Associate
Elizabeth Cooper is an Associate at CBI. She focuses on helping organizations and stakeholders collaborate and build consensus more effectively around a range of complex public issues. Her work includes facilitation, community engagement, and synthesizing stakeholder input into decision-making and policy processes. She also works with public and non-profit organizations to strengthen collaborative capacity and guide strategic planning.
Much of Elizabeth’s work focuses on the intersections among climate change, environment and land use issues, and local planning and policy issues. In her facilitation work with stakeholders from diverse groups and perspectives, she brings expertise in climate adaptation/resilience, municipal planning/land use, transportation, environment and Superfund, water, and agriculture, among other issues.
Lower Mystic Regional Working Group: Long-range transportation planning study
The Climigration Network
The Nature Conservancy New York - Climate Adaptation Strategic Planning
Cambridge Climate Resilience Zoning Task Force
Newtown Creek Superfund Site Community Advisory Group
Mystic River Watershed Initiative
Wolastoq/St. John River First Nations and Federal Watershed Collaboration
Vermont Payment for Ecosystem Services Working Group
The following is a partial list of clients:
Federal Agencies
Environmental Protection Agency
National Parks Service
State and Regional Agencies
Massachusetts Department of Transportation
Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management
Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection
Metropolitan Area Planning Council
Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets
Local Municipalities
Cambridge, MA
Scituate, MA
Boston, MA
Everett, MA
Somerville, MA
Companies/Nonprofit Organizations
The Nature Conservancy
The Barr Foundation
The Climigration Network
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute
Mystic River Watershed Association
Elizabeth is a mediator, trained in accordance with Massachusetts General Law Chapter 233 § 23C. She focused her graduate studies at the McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston on public dispute resolution and environmental policy making. She holds a BA in Critical Social Thought from Mount Holyoke College, where she focused on grassroots movements in Latin America.
Pathways to Climate Resilience; Strategies for the Greater Boston Area. 2019, co-authored with Ona Ferguson and Osamu Kumasaka. This report, written for the Barr Foundation, describes the current suite of leading activities on climate resilience at a municipal scale in eastern Massachusetts, outlines strategies, and identifies opportunities for action.
Cooper, Elizabeth S. “Community Engagement 101: Why you need to involve the public, and how to do it well." Presented at: Cape Cod Commission One Cape Summit. 2016 June 24. Hyannis, Massachusetts.
Cooper, Elizabeth S. “A Critical Analysis of the Role of the Climate Secretariat in UNFCCC Negotiations.” Paper presented at: Conflict Studies & Global Governance: The New Generation of Ideas. 2014 Oct. 31-Nov. 1. Boston, Massachusetts.
Aguirre, Jessica C. and Elizabeth Cooper. “Evo Morales, Climate Change, and the Paradoxes of a Social- Movement Presidency.” Latin American Perspectives 37 (2010): 238-44.