About Robin

Teacher, researcher, consultant and parent
(he/him)
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I am interested in how people make decisions, both the easy every-day kind and the once-a-year or once-in-a-lifetime kind. My focus as a teacher, researcher, and consultant has been to support individuals and groups address difficult decisions in ways that are true to their values and recognize the critical role of different perspectives, uncertainty, imbalances in power, emotions, and tough trade-offs.

I live in a rural area near the ocean close to Vancouver British Columbia; love jazz, spicy foods and Calvin and Hobbes; enjoy spending time outdoors with my wife Terry, various dogs and cats, family members Shaun and Ericha, Nicole and Lonnie, Alaya and Fynn, and many good friends -- my fiercest critics and best companions.

Robin leads Choiceworks Ltd. consulting, is Senior Research Scientist with Decision Research Center, Oregon Research Institute in Eugene, Oregon and Adjunct Professor with IRES (Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability) at the University of British Columbia. He works on problems of public policy and risk analysis, stakeholder consultation, environmental and adaptive management, youth and adult decision-making skills, choices under uncertainty, and community and Indigenous participation in policy development and implementation. His research and applied work emphasizes collaborative decision-aiding approaches that help participants to understand their own and others’ responses to the consequences of actions characterized by multiple dimensions, substantial uncertainty, and often controversy.

Robin leads Choiceworks Ltd. consulting, is Senior Research Scientist with Decision Research Center, Oregon, Research Institute in Eugene and Adjunct Professor with IRES (Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability) at the University of British Columbia. His research and applied work emphasizes collaborative decision-aiding approaches that help participants to understand their own and others’ responses to the consequences of actions characterized by multiple dimensions, substantial uncertainty, and often controversy.

The approach Robin uses starts by working with individuals and groups to understand the decision context, then identifies what might be affected, the different choices that could be made and their likely consequences, and finally helps participants to articulate key trade-offs and (after first making a decision) to monitor the outcomes. Although there are no promises that things will work out as desired -- good decisions don't guarantee good outcomes --- using a sequenced, values-focused decision-making process informed by intuitions will increase the likelihood of a good decision outcome.