Staff Bio

Ben Zukowski is a Senior Program Associate 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). He provides support for regional facilitation and stakeholder and Tribal engagement over a variety of environmental policy issues. He also provides direct services such as facilitating sessions, producing meeting summaries, supporting process design, and conducting neutral assessments for a range of projects.

Ben has several years of experience with facilitation, cross-cultural collaboration, wildlife conservation, environmental policy, training, and capacity-building across North and South America. He has specialized in working with Native communities and natural resources, from human-bear interactions in Quechua communities of northern Ecuador to First Nation hunting for Caribou in the Canadian arctic. He has established himself by building trust and encouraging meaningful discussions between governments. Prior to his time at the Udall Foundation, he wore many hats as a 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.