Hans has a Ph.D. in Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and a B.S. in Architecture degree from the University of Cincinnati. Once he had his doctorate, Hans worked as the Planning Director for the City of Lynn, Massachusetts (population 100,000), as Project Manager for MIT’s Transportation Systems Division, and as Director of the Planning Department for a large Environmental Engineering Consulting firm, ARIX, that works in the entire Rocky Mountain region. Hans began his last “real job” as a tenured professor at the University of Wyoming in 1975, where he was recruited to create - and then administer - its Graduate Program in Community and Regional Planning. For twelve years he served as Director of that program. It was at the University that Hans first began teaching his unique approach to Citizen Participation, in a series of courses: Leadership, Professional Ethics, Citizen Participation by Objectives, and Dealing with Domestic Terrorists and Extremists, etc. As of 1987, he devoted his full-time attention to developing and teaching these leadership and consent-building skills to public-sector professionals nation-wide. The Bleikers’ Consent-Building methodology to Public Involvement actually began in the mid-1960s while Hans was doing Public-Sector Decision-Making research as part of his Doctoral Thesis. His thesis focused on a practical management strategy that would allow public agencies to be both responsible to their mission and responsive to their diverse publics. i.e. How to be responsive to the conflicting demands of the various publics without compromising the agency’s mission. As part of his thesis, Hans did case studies on four of the most complex transportation problems in the United States. Since retiring from the University, Hans and Annemarie – she is an Urban Anthropologist -- have worked solely on teaching their methodology to tens of thousands of students around the country, and at times internationally.