Ms. Bean started Collaborative Focus in 1998 after several years as the vice president of a well known mediation and public outreach firm. Prior to 1991, she was an environmental analyst, planner and manager with a major engineering firm in Virginia and California. She also managed and helped organize two of the first county surface water management programs as a planner and manager with the Snohomish and King County public works departments. Ms. Bean did her first  graduate work at the University of California at Berkeley, and her undergraduate work at Huxley College of Environmental Studies at Western Washington University. She also pursued post-graduate work in the College of Forest Resources at the University of Washington, under the tutelage of Dr. Clare Ryan. Her interest in re-entering a practical research environment was part of her motivation to start her own firm, yielding the flexibility for studies and inquiry.