David Fairman

David Fairman "is Managing Director of International Programs at the Consensus Building Institute, Associate Director of the MIT-Harvard Public Disputes Program, and Lecturer in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning. He designs and facilitates consensus building processes; coaches and trains leaders to enhance their negotiation and collaboration skills; and researches and teaches the application of negotiation and consensus building tools to challenging public issues.

"David applies his skills in several practice areas. Internationally, he works with multilateral development agencies, governments, and other national partners to institutionalize collaborative approaches to planning, resource and project management. Domestically, he helps stakeholders craft policies and strategies in the domains of national security, energy and environmental policy, low-income housing, criminal justice and child welfare. In the Private Sector, he works with business leaders and senior staff to revision structural conflicts as creative partnerships.

"David is Senior Mediator on the rosters of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution. He is also founding board member of the Alliance for Peacebuilding, founding Director of CBI’s Workable Peace program, member of the Advisory Board for the Massachusetts Office of Dispute Resolution, and life member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from MIT and a B.A. from Harvard College."