About

Tanya Denckla Cobb

Associate Director, Institute for Environmental Negotiation

Tanya Denckla Cobb is a writer, teacher, and professional mediator and facilitator in environmental public policy. Through her career she has worked for the federal government, state government, local and regional nonprofit organizations and as an independent consultant.

While working for the federal government she specialized in international labor rights and served on U.S. delegations to the U.N. International Labor Organization. In 1991 she co-founded the nonprofit community organization Greener Harrisonburg, and served as Executive Director for three years. During this time she became a certified mediator and mediation instructor. She then worked with the Virginia Department of Forestry and served as Executive Director for the nonprofit Virginia Urban Forestry Council. Since 1997 she has worked at the UVA Institute for Environmental Negotiation where her work involves facilitating and mediating a broad range of community and environmental issues. She is passionate about bringing people together to discover common ground and create solutions for mutual gain.

In 1999 she co-founded and continues to serve as teaching faculty for the Virginia Natural Resources Leadership Institute. She also teaches a seminar for the National Preservation Institute on negotiation and conflict resolution for cultural and natural resource managers. And in 2004 she pioneered with UVa professor Timothy Beatley a series of graduate-level courses on food system planning.

Tanya continues to feel surprised and blessed by the rich and diverse experiences of her journey. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that one book on organic gardening has morphed into three, each time improving in design and organization: Gardening at a Glance (1991), The Organic Gardener’s Home Reference (1994), and the Gardener’s A-Z Guide to Growing Organic Food (2004). (below)

The Gardener’s A-Z Guide to Growing Organic Food