Jeff A. Blair, principal and owner of Facilitated Solutions, LLC is a facilitator and process consultant based in Tallahassee, Florida, with over 35 years of experience assessing and analyzing complex issues in public, private and nonprofit organizations with a specialty in multi-party collaborative stakeholder consensus processes involving science and technical issues and strategic planning. In addition, he is retired research faculty at Florida State University (FSU) and served as Associate Director for the FCRC Consensus Center at FSU for twenty-one years. He specializes in facilitation and process design and in addition his work includes situation assessment, strategic planning and implementation, and consensus building among diverse stakeholder interests with divergent perspectives on complex issues. He has worked with federal, state, local government, non-governmental organizations, and private sector representatives to design and implement collaborative approaches to consensus-building, planning, rulemaking, and dispute resolution with an emphasis on stakeholder participation in the planning, design, implementation, and monitoring of policy actions in more than 190 projects and over 2500 meetings.
Ongoing projects include serving as process designer, lead facilitator, and conflict resolution consultant for stakeholder groups including: 1) The Oyster Recovery Partnership’s Oyster Coalition Workgroup tasked with developing recommendations for a Sustainable Oyster Restoration and Management Plan for Eastern Bay, Maryland (Chesapeake Bay); 2) The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science’s (UMCES) National Science Foundation’s (NSF) funded Convergence Accelerator Project tasked with developing “A New Biomanufacturing Process for Making Precipitated Calcium Carbonate and Plant-Based Compounds that Support Human Health” by transforming waste streams of desalination plants into sustainable products that capture carbon from the atmosphere; 3) The Florida Building Commission’s Existing Building Inspection Workgroup tasked by the Florida Legislature with reviewing the milestone inspection requirements in Statute and making recommendations to the Legislature to ensure inspections are sufficient to determine the structural integrity of a building; and 4) The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation’s Florida Building Commission’s ongoing process of building consensus on all aspects of the Florid Building Code System including facilitating over 1,500 individual meetings for the Commission since 1999 including 70 special issue stakeholder workgroup projects.
Examples of recent projects include designing the process and successfully facilitating unanimous consensus agreement between diverse stakeholder interests on the following consensus building projects:
- Florida State University’s Apalachicola Bay System Initiative Community Advisory Board’s unanimously adopted recommendations for the Apalachicola Bay System Ecosystem-Based Adaptive Management and Restoration Plan for restoring the Apalachicola Bay System (2019 – 2013) – Adopted Unanimously 29 November 2023;
- The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science’s Bailey Wildlife Foundation’s funded Global Defense for Coral Reef Wildlife interdisciplinary Research Team research project to build a system to support corals and coral reef wildlife by creating carbon neutral or negative habitat and in the process removing carbon dioxide from the air (2019 – 2013) – Final Research Report Delivered April 2024;
- Design and development of a Priority Issues Workplan and associated Workplan Tracking Flowchart for The Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint Stakeholders (ACFS) ongoing work to develop consensus on a science-based water supply plan for the ACF Basin (2021 – 2022) – Adopted Unanimously 23 March 2022;
- The Nature Conservancy’s Pensacola Bay System Stakeholder Working Group on the Oyster Fisheries and Habitat Management Plan for the Pensacola Bay System (2019 – 2021) – Adopted Unanimously 17 March 2021; and
- The Coastal SEES OysterFutures Workgroup on Recommendations for Oyster Management in the Choptank and Little Choptank Rivers (Chesapeake Bay) (2015 – 2018) – Adopted Unanimously 24 March 2018.
Additional project examples include: the USFWS’ Loxahatchee and Hobe Sound NWRs Strategic Alignment Initiative Workplan Adopted Unanimously 5 December 2019; the USFWS’ Regional Strategic Vision Alignment Initiative on USFWS R4 Strategic Vision Alignment Plan Adopted Unanimously 26 June 2019; the Suwannee River Partnership Steering Committee (FDACS, FDEP, SRWMD, UF/IFAS) Planning Initiative on Priority Strategic Actions Workplan Adopted Unanimously 17 August 2018; the North Florida Regional Water Supply Partnership Stakeholder Advisory Committee (SRWMD/SJRWMD/FDEP/FDACS) on the North Florida Regional Water Supply Plan Adopted Unanimously 2 November 2016; the Gulf of Mexico Angler Focus Group Initiative on Examination of Possible Private Recreational Management Options for Gulf of Mexico Red Snapper Adopted Unanimously 30 November 2016; and the Ocean Conservancy’s For-Hire Recreational Fisheries Electronic Monitoring Assessment Report Assessment Report and Recommendations Delivered January 2017.
Jeff served as process consultant and facilitator for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ (FDACS) Pest Control Enforcement Advisory Council, Pesticide Review Council, FDACS Agricultural Feed, Seed and Fertilizer Advisory Council, and the Florida Coordinating Council on Mosquito Control for over ten years. He facilitated the Florida Division of Emergency Management’s Flood Resistant Standards Workgroup and the Florida Emergency Notification System Vision Workshop. He has done work for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) including the National Saltwater Recreational Fishing Summit, Deepwater BP Oil Spill Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement scoping workshops, NOAA Fisheries Chesapeake Modeling Symposium and the Gulf of Mexico Grouper Forum. Work for United States Environmental Protections Agency (USEPA) includes the National Bedbug Summit and the International Public Health Pesticides Workshop in London, England. In addition, he facilitated the Deepwater Horizon Natural Resource Damage Assessment Trustee Council (Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and the DOI, NOAA, and DOD).
Work for the private sector includes designing and facilitating the Recreational Boating Stakeholders Growth Summit, and working with National Pest Management Association (NPMA), National Marine Manufactures Association (NMMA), Association for Structural Pest Control Regulatory Officials (ASPCRO), Association of American Plant Food Control Officials (AAPFCO), Florida Green Building Coalition (FGBC), National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), Florida Natural Gas Association (FNGA), and the Solar Policy Advocates Board. Mr. Blair has provided facilitation, planning, and process design for numerous agencies, entities, non-profit organizations and associations since 1977.
He is a Florida Supreme Court Certified Mediator, a U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution, National Roster of Environmental Dispute Resolution and Consensus Building Professionals qualified/approved practitioner, a qualified/approved practitioner on EPA’s Environmental ADR Neutrals Roster, and is qualified as a Senior Conflict Management Specialist for the Department of Interior’s (DOI) Office of Collaborative Action and Dispute Resolution (CADR), and DOI’s Workplace Conflict Management roster. He is a Florida Certified General Contractor and operated a successful design-build firm in Tallahassee Florida from 1980 – 1998 winning the parade of homes three times. He is a graduate of the University of Florida (Philosophy and Anthropology) and the Florida State University (Social Policy and Dispute Resolution).
In summary, Jeff Blair has the education, experience, and skills, to effectively collaborate with clients to design, implement, and facilitate successful consensus-building initiatives working with diverse stakeholders on complex policy issues. In addition, Jeff has extensive experience facilitating virtual meetings via various webinar platforms including Zoom, Go-To-Meeting, Webex, Microsoft Teams, and Skype for Business.
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Facilitated Solutions, LLC adheres to the Statement-of-Values-and-Code-of-Ethics adopted by the International Association of Facilitators (IAF).