IOA Executive Director Ellen Miller authored an article for the American Society of Association Executives highlighting the value of Ombuds for associations. In the piece, Miller explains that Ombuds can help associations address volunteer conflict, member disengagement, governance tensions, and workplace culture challenges. She describes Ombuds as helping organizations “mitigate risk, strengthen trust, and foster respectful, supportive environments.” The article appeared in ASAE’s Associations Now Plus, extending visibility for Ombuds to ASAE’s broad network of association executives and industry partners.
Bathabile K. S. Mthombeni will serve as the on-site Ombuds for the Society for Cinema and Media Studies' conference on March 26-29, 2026, in Chicago. Mthombeni will serve as a resource for conference participants who have questions about the professional association's Code of Conduct. She will be available up to a year after the event. Mthombeni has been the Ombuds for Binghamton University since 2015, and has also served as conference Ombuds for Root & Shoot and the American Anthropological Association. (SCMS Ombuds.)
SRCD has again retained MWI to provide Conference Ombuds services for its 2027 Biennial Meeting, which will take place April 8–10, 2027, in Atlanta, Georgia. The large, international conference is expected to draw more than 6,500 attendees from research, practice, and policy communities.
David Carver has been selected to serve as the Conference Ombuds for the professional association also known as Division 41 of the American Psychological Association. He will offer Ombuds services to approximately 900 attendees during the AP-LS meeting in Reno, Nevada, on March 12-14, 2026. While serving on the American Psychological Association Council of Representatives, Carver led the successful effort to create an Ombuds Program for Council members in 2022.
MWI will provide conference Ombuds services for the American Planning Association’s 2026 National Planning Conference, April 25–28, 2026, in Detroit, which is expected to draw more than 5,000 attendees. Nnena Odim returns for a fourth year as Conference Ombuds
For the third consecutive year, Colorado Parks and Wildlife has partnered with MWI to provide Ombuds services for its Partners in the Outdoors Conference, taking place April 27–29, 2026, at the Cheyenne Mountain Resort in Colorado Springs.
Jai Calloway will return as Conference Ombuds for the event, which convenes leaders from across sectors to explore the evolving relationship between conservation and outdoor recreation in Colorado.
WEF, an international professional association for water quality professionals, has expanded its partnership with MWI, entering into a two-year agreement for conference Ombuds services at WEF Events through 2027. Caitlan Hendrickson has been the conference Ombuds for WEF's Technical Exhibition and Conference since 2022 and will be joined by Jai Calloway and Josh Hoch. MWI provides services in alignment with IOA standards, supporting WEF’s efforts to foster respectful and inclusive professional environments at its conferences.
Bathabile K. S. Mthombeni is serving as the Ombuds for AAA's annual meeting. Although the conference is taking place in Tampa, Florida, this week, Mthombeni is providing of services offsite. She brings considerable experience to the job, having served as the Ombuds for Binghamton University for the past decade and also shorter appointments for Common Cause, Gates Foundation, and Root & Shoot. (AAA Annual Meeting Info.)
Colorado Parks and Wildlife has hired an Ombuds as part of reform efforts for its Partners in the Outdoors Conference. The annual event, which is intended to engage conservationists and recreational users of the state's natural resources, was derailed by allegations of racism in 2022 and then canceled in 2023. Conference organizers have contracted with MWI to provide Conference Ombuds services in Breckenridge on April 15-17, 2024. Jai Calloway will serve as the Ombuds for over 400 attendees and others, including staff, presenters, and exhibitors.
The American Planning Association has renewed its contract with MWI for conference Ombuds services for two APA events in April and May 2024. Nnena Odim will return for a second year to provide in-person conference ombuds services at the APA’s National Planning Conference in Minneapolis, April 13-16, 2024, and remotely from May 8-10. Odim served as the conference Ombuds services for the Coastal & Estuarine Research Federation and the American Economic Association. According to the contract with MWI, Odim will practice to IOA standards. (NPC24 Ombuds.)
Colleen Passard has been hired as a Conference Ombuds for CNCF, a nonprofit that promotes Linux container technology. She will serve as the Ombudsperson and Mediator for CloudNativeCon on June 26-27 in Seattle and KubeDay in Tokyo on August 27, 2024. She also was the Ombuds for cdCon+GitOpsCon in Vancouver, May 8-9, 2023. In this role, Passard provides a "safe and confidential environment" for attendees to share concerns about the event, interactions with other attendees, and Code of Conduct incidents.
For the third year in a row, Kathleen Canul will serve as the Ombuds for SPSP's annual conference for social psychologists and personality psychologists. Canul is the former Campus Ombuds for the University of California Los Angeles and has served as conference Ombuds for several other professional associations. She is also a licensed psychologist. (SPSP Conf Program.)
Jen Graf Sims will return as the Conference Ombuds for the international wildlife stewardship association, a role she established in 2022. As conference Ombuds, Sims will IOA-compliant services for attendees and TWS members during its annual meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, on November 5-9, 2023. Sims brings more than a decade of Ombuds experience to the role, including work at the University of Texas Austin, San Manuel Band of Indians, Ashford University, and the University of Hawai'i. (TWS News.)
CERF, a nonprofit federation of professional societies, has contracted with MWI for Conference Ombuds services. MWI’s Ombuds panel member, Nnena Odim, will serve as Ombuds and practice to IOA standards. This is the first Conference Ombuds for CERF and the conference will take place November 12–16, 2023, in Portland, Oregon. Odim will serve as a resource for all attendees, staff, exhibitors, and others participating in CERF 2023. Odim has served as the Ombuds for the American Planning Association, CVS, and other organizations through MWI. (LinkedIn.)
Sylvain Bruni will serve as the inaugural Ombuds for HFES, an international professional association. Bruni will serve as Ombuds at the annual meeting in Washington, DC, October 23-27, 2023 (and be available to participants before and after the event). According to a charter, he will follow IOA standards and report directly to the association's executive director.
Maureen Brodie, CO-OP, will again serve as the Ombuds for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s Public Summit that will be held for the Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education on October 17 and 18, 2023, in Washington, D.C. She will practice to IOA standards, serving as a support resource for all attendees who participate either in-person or remotely.
MWI has been selected again to provide Conference Ombuds services for WEFTEC, the Water Environment Federation's Technical Exhibition and Conference. MWI's Ombuds panel member, Caitlan Hendrickson, CO-OP, will return as the Ombuds for the Water Environment Federation’s 96th annual Technical Exhibition and Conference set for September 30 – October 4, 2023, in Chicago. She will serve as a resource for all attendees (over 9,000 last year), staff, exhibitors, and anyone else participating in WEFTEC.
Root & Shoot is an NSF-funded association of science organzations that is working to eliminate systemic barriers and increase diversity in plant sciences. In response to a recent task force that identified significant concerns about personal safety and harassment and discrimination at conferences, Root & Shoot has arranged for on-site Ombuds services at three conferences in 2023. These will include Plant Biology 2023, Botany 2023, and the IS-MPMI 2023 Congress. The Root & Shoot Ombuds providers will be Bathabile K.S. Mthombeni and Laura Minero. Both will practice to IOA standards. Minero will be on site at IS-MPMI Congress and Mthombeni at Plant Biology and Botany meetings.
A group of volunteers is providing Ombuds services for the annual conference of SHEAR, the professional society of U.S. historians. According to the conference website: "They are the members of SHEAR’s new ombuds committee and their role is to help members and attendees uphold SHEAR’s Statement of Values. They are joined in this work by SHEAR’s new external ombudsperson, Dr. Ashley Valanzola." Members of the committee are all SHEAR members and history professors: Emily Conroy-Krutz (Michigan State University); Gautham Rao (American University); Jackie Beatty (York College of Pennsylvania); Rachel Shelden (Pennsylvania State University); and Kirsten Wood (Florida International University).
The American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America are seeking proposals for an Ombuds for their joint annual conference in St. Louis, Missouri, October 29-November 1, 2023. The contract would require pre-conference training of leadership, the in-person services during the conference, and post-conference follow up (including a written report) through December 2023. This would be the first Ombuds for any of these professional associations. There also is related opportunity to train ASA-CSSA-SSSA volunteers on "how to appropriately assist and identify bias, harassment, and inequities for bystander intervention."
