Staff Bio
Kirk Emerson
Senior Advisor
Kirk Emerson has been the Director of the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution (U.S. Institute) of the Morris K. Udall Foundation since its inception in 1998. She oversees the strategic program direction of the U.S. Institute and represents the Institute broadly. Most recently, Kirk has been working to implement a new federal policy on ECR, develop a handbook on NEPA and Collaboration for the President’s Council on Environmental Quality, and evaluate ECR outcomes and performance. Kirk is also involved in selected ECR projects, providing case consultation, facilitation and training on interagency and intergovernmental conflicts.
Prior to her work at the U.S. Institute, Kirk developed and coordinated the environmental conflict resolution program at The University of Arizona’s Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy, where she conducted research, taught, and directed several conflict management and public involvement projects involving water resources, endangered species, and western range policies. Kirk has taught graduate and undergraduate courses on conflict resolution and environmental law and has written on environmental mediation, land use law, and environmental policy.
Kirk's early interest in collaborative processes began in the mid-1970s as a graduate student in urban studies where her fieldwork and research focused on citizen involvement in local planning issues. She worked as a planner for eight years at the Bucks County Planning Commission in Pennsylvania, first as an environmental planner and then as the director of countywide planning. Kirk then trained and volunteered as a community mediator in the Philadelphia area, where she gained experience and further training in mediating land use and development disputes.
Kirk received her B.A. in Psychology from Princeton University, a Masters in City Planning from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. in Political Science and Public Policy from Indiana University. She received the William Anderson Award from the American Political Science Association for her dissertation on regulatory takings and state property rights laws in 1998.
Kirk serves on the Federal Interagency ADR Working Group Steering Committee and is a member of both the Environment and Public Policy Section of the Association for Conflict Resolution and the Dispute Resolution Section of the American Bar Association. She has served as a board member of Arizona’s Dispute Resolution Association and was appointed to the American Arbitration Association's Commercial Mediation Panel. Her additional professional memberships include the American Planning Association, the American Institute of Certified Planners, and the American Political Science Association.
Kirk Emerson, (520) 901-8510 emerson@ecr.gov