City of Seattle Promotes and Adds Ombuds Staff

Seattle's Office of the Employee Ombud has promoted Assistant Ombud Emma Phan to the position of Senior Ombud & Head of ADR, and Rachel Nicholson to Ombud & Head of Capacity Building. The office also recently promoted some of its newer staff members: Associate Ombuds, Isar Mahanian and Barbara Allen, and Assistant Ombud & Training Specialist, Cesar Seguil. According to the office's latest annual report from Director Amarah Y. Khan, the program handled 299 cases and provided 73 training sessions in 2022. (LinkedIn; Seattle OEO 2022 Report.)

Isar Mahanian started as Case Manager with the OEO in July 2022. She had previously worked in program management and administrative positions in a range of organizations, from nonprofit to health care to corporate. Mahanian graduated from the University of Washington and earned an MS (in negotiation and conflict resolution) at Columbia University. (LinkedIn.)

Barbara Allen was hired as Case Manager in July 2023. Her career has been in organizational leadership development and facilitation/mediation work. Allen graduated from Arkansas Tech University and she earned an MBA and PhD (in conflict analysis & resolution) at Nova Southeastern University. (LinkedIn.)

Cesar Seguil joined the program in April 2023 as Senior Training & Education Coordinator. He brought 18 years of training and administrative experience, primarily in higher education. He earned his BA and MA from The Ohio State University. (LinkedIn.)

Related posts: Seattle to Create Ombuds Office for City Employees; Seattle Names First Ombuds for City Employees; UW Ombud Moves to New Office at City of Seattle; City of Seattle Adds an Ombuds.