Ona Ferguson

Ona Ferguson is a Senior Associate at the Consensus Building Institute, where she designs and facilitates meetings about environmental and public policy issues, including land use, climate change, coastal and estuary management, Superfund sites, and organizational and strategic planning.

Recent experience includes managing a multi-year collaborative research project on strategies for managing the Hudson River Estuary shoreline to promote ecosystem health, co-facilitating the Cambridge Climate Congress and dialogue among city leadership and citizens, a national assessment of stormwater management challenges and opportunities for a research branch of NOAA, designing and co-leading a two-day federal policy dialogue on adaptive management and marine renewable energy, co-facilitating the community advisory group that works with the EPA and GE to oversee the dredging of PCBs from the Hudson River, and leading a strategic planning effort for the newly formed MA Division of Ecological Restoration.

Ona has developed and taught courses on negotiation, leadership, facilitation and communication skills for policy makers, non-profit sector staff and volunteers, and the private sector, and she manages an ongoing series of courses on resolving land use disputes sponsored by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. Ona has conducted multiple stakeholder assessments, including a study to identify current climate change related initiatives and opportunities in Massachusetts and a feasibility study of the potential for negotiated rulemaking of off-road vehicle use on Cape Hatteras National Seashore. Ona has a Masters of Environmental Management degree from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, where she studied Land Use Law and Policy, and a B.A. from Smith College.

CBI Blog and Podcast entries by Ona Ferguson

Articles by Ona Ferguson