Earlier this week, the President of the private liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine endorsed a charter for its Ombuds Office. The document defines and protects the program established by Jacqueline M. Reese since her appointment in 2023. The charter adopts IOA standards of practice with no exceptions.
Adepeju ('Peju) O. Solarin was appointed the Director of the Office for Conflict Resolution at the U of M in April 2024 and Max Markin joined as Assistant Director in September. Together, they provide Ombuds and related services to serves faculty, staff, and student workers. Meanwhile, finn j. schneider continues as University Ombud and Director of the similarly-named but separate Student Conflict Resolution Center. (UMN OCR.)
The latest podcase from the Center for Effective Dispute Resolutions explores the crucial role Ombuds services play in resolving workplace conflicts and how mediator skills are essential in achieving resolution. CEDR's Chief Executive, James South, speaks with four Ombuds with extensive and extensive experience from both public and private sectors: Youssoupha Niang (UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency); Judit Revesz (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies); James Claxton (United Nations Funds and Programmes); and Estelle Ghyselinck (Sanofi).
Philadelphia is hiring another Assistant Employee Ombudsperson. The full-time position will report to the inaugural Employee Ombudsperson, Shakeya Foreman., who has been building out an office for the past year. The full-time position will be responsible for responding to city employees with workplace issues case management, data collection, and administrative tasks. The work will be hybrid with some in-office days.
American InterContinental University has opened a search for its first Ombudsman. AUI is a private for-profit university based in Schaumburg, Illinois, but the full-time position is advertised as fully remote. It is owned by the for-profit company Perdoceo Education Corporation. The position will establish and manage a program that is not expected to meet IOA standards. The job description appears to be a complaint manager and includes these duties:
The FDIC's Office of the Internal Ombuds is seeking two Student Trainees. The paid, part-time positions will provide "administrative support in the areas of addressing workplace-related concerns and employee engagement/workplace improvement initiatives." The positions require at least 24-hours per week during the full academic year and full time during summer/holiday breaks, and are based in Washington, DC. Interns are eligible for hire after successful completion of the program requirements, including at least 480 hours of work experience.
In November 2023, Erin Vaughn Jones was appointed the first Ombudsperson for UMMC, the health sciences campus of the University of Mississippi. In this new role, Jones reports administratively to the Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and provides services to faculty, staff, students, and trainees for the health system, which comprises seven schools, four teaching hospitals, and many other clinics and research facilities.
Karen A. Reardon has been appointed the Ombuds Officer for the public university near Atlantic City, New Jersey. In this half-time role, Reardon serves faculty, staff, and students (a total population of about 11,000), and she follows Lisa M. Lyle in the position.
The public research university in Tallahassee has opened a search for its a University Student Ombuds. The position will serve all enrolled students, a population of over 32,000. Currently, students are served by two collateral-duty Ombuds: Undergraduates by Jill Flees (Director for the Graduation Planning & Strategies Office); and Graduate students by James Beck (Senior Graduate Policy Program Coordinator). There is a separate Ombuds program for faculty and staff. The full-time position is located within the FSU Office of Compliance & Ethics.
The Coalition of Federal Ombuds has announced its primary plenary speakers for its Annual Conference this Friday October 25th, and the conference day has been approved for 5.0 PDH. Registration is now open for the conference, which will be held for both in-person and virtual attendees from 9 AM – 5 PM Eastern time. The in-person portion of the conference will be held at the Clara Barton Auditorium at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria, VA.
Registration is free. A full agenda will be posted shortly here.
The public research university at the southern tip of Texas seeks internal applicants to be its next Faculty Ombuds. The search will fill a half-time position established by Veronica Cano in 2018. The Faculty Ombudsperson serves about 1,200 UTRGV academic employees and practices to IOA standards.
The regional development bank based in Metro Manila, Philippines, is hiring an Senior Ombuds Programs Officer. (The Bank ran a similar search one year ago.) The full-time position that will provide Ombuds services to all ADB stakeholders and report to the ADB Ombuds, Wayne Blair. The position will also supervise administrative staff in the office.
The private research university in Los Angeles will expand its Ombuds Office with the addition of a new Assistant Ombudsperson. Responsibilities for the full-time position are two-fold: providing high-level administrative support and providing Ombuds services. The position will report jointly to USC's two University Ombuds, Katherine Greenwood, CO-OP, and Tom Kosakowski, and practice to IOA standards.
In August, Ingrid Segers-Claessen was appointed the first Ombudsfunctionaris Studenten for the public research university in the Netherlands. She will provide services to about 20,000 students. Tilburg is in the process of hiring an Employee Ombuds.
Three Ombuds and a student from the University of Maryland, Karen M. O’Brien, Nazish M. Salahuddin, Mashanda Y. Mosley, and Karoline J. Trovato, are the coauthors of a new article in the peer-reviewed Journal of the International Ombuds Association. In "Doing Our Best Work: Bringing Identity Awareness and Cultural Humility to the Ombuds Role," the authors encourage practicing Ombuds to become more mindful of how their racial and gender identies affect their work. The article is the second JIOA's Special Issue on Diversity Equity Inclusion and Belonging.
The federal agency that issues patents and registers trademarks is hiring another Senior Associate Ombudsman. Based in Alexandria, Virginia, the position will report to Chief Ombudsman Paul Sotoudeh and work alongside Senior Associate Ombuds Andrea Brown and Nellie Haddad. The job does require living in the DC area (and USPTO can’t pay for relocation), but does allow for three days per week of telework.
The public community college in Carterville, Illinois, has appointed Adrienne Barkley Giffin as its first Student Ombudsperson. She will provide services to over 3,300 students following IOA standards.
Liz Hill, the Associate Director at the University of Colorado Boulder Ombuds Office was a guest this week on "Conflict Managed," a podcast hosted by Merry Brown, a workplace conflict restoration consultant and mediator. Hill has been an Ombuds for 17 years and brings a wide range of experience to her work with clients and advocacy for the profession. In this podcast, she offers advice for managing workplace conflict.
The first International Conference on Student Participation will include several sessions relevant to Ombuds. The conference "seeks to address all the dimensions in which student participation develops and can develop within higher education institutions, with a multilevel and multi-stakeholder approach." The conference will be hosted by on the University of Córdoba and Pablo de Olavide University in Córdoba, Spain, on 28-29 October 2024 (and partially streamed online).
MWI has announced that Jacqueline Villafañe and Ralph Johnson will serve as Ombuds team members for the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, a private foundation that makes grants and impact investments to support nonprofit organizations in approximately 117 countries around the world. Villafane and Johnson will serve over 200 staff at their headquarters in Chicago, and offices in India and Nigeria. Previously, a different contractor provided Ombuds services to the Foundation for a little over years.
EMBL, the intergovernmental laboratory for the life sciences in Heidelberg, Germany, seeks its next Ombudsperson. The search will fill a position established by Martina Peskoller-Fuchs in 2015. The position serves about staff members, local staff, fellows, trainees and visitors at sites across Europe, including: Hinxton near Cambridge, Grenoble, Hamburg, Rome, and Barcelona. The EMBL Ombuds will serve a five-year term and is renewable to nine years.
The multilateral development bank based in Beijing has opened search for an Ombuds Service Analyst. The position reports to the Ombudsperson (which is being filled by a concurrent, international search) and will assist with research, training and outreach event organization, data collection and analysis, and reporting.
The Ombudsman for Public Education in Washington, DC—a neutral and independent office that provides conflict resolution services related to public education—is hiring a Senior Advisor to the Ombudsman. The position "serves as a subject matter expert and key advisor to the Director, providing a broad range of operational management, project management, and research and writing support [including] coordination of case management, outreach and engagement, mediation, policy recommendations, and ensures compliance with applicable policies, procedures, regulations, and laws." Kimberly R. Humphrey was named the Director and Ombudsman on April 22, 2024.
The public research university in Ontario has opened a search for a full-time Ombudsperson. The position is expected to establish and manage an office to serve approximately 40,000 students following ACCUO standards of practice and reporting to the University Secretary. UWaterloo conducted a similar and ultimately unsuccessful search in November 2023.
Nick Diehl has been selected the next Head of Ombuds & Mediation Services for the Latin American Development Bank. He follows Ellen Connors in the position and is expected to serve an initial five-year term. Diehl will be based at IDB's headquarters in Washington, DC, and report directly to the President.
Tijuana D. Collier has been selected as the second, full-time Assistant Ombudsperson in the Ombuds Office at the University of Iowa. She joins University Ombuds, Chanelle Reese, Assistant Ombuds, Corey P. Pass, and half-time Faculty Ombuds, Meenakshi GiGi Durham. They service faculty, staff, and students—including all of UI Healthcare.
The University of Wyoming is inviting campus stakeholders to sessions with the two finalists in the current search for the next Ombudsperson. Both candidates will be on campus on October 1, 2024: Don Appiarius, a VP for Student Development Services at Pitt Community College; and Onye Riches, Regional Ombudsman for The Redeemed Church International (Redeemed Christian Church of God). (UWyo News.)
