Ben Zukowski is a Program Manager at the Morris K. Udall and Stewart L. Udall Foundation’s (Udall Foundation) John S. McCain III National Center for Environmental Conflict Resolution (National Center). As a collaboration and conflict resolution specialist, Ben facilitates a variety of complex multiparty natural resources challenges—including human-wildlife conflict, land-use development, management of public lands and resources as well as engagement with Native Nations. He has facilitated Government-to-Government Consultation meetings between Tribes and Federal agencies and led multiparty collaborative processes between Federal/State Government and local community, Nongovernmental (NGO), academic, Tribal, and private organizations. He is an expert in process design as well as at conducting neutral stakeholder assessments for a range of projects.

Ben has extensive experience with facilitation, cross-cultural collaboration, wildlife conservation, environmental policy, training, and capacity-building across North and South America. Before joining the Udall Foundation, he specialized in working with Native communities and natural resources, from human-bear interactions in Quechua communities of northern Ecuador to First Nation Caribou hunting in the Canadian arctic. Ben has established his career by building trust and encouraging meaningful conversations between communities, governments, and Indigenous Cultures within countries on five different continents. He has worn many hats during his career, including bear biologist, sociological researcher, EPA policy analyst, science communicator, and interdisciplinary researcher at the intersection of ecological, historical, cultural, and political interests.

Ben received his bachelor’s degree in Environmental Public Policy from the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan (Go Blue!) and earned his master’s degree in Environmental Management from Yale University, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.