Allen J. Zerkin has been an Adjunct Associate Professor of Public Administration at NYU’s Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service since 1988, teaching courses on negotiation and conflict management. Since 1999, he has been conducting a popular one-day workshop on negotiation at the American Planning Association’s annual National Planning Conference. He earned his J.D. at Yale Law School.
Mr. Zerkin specializes in the design and facilitation of processes intended to bring mutual understanding, collaboration and, often, resolution to public issues and controversies. These initiatives take many forms: Stakeholder consensus building processes on public policy issues, mediations of site specific disputes, roundtables fostering in-depth dialogue, meaningful public participation initiatives, extensive stakeholder interviews that lead to recommendations and final discussions, and facilitation of meetings and retreats.