David Kovick is currently a Senior Associate at the Consensus Building Institute, a not-for-profit organization that provides mediation and dispute system design services to public and private clients worldwide. David’s work at CBI has a particular focus on dispute resolution in international settings. This includes negotiation and conflict resolution skills training for public and private partners, mediation and facilitation of complex public disputes, and conflict assessment and process design. Current projects include management of an Advanced Negotiation training program for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), training corporate partners in negotiation and dispute resolution, managing a complex conflict assessment in Israel over Bedouin land and development issues, and exploring opportunities for application of consensus-building tools in the field of international political development.

David is trained as a lawyer, having completed his JD at Stanford Law School in 2004. He then served as a fellow with the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s Conflict Resolution Program.

Prior to law school, David spent five years working in international political development with the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI). As a field representative in Zimbabwe, he promoted inter-party dialogue and electoral confidence-building measures around the 2000 parliamentary elections. At a regional level, he coordinated a Southern African inter-ministerial dialogue on anti-corruption issues. In Southeast Asia, he developed and launched a regional anti-corruption program with political parties across Asia.

He received his BA from Duke University in 1996 with a joint degree in political science and African studies.