NOW HIRING A PROGRAM ASSOCIATE

ABOUT CDR ASSOCIATES: 

We are a facilitation and communications consulting firm in Boulder, Colorado. We help governments and communities make decisions on large, complex public projects. We provide facilitation, stakeholder engagement, communications, and dispute resolution services on transportation/mobility, public lands management, and water projects. Our role, as neutral facilitators, is to represent all interests of all stakeholders and advocate for a collaborative process, rather than a specific outcome.

Our projects range from short term, which may be single day retreats we facilitate, to multi-year design or infrastructure projects. Our partners are often architecture and engineering design firms. Our clients are often local jurisdictions, Colorado state departments, and federal agencies.

We’re looking for an early career-level Program Associate to join our team. Our group of 9 team members is a great match for professionals seeking values-based work, opportunities for growth, and a workplace culture that values individual perspectives and entrepreneurial proactivity. There’s flexibility in where you work – sometimes you work from home, sometimes in the office in Boulder, sometimes in client’s offices, and other times wherever you like to hang your hat.

ABOUT THE POSITION:

As a Program Associate, you will support a range of stakeholder engagement, communications, problem solving, and conflict resolution projects. You will work on projects in the transportation, water, and public lands management fields in Colorado as well as in the regional West. Reliable personal transportation is required; as consultants we’re frequently traveling to meet clients and partners. 

Roles and Responsibilities include:

• Administrative and Organizational Support
  • Manage organization email and phone accounts
  • Schedule and run organizational functions/internal meetings
  • Lead ad hoc special projects internally to support strategic growth
• Marketing and Communications
  • Support marketing efforts (e.g. develop presentations and outreach materials)
  • Coordinate proposals and graphic design
• Project & Facilitation Support
  • Manage meeting logistics and technology
  • Write, edit, and/or proofread project reports and meeting summaries
  • Develop meeting materials
  • Co-facilitate meetings and small group break-outs
  • Coordinate with clients

ABOUT YOU: 

You have a master’s degree and one year of experience, or a bachelor’s degree and at least three years of experience. You also have an interest in multi-modal transportation, community and regional planning, natural resource management, and/or environmental public policy issues. Fluency in Spanish is highly desirable but not required. We are looking for someone who is comfortable managing projects virtually. Adobe Creative Suite experience, particularly with InDesign and Illustrator,  is strongly preferred. You are:

• RESULTS-ORIENTED: You are able to prioritize and multi-task to achieve great results. You value quality work, are able to manage short turnarounds, and can stay on time and on budget.
• ORGANIZED AND DETAILED: You manage your projects and information in an organized way to ensure nothing slips through the cracks, and you pay close attention to detail. 
• CREATIVE AND FLEXIBLE: You can clearly, and graphically, communicate complex information in a creative way and are able to adapt to changing conditions easily.
• COMFORTABLE WORKING IN STRUCTURED AND UNPREDICTABLE ENVIRONMENTS: You produce quality work independently and as a team. You take initiative and contribute to team dynamics by offering new ideas and creative solutions to unexpected or surprising challenges.
• SELF-STARTER: You have an entrepreneurial mindset and are interested in future growth opportunities. 

COMPENSATION

CDR offers a benefits package to employees including health insurance and paid vacation. Compensation will be determined based on the experience of the selected candidate but is expected to be in the low-mid $60K a year range, plus bonuses, with opportunities to advance.

WHAT’S NEXT

Send us (1) a one-page resume, and (2) an info-graphic – you create – that describes something important to you. Please do not send any cover letters. Please note that you are allowed to redact information that identifies your age such as your birth date, or dates of schooling.

We’ll be reviewing and engaging with applicants on a rolling basis. Correspondence can be sent to careers@mediate.org. Please write “CDR 2024 Program Associate Application_[First Name] [Last Name]” in the subject line of the email. 

Research suggests that women and BIPOC individuals may self-select out of opportunities if they don’t meet 100% of the job requirements. We encourage anyone who believes they have the skills and the drive necessary to succeed here to apply for this role.

This is a first-hand account of CDR Associates’ visit to the Alaska Native Village of Kipnuk as part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Community Change Grant Technical Assistance Program.

Text and photos by Audrey Clavijo, CDR Program Associate

• 

We arrived in Kipnuk mid-morning on Monday, March 18, after a smooth ride from Bethel. As the tiny plane approached the Village of Kipnuk, we could see colorful snow-covered homes, criss-crossing tracks from a season of innumerable snowmobile trips, the wide meandering path of the frozen Kugkaktlik River, and the Chief Paul Memorial School positioned squarely in the center of the village.

This was my first time in the arctic tundra; it surprised me how barren the land seemed, how improbable that any species could live in a frozen desert of snow and ice. Jonathan and I stepped out onto the tarmac. We had no phone service and no idea which way to begin our trek in the cold. Noticing our looks of disorientation, a local man already at the airstrip offered us a ride on the back of his ATV and drove us to the Qanganaq Building. Jonathan and I thanked the kind stranger and entered the large, red structure, which sits alongside a tributary of the Kugkaktlik River and houses the Tribal offices. Inside, we met Chris, a member of the Kipnuk Environmental Team and the Kipnuk Permafrost Pathways Liaison, who took us on his snowmobile to meet the rest of the team at the Teacher Housing.

The Teacher Housing, attached to the school by boardwalk, is one of the few buildings in the village with access to running water and plumbing. The majority of Kipnuk’s teachers are seasonal, living in the Teacher Housing throughout the school year and returning home—typically to the lower 48—for the summer; this is also where we would be lodging for our one night in the village. To bathe and do laundry, some locals go to the Kipnuk “washeteria,” which offers paid showers and laundry. Others in the village use maqivik (steam baths) to bathe. The washeteria also has a water treatment system that is used to treat the water used in the facility. During the winter months,  individual households must obtain water by collecting chipped ice, which they melt in large water buckets; in the warmer months, they obtain water through water catchment systems. Household sewage is collected in honey buckets and emptied in the lagoon.

Kipnuk has been requesting a piped water and sewer system for decades. Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) recently informed the Tribe that although ANTHC has the village on the schedule for installation of piped water and sewer infrastructure, it will be another five to ten years before that installation is complete.

• 

• 

At the Teacher Housing, we met the full Kipnuk Environmental Team—Rayna, Andrea, and Chris—and Sheryl Musgrove, the Climate Justice Director at the Alaska Institute for Justice (AIJ). After a series of zoom calls and meetings, this was the first time we had met in person. We shared snacks, verified the agenda for the one-day site visit, and discussed the general outline of the Community Change Grant (CCG) Technical Assistance Program. Afterwards, Rayna, Andrea, and Chris invited us onto their three snowmobiles to tour the village. Despite the snow and the frozen waterways, we could see how much of the town—including several large buildings, homes, fuel tanks, and other infrastructure—sat precariously close to the slope of the riverbank. They explained that each spring, the melting of the river ice, called “breakup,” removes large chunks of the riverbank, exacerbating the gradual erosion caused by constant currents, daily tides, and frequent storms. We passed by the barge landing, where Conex containers act as a staging area, storing equipment, construction materials, shipped goods, and hazardous waste. We then visited one of five local grocery stores, the mechanical shop (responsible for fixing just about anything that breaks down in Kipnuk), the washeteria, the landfill, the reservoir, and the Chief Paul Memorial School.

At the school, we met with the high school students—about 50 youth—to give a short presentation on the EPA, local impacts of climate change (i.e., permafrost thaw, subsidence, flooding, increasing sea level), the Community Change Grant, and our plans to apply for funding to mediate river erosion in Kipnuk. When we asked the students what they would do with the CCG funding to help their community, one advocated for the installation of running water and plumbing. Another group of girls mentioned relocating the village, a solution which several nearby villages have already turned to.

Despite their young age, it was clear the youth of Kipnuk are fully aware of the risks and challenges that currently face their community and will continue to worsen in the future. These students exude respect, resiliency, and awareness—not only for their culture, language, lifeways, and elders, but also for us as strangers and the information we shared. Furthermore, the school itself was beautiful, featuring walls covered in colorful portraits of Kipnuk’s elders and glass displays of Yup’ik art, regalia, and traditional fishing and hunting tools. Our time at the school was my personal highlight of our time in Kipnuk.

• 

• 

After our presentation to the students, a few of us went to visit a Kipnuk elder and Tribal Council member, Peter, who was unable to attend the in-person meeting the subsequent day. He and his wife, Liz, were incredibly gracious and hospitable, welcoming us into their home. Peter told us a bit about himself, his large family of children and grandchildren (whose photos cover the walls), and his time in the US military. Liz invited us to eat and fed us stew with seal oil, dried halibut, and white fish, and frozen salmon berries harvested the past summer. While we ate, she showed us the traditional art she’d been working on: a beautiful woven seagrass basket with ornate bird designs, a fuzzy seal and beaver fur hat, and a roll of dried seal intestine to be made into a traditional Yup’ik rain jacket. As we admired her incredible work, I could not ignore the water stains on the walls, evidence of extreme flooding and water damage left by Typhoon Merbok in November 2022. Since then, the Tribe and AIJ have been working tirelessly to file paperwork and fulfill other requirements to access FEMA’s disaster relief funding to repair homes and other infrastructure destroyed by Merbok. Complicated documentation requirements and a lack of translation services, however, have made this a slow process at best and, at worst, an impassable barrier for elders in the community who speak only Yup’ik.

Outside, the wind was howling and the blizzard made it impossible to see through the windows. A young man, presumably one of Liz and Peter’s grandsons, entered the kitchen bundled in snow gear and said he was going out to chop firewood. With full stomachs and happy hearts, we thanked our gracious hosts and braved the blizzard to return to the Teacher Housing for the night. We passed a couple holding hands as they enjoyed a walk, and we saw Chris’ son wrestling in the snow with a village pup. Although the storm made it difficult to see, we pushed forward against the wind and made our way in a straight line to where we knew the school stood.

Once back in the warmth and comfort of the apartment, I thought of our arrival only a few hours earlier. I reflected on my first impression of the landscape: how improbable it seemed for people to live in such a cold, deserted place. From just a few hours with Rayna, Andrea, and Chris, the students and teachers, and the various friendly and hospitable community members we had met, it was clear to me that it takes a certain kind of resilience to live in the Alaskan tundra—and that the people of Kipnuk were likely the most resilient, resourceful, persistent, and kind people I had yet to meet.

• 

by Julia Oleksiak, CDR Program Associate

On October 16 & 17, the Colorado Wildlife & Transportation Alliance, in partnership with Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the Colorado Department of Transportation, held the second Colorado Wildlife & Transportation Summit in Castle Rock, CO. Objectives of the 2023 Summit included highlighting successes of the Alliance since its creation in 2018, capitalizing on the momentum of recent policies, and identifying needs, gaps, and opportunities for long-term and proactive approaches to wildlife-vehicle collision mitigation in Colorado. CDR’s Melissa Bade, Daniel Estes, and Julia Oleksiak led planning efforts and helped to implement the Alliance’s vision for a successful Summit.

The Summit brought together partners from several federal, state, and local agencies, tribes, and organizations—including Summit sponsors GOCO and Muley Fanatic Foundation. Over two days, the Summit provided attendees with educational presentations, facilitated discussions, a field trip to two wildlife underpasses in the I-25 corridor between Colorado Springs and Castle Rock, and opportunities to build meaningful partnerships.

This event included:

• 110 attendees
• 20 presenters
• 45 different organizations/agencies represented
  (including 4 other states, the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, FHWA, BLM, NPS, USFS, USFWS, and a number of counties)
• 2 field trip locations along the I-25 Gap Project

As presenter Dan Gibbs, Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, summarized, “It was exciting to see the diverse partners come together and hear about their interest, passions, and commitment to help the state of Colorado address the drastically high rates of wildlife-vehicle collisions.”

Leading up to the event, CDR facilitated Summit Planning Committee meetings, coordinated with Alliance co-chairs, and supported event logistics. CDR has been involved in the collaboration and coalition-building between wildlife and transportation officials in Colorado since the first Summit in 2017, which resulted in the formation of the Colorado Wildlife & Transportation Alliance. CDR is proud to continue to support these efforts leading to the safe passage of people and wildlife in Colorado and beyond.

Link to CPW press release for more information.

by Julia Oleksiak, CDR Program Associate

CDR has long enjoyed strong relationships with mediators and other stakeholders in Sri Lanka, where a well regarded national mediation program supports communities through local challenges. Our team recently updated the program’s approach to training and is proud to be a part of its continued development and expansion.

History

Throughout the history of Sri Lanka, mediation has served as an essential form of dispute resolution. The small island nation’s relationship with mediation dates back millennia—from village councils addressing disputes between neighbors to village tribunals, rural courts, and conciliation boards. In 1988, the Sri Lankan Parliament passed the Mediation Boards Act No. 72, creating a new legal framework for the administration and implementation of dispute resolution across the country and establishing an independent Mediation Boards Commission. Since then, the Commission’s role has been to appoint and oversee a network of mediators which make up Community Mediation Boards (CMBs) across the island.

Current Framework

Interest-based mediation continues to be a cornerstone of Sri Lankan society today. It is used as a form of community-based dispute resolution in many important contexts ranging from economic hardship, conflicts arising in the aftermath of the civil war, as well as continued ethno-religious friction. 

The Ministry of Justice and Mediation Boards Commission, in close partnership with The Asia Foundation, have trained and supported mediators to resolve hundreds of thousands of disputes across Sri Lanka over the past 30 years. The alternative dispute resolution program has demonstrated adaptability and resilience through the creation and implementation of special boards SMBs to address pressing issues surrounding the 2004 tsunami disaster, land disputes following the civil war, and commercial disputes. CDR has been supporting the flagship mediation program with The Asia Foundation for decades including the development of Special Land Mediation Boards in 2014.

2023 Efforts

In the Spring of 2023, CDR Principal Jonathan Bartsch and Program Associate Patrick Teese worked closely with The Asia Foundation, The British Council, and other stakeholders to design workshops with the goal of strengthening the existing mediation program and infusing creativity and energy into current Sri Lanka mediation training and practice. In May, Jonathan traveled to Colombo to deliver a five-day Advanced Mediation Training and a seminar on Global Trends in Mediation. The Mediation Training Officers participating in the training received a refresher on the foundations of third-party assistance and an introduction to a range of mediation applications and approaches that move beyond the individual resolution of disputes. The seminar served as an opportunity to reinforce the success of the mediation program in Sri Lanka and introduce the idea of developing a renewed vision and approach to integrating mediation and conflict engagement strategies into other areas of practice.

Future

Mediation for community disputes is integrated into the fabric of Sri Lanka and it is critical to continue to find ways to support further development of the program, which currently stands at a crossroads. With 30+ years of experience in building and supporting mediation programs and through the development of a long-standing relationship with Sri Lanka’s background, context, and mediation system, CDR is proud to help create a revised plan and approach needed for the program to continue to thrive. We look forward to continuing our relationship with the Sri Lanka Community Mediation Programme, The Asia Foundation and its partners, and aim to apply the latest expertise and lessons learned to future updates to the program as well as in other national contexts.

We encourage you to share your thoughts on this effort and article with Julia (joleksiak@mediate.org).

This article was featured in the October 2023 edition of CDR’s newsletter, “Talking Points.” Sign up here to receive the next copy!

ABOUT CDR ASSOCIATES: 

We are a facilitation and stakeholder engagement consulting firm in Colorado. We help governments and communities make decisions on large, complex public projects. We provide facilitation, stakeholder engagement, communications, and dispute resolution services on Transportation + Mobility, Public Land Use + Management, and Water Resource projects. We believe that collaboration creates better, more creative, more durable solutions. 

We’re looking for an experienced Senior Program Manager, who specializes in one or more of our practices areas, to join our team.

OUR PRACTICE AREAS:

Transportation + Mobility

Transportation and mobility are the foundation of daily life. CDR brings decades of experience working with agencies and stakeholders identifying context specific outcomes and approaches. We provide facilitation of interagency deliberations on transit, multi-modal, bridge, highway and aviation projects – conducting public involvement and stakeholder engagement around issues that impact communities.

Water Resources

Water-related issues are often characterized by a lack of trust, poor communication, polarization, and ineffective negotiations. We provide collaborative problem-solving expertise in planning,  governance, conservation, and use of water. Specific areas where our services benefit water resource processes include: transboundary and interagency coordination, adaptive management, watershed planning, and development of formal settlement and institutional agreements.

Public Land Use + Management

Public land use and management addresses conflicting demands by various user groups, including around recreation, conservation, agriculture, urban development, economic, education, and aesthetic uses. We are leaders in facilitating strategic partnerships and in engaging communities on issues related to land management, including complex planning and land use processes.

ABOUT THE POSITION:

Senior Program Managers lead a range of stakeholder engagement, communications, problem solving, and conflict resolution projects. The role includes serving as Project Manager and Strategic Advisor on projects, leading CDR teams, and liaising with project partners and clients. Senior Program Managers participate in the development of one, or more, practice areas by contributing to the design and implementation of the practice’s strategy. The role includes being an organizational leader, IDing and leading marketing and business development, leading internal organizational initiatives, mentoring junior staff, building and managing relationships with partners and clients, and contributing to our constructive and collaborative organizational culture.

Roles and Responsibilities include:

• Serve as a facilitator, mediator, trainer, training designer, system designer
  • Demonstrate versatility in effectively applying a variety of facilitation procedures and strategies
  • Lead or co-lead one or more practice areas
• Initiate and implement marketing and business development activities
  • Contribute significantly to the generation of income for CDR and bring in work for others
  • Be recognized by potential clients as a solid and reliable service provider and secure contracts through this recognition and these relationships with clients and partners
• Participate in the leadership and management of CDR
  • Make meaningful contributions to CDR in administrative/financial/policy areas
  • Supervise and mentor other staff and promote the professional development of program, administrative, and support staff
  • Add to the organization by enhancing others’ well-being and acting as a role model
• Contribute to the intellectual capital of CDR and to the development of the collaborative decision-making profession, including:
  • Take an active role in professional organizations, which may include practice area-related organizations and promoting the use of facilitation skills and procedures in new arenas
  • Contribute to the collaborative decision-making field through innovative programmatic activities and through professional presentations and writing
  • Maintain a commitment to the professional development of others at CDR

ABOUT YOU: 

You have 10+ years of experience, along with an interest in multi-modal transportation, community and regional planning, natural resource management, and/or environmental public policy issues. You’re experience and skills include:

• FACILITATION + STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT EXPERTISE: You are thoroughly knowledgeable and experienced in the field of interest-based problem solving, facilitation, and stakeholder engagement
• PRACTICE AREA EXPERIENCE: You are subject matter knowledgeable about, and have several years of experience working with, one of our core practice areas (transportation, land, water) 
• PROJECT MANAGEMENT: You have experience running projects, including designing the scope of work, managing the budget and schedule, and leading a team
• RELATIONSHIPS + BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT: Over the course of your profession, you’ve developed good relationships that can support you as you lead business development
• CREATIVE, FLEXIBLE, COLLABORATIVE: You like pursuing challenges with an open mind, seeking unique solutions, and putting your head together with others to co-create ideas

COMPENSATION

CDR offers a benefits package to employees including health insurance and paid vacation. Compensation will be determined based on the experience, but is expected to fall into the $100,000 – $130,000 a year range, plus bonuses, with opportunities to advance. There are also opportunities for alternate compensation packages.

WHAT’S NEXT

Feel free to just reach out and start a conversation. Or, if you want to make it a little more formal, send us a resume, and a description of why you think CDR might be the place for you.

Reach out via careers@mediate.org. Please write “CDR Sr Program Manager” in the subject line of the email. 

Research suggests that women and BIPOC individuals may self-select out of opportunities if they don’t meet 100% of the job requirements. We encourage anyone who believes they have the skills and the drive necessary to succeed here to apply for this role.

by Patrick Teese, CDR Program Associate

In the summer of 2022, an interagency team of land use specialists—in partnership with local governments and advocacy groups—developed an important resource in Colorado’s fight to lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and enable smarter land use policies.

This resource, a report entitled Land Use in Colorado: A Research Report on Challenges, Outcomes, Benefits and Policy Tools, is the culmination of months of discussion and learning among various stakeholders and experts. CDR’s Jonathan Bartsch and Patrick Teese are proud to have facilitated the creation of the report, which is now available to planners, policymakers, and community leaders throughout Colorado and across the country.

At the direction of the state legislature’s House Bill 19-1261, the Colorado Energy Office (CEO) released the Colorado GHG Pollution Reduction Roadmap in January 2021 to outline strategies for meeting statewide emissions goals. Chief among these strategies was a mandate to engage stakeholders to “explore options for how best to incentivize smart land use decisions.”

In response, five major Colorado state agencies assembled a collaborative team to develop a report to the Colorado State Legislature that (1) would identify and share best practices in local land use planning and (2) highlight opportunities for the State to support communities in adopting those best practices.

The agencies convened a public stakeholder group known as the Colorado Land Use Stakeholder Group to meet from the summer of 2021 to the spring of 2022. Stakeholders represented five state agencies (CDOT, DOLA, CEO, CDPHE, DNR), 4 statewide local governance advocacy groups (CCI, CML, CCAT, SDA), 20 local municipalities, 7 county governments, and the Denver metro areas’s regional transit agency (RTD).

Jonathan and Patrick led the engagement of this stakeholder group by planning and facilitating discussions, introducing expertise from land use professionals, and building consensus around a series of promising land use and community development practices. Working closely with the representatives of the state agencies and local governance advocacy groups, the CDR duo facilitated agreement on a series of strategy recommendations that highlighted opportunities for grant funding, technical assistance, and outreach to local communities.

Stakeholders considered the effects of land use and development patterns on transportation-related GHG emissions as well as a myriad of related concerns, and each participant was encouraged to bring their community’s unique circumstances and priorities to the table so that the group could more deeply explore nuances across planning and policy approaches. The final Land Use Research Report highlights the complexity of these relationships, exploring concerns related to infrastructure construction and maintenance, housing supply and affordability, transportation affordability, public health, climate change, and wildfire risk.

Continued exploration of these ideas is timely and of increasing interest to many. Communities, organizations, and agencies throughout the country are wrestling with challenges related to conflicts in land use and transportation planning strategies, and the research report highlights efforts championed in other states—such as California, Nevada, and Nebraska—from which Colorado can learn. This series of stakeholder group meetings represented an important step in aligning local and statewide players’ understanding of these issues and a move towards meaningful, collaborative progress.

Find the culminating research report here, at the bottom of this Colorado Department of Local Affairs’ (DOLA) webpage. We encourage you to share your thoughts with Patrick (pteese@mediate.org).