Dr. Gamman earned his Ph.D. (1990) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the field of Environmental Planning and Policy Analysis with a concentration in conflict resolution and environmental policy implementation. John also received a Master's Degree in Public Administration (1986) from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he focused on organizational development and institutional behavior, and a BA (1974) from UC Santa Cruz in Environmental Studies/Natural Resource Planning and Analysis (summa cum laude).
As a co-founder and senior mediator with CONCUR since 1990, John works as a facilitator, mediator, strategic planner, policy analyst and trainer, focusing on helping parties find solutions to complex public policy issues. He has helped agencies, industry and community groups by designing and leading collaborative negotiations that have resulted in agreements related to the construction of large-scale public infrastructure, project permitting, regional planning, the allocation of water supplies, watershed management and regulatory decision making. These projects have typically involved a complex set of interrelated issues related to public policy, regulatory requirements and competing environmental, economic and social needs. To deal with this complexity, Dr. Gamman has designed and carried out several carefully structured joint fact-finding processes to support collaborative stakeholder processes, so that a solid foundation of scientific and technical information is created, upon which collaborative consultations and negotiated agreements are often based. John also provides ongoing strategic advice to clients whose projects and policy initiatives must be coordinated in parallel with other agencies and stakeholding groups.
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. His most recent work includes managing and co-facilitating a statewide projects in California for the State Resources Agency on the options for decommissioning the State's offshore oil and gas rigs.
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. He has published several peer-reviewed articles in professional journals on subjects related to collaborative problem solving of public policy disputes, including the book Overcoming Obstacles in Environmental Policymaking: Creating Partnerships Through Mediation (SUNY Press, 1990). 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 internationally, under the auspices of the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State.
