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David E. Booher

David Booher provides strategic consulting to the Center on research, education, and policy issues. He is a planner and policy consultant in many of the content areas for collaborative policy and has authored and co-authored numerous scholarly articles and book chapters on governance, public participation, collaborative policy, and consensus building, including the lead chapter in Deliberative Policy Analysis: Understanding Governance in the Network Society published by Cambridge University Press. His recent publications include "Collaborative Governance" in the Encyclopedia of Public Administration and Public Policy and "Civic Engagement as Collaborative Complex Adaptive Networks" in the new book Civic Engagement in Network Society. David is an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Public Policy and Administration at California State University, Sacramento where he teaches graduate courses on collaborative policy-making. He is also a Visiting Scholar at the Institute of Urban and Regional Development at the University of California, Berkeley. David's current research focus is on the role of collaboration strategies in supporting more adaptive governance by public agencies, and the role of civic engagement in public decision making to improve policy outcomes.

David has worked on collaborative policy projects with the Center since 1990, including serving as Co-Chair of the California Governance Consensus Project and as Chair of the California Environmental and Economic Recovery Coalition. He coordinates the Collaborative Democracy Network on behalf of the Center. David is available to consult with the Center and its clients on collaborative projects. Recently he assisted the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District and the City of West Sacramento to implement an agreement for the District to take over wastewater treatment services for the City. He also assisted in an assessment of governance, climate and culture for Sacramento State. In addition to these projects, David has worked on collaborative projects in strategic planning, statewide water planning, groundwater management, land use, infrastructure, housing, K-12 education, and state and local budgeting.

David holds Master degrees in political science from Tulane University and in planning from the University of Tennessee.