Photo of Gina Bartlett

Gina Bartlett

Senior Consultant

Gina Bartlett is Senior Consultant at the Consensus Building Institute. She has more than 20 years of experience in consensus building and collaborative planning on complex public policy and organizational issues. She also has extensive experience facilitating organizational strategy and governance, as well as mediating high-stakes, multi-party negotiations. Gina previously served as Director of CBI West—CBI’s practice in the American West—and Senior Mediator. Prior to that, she was Associate Director at the Center for Collaborative Policy at California State University.

Areas of Focus

Gina provides strategic direction, skilled facilitation, and mediation to organize the collective insights of leaders to build consensus on policy and organizational direction. 

She has successfully mediated some of California’s most vexing natural resource issues, in several cases helping parties to resolve issues litigated multiple times. Gina has helped leaders with diverse perspective collaborate on a range of policy areas: water, natural resources, climate adaptation, land management, scientific and technical issues, energy, and education. In her high-profile policy work, she employs citizen engagement and communication tools to strengthen outcomes and build widespread support. She has recently been deeply engaged in building consensus to manage Lake Tahoe’s shoreline, addressing nearly 30 years of conflict and litigation, and negotiating governance for newly formed groundwater sustainability agencies in California. 

Gina works with organizations on strategic planning and governance, facilitating dialogue among decision-makers to craft the strategic direction and focus of the organization and to design the structure necessary for implementation. In the last several years, she has worked on organizational initiatives with the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Agency, Cleveland Indians Baseball Team Business Leadership Team, FairTrade USA, and the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission.

Exemplary Projects

  • Bay Adapt Regional Strategy for a Rising San Francisco Bay
  • Lake Tahoe Shoreline Policy Mediation
  • Covid-19 Collaborative in Monterey County
  • International Hydropower Association Governance Recommendations for a Independent Sustainability Standard
  • Russian River Drought Response Voluntary Water Sharing Agreement
  • University of California Office of the President’s California Breast Cancer Research Program Funding Priorities
  • Groundwater Sustainability Agency Governance and Formation in Salinas Valley and Sonoma County

Clients

The following is a partial list of clients:

International Organizations

  • FairTrade USA
  • International Hydropower Association
  • Internet Corporation for Names and Numbers (ICANN)
  • Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission

Federal Agencies

  • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
  • U.S. Forest Service
  • U.S. Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management

State Agencies

  • Bay Conservation and Development Commission
  • California State Water Resources Control Board
  • California State Parks
  • California Coastal Commission
  • State of California Department of Water Resources

Regional

  • Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission
  • Dallas Area Rapid Transit
  • Los Angeles Department of Water & Power
  • Sacramento Water Forum
  • Sonoma County Water Agency
  • Tahoe Regional Planning Agency

Local Agencies

  • City of Salinas
  • City of San Francisco
  • Piedmont Unified School District

Nonprofit Organizations

  • Audubon
  • Colorado River Sustainability Campaign
  • Oakland Chamber of Commerce

Foundations

  • Community Foundation for Monterey County
  • Forest Foundation
  • Water Foundation

Companies

  • Cleveland Guardians

Education and Affiliations

Gina is a senior mediator on the rosters of the U.S. EPA and the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution. She holds an M.S. in conflict analysis and resolution from the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School, George Mason University, and a B.A. with honors in political science and international relations from the University of Illinois. 

Books and Articles