Steve Bliven is a Senior Associate at the Urban Harbors Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He has over 25 years of practical experience in coastal and wetland resource management and permitting programs. In this period he has worked with local, state, federal, and non-profit organizations as well as the public-at-large in the areas of program development, evaluation, and implementation; education and outreach; meeting facilitation; and policy and regulatory development and implementation.

He has worked with local wetland management boards, spent almost 15 years with the Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management Office (much of that time as Assistant Director), and several years in the private consulting sector with such clients as the US EPA Ocean and Coastal Protection Division, the US EPA Wetlands Division, NOAA's Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management, and several of the National Estuarine Research Reserves.

Much of his current work focuses on two areas. The first is bridging the gap that seems to exist between research scientists, "on the ground managers", and elected or appointed officials. This work includes "translation" of science into informational and guidance documents for coastal managers, facilitation of workshops bringing together scientific and legal experts to develop management solutions, and presenting technical workshops and training for local managers.

The second principal focus involves coastal resource management program development and analysis. Presently, Steve is the Project Manager of an evaluation of the New Jersey Coastal Zone Management Program and he has provided evaluations of training programs and program successes for both the EPA and NOAA.