 was the William J. Donlon Distinguished Visiting Professor of Environmental Communication, Department of Environmental Studies, College of Environmental Sciences and Forestry, State University of New York, Syracuse.

Emerson has had a longstanding career in the field of environmental conflict resolution, as a practitioner, trainer, researcher, and administrator. Emerson is the former director of the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution of the Morris K. Udall Foundation (www.ecr.gov) where she worked for ten years starting up and overseeing the federal government’s first independent environmental mediation program. Through her consulting work, she provides conflict consultation, collaborative process design and facilitation, evaluation, and training services. Previously, she coordinated the environmental conflict resolution program at the Udall Center, where she directed applied research projects on water resources, endangered species, and western range issues. Before pursuing her doctoral studies, Emerson worked professionally in urban planning for eight years at the Bucks County Planning Commission in Pennsylvania, first as an environmental planner and then as the director of countywide planning. She served as a community mediator in the Philadelphia area, where she gained her initial experience and training in mediating land use and environmental disputes.

Emerson’s abiding research and professional interest has been in the interface between informed environmental decision making and principled engagement of stakeholders and the public. She works in the fields of public policy, public administration, environmental governance, and natural resources management, drawing from negotiation and conflict resolution theory, public involvement and collaboration studies, and performance evaluation. She is currently focusing on collaborative governance and climate change and the potential for adaptive cross-sector institutions or networks to manage dynamic urban and natural resource systems.

Emerson has written on collaborative governance, environmental conflict resolution, property rights and environmental politics, land use law, and environmental policy.  She currently teaches collaborative natural resources management and conflict resolution. She received her B.A. from Princeton University, her Masters in City Planning from MIT, and her PhD in political science and public policy from Indiana University. 

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Emerson, Kirk and Peter Murchie. 2010. “Collaborative Governance and Climate Change” in Rosemary O’Leary, Soonhee Kim, and David Van Slyke (edits). The Future of Public Administration, Public Management, and Public Service Around the World: The Minnowbrook Perspective. Georgetown University Press. 2010. 141-161.

Emerson, Kirk, Patricia Orr, Dale Keyes, and Kathy McKnight. 2009. “Understanding Environmental Conflict Resolution: Performance Outcomes and Contributing Factors.” Conflict Resolution Quarterly 27(1). 2009.  27-64.

Emerson, Kirk. 2009. “Synthesizing Practice and Performance in the Field of Environmental Conflict Resolution” in The Collaborative Public Manager, Edited by Rosemary O’Leary and Lisa Blomgren Bingham. Washington DC; Georgetown University Press. 215-231.

Orr, Patricia, Kirk Emerson, and Dale Keyes. 2008. “Environmental Conflict Resolution Performance and Practice: An Evaluation Framework.” Conflict Resolution Quarterly. 25(3). 287-302.

Emerson, Kirk. 2004. “Taking the Land Rights Movement Seriously.” in Environmental Ethics  Divergence and Convergence. Edited by Susan J. Armstrong and Richard G. Botzler. 505-513. McGraw Hill: New York.

Emerson, Kirk, Tina Nabatchi, Rosemary O’Leary and John Stephens. 2003. “The Challenges of Environmental Conflict Resolution.” in The Promise and Performance of Environmental Conflict Resolution. Edited by Rosemary O’Leary and Lisa Blomgren Bingham. Washington, DC:  Resources for the Future. 3–26.

Emerson, Kirk and Christine Carlson. 2003. “An Evaluation System for State and Federal Conflict Resolution Programs.” in The Promise and Performance of Environmental Conflict Resolution. Edited by Rosemary O’Leary and Lisa Blomgren Bingham. Washington, DC: Resources for the Future. 192-206.

Emerson, Kirk and Charles R. Wise. 1997 “Statutory Approaches to Regulatory Takings: State Property Rights Legislation  Issues and Implications for Public Administration.” Public Administration Review. 57(5). 411-422.

Emerson, Kirk. 1996. “Taking the Land Rights Movement Seriously” in A Wolf in the Garden: The Land Rights Movement and the Renewal of the American Environmental Movement. Edited by Philip Brick and McGreggor Cawley. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. 115-134.

Wise, Charles R. and Kirk Emerson. 1994. “Regulatory Takings: The Emerging Doctrine and its Implications for Public Administration.” Administration and Society. 26(3). 305-336.