Job Posting: University of North Carolina at Charlotte

UNCC is hiring its first dedicated, full-time University Ombuds. The position will serve all faculty and staff at the public university in North Carolina's largest city. Since 2019, the UNCC Ombuds Office has included Todd Steck, the Faculty, and Staff Ombuds, Diana Rowan, the University Mediation Coordinator. Both are also faculty. This will be the first external search for an Ombuds at UNCC. 

Job Posting: Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education

ACGME, the not-for-profit that sets educational accreditation standards for US graduate medical education (residency and fellowship programs), is hiring a full-time Ombudsperson. "The Ombudsperson serves as the process content expert and primary point of contact for concerned parties who wish to report issues about their ACGME-accredited programs and/or Sponsoring Institutions." The position is independent, impartial, and exist outside of the ACGME accreditation process.

Job Posting: Atlanta Public Schools

The recently relaunched Organizational Ombuds Office for the public school system in Georgia is hiring an Ombuds Specialist. The new position will report to and support the APS Organizational Ombuds, Deirdre Smith. 

Boston Children’s Hospital Selects First Ombuds

Jennifer Mahony will become the first Ombuds Office Director for the leading acute care children's hospital in Boston next month. Mahoney moves to the position from the National Institutes of Health, where she has been an Associate Ombuds since January 2020. In her new role at Boston Children's, Mahoney will create an office to serve all employees following IOA standards.

Lamar University Opens Search for First Faculty Ombuds

The public university in Beaumont, Texas has opened an internal search for its first Faculty Ombuds. The 25%-time position will serve about 635 faculty members following IOA standards. Faculty have been advocating for an Ombuds for several years. The position is open only to tenured faculty. Applications are due by September 29, 2021. No salary indicated. (Lamar Posting.)

Update: University of Mississippi Ombuds Offers Secure Data Portal

Ole Miss's University Ombuds, Paul Caffera, has implemented a new option for visitors to provide information. His website explains: "In response to myriad requests from Ombuds Office Visitors, the University of Mississippi’s Office of the Ombuds is now able to offer visitors a point-to-point secure method of exchanging documents with the Ombuds Office, bypassing systems controlled by the University and subject to possible eavesdropping by University administrators or other University personnel." (UM Ombuds.)

Minneapolis Public Schools Selects Staff Ombuds

Montquice McCoy has been named the Director and Staff Ombudsperson for the large Minnesota school district. She will serve about 6,500 district employees across 100 school sites. She joins Mitchell Roldán, who established the MPS Office of the Ombudsperson in 2019 and will now focus on families, community members and other MPS stakeholders.

Western Kentucky University Names New Student Ombuds

Emmeline Essler has been appointed the new Student Ombuds Officer for WKU. She follows Lynne Holland, who established the Student Ombuds position last year, while also serving as Assistant Vice President, Dean of Students, and Chief Diversity Officer. Essler joins Karl Laves, who has served as the Faculty and Staff Ombuds at the public university in Bowling Green since 2008. 

JIOA Article on the Creation of a Quasi-Ombuds Program

The latest article in the peer-reviewed Journal of the International Ombudsman Association looks at the efforts to establish a campus conflict management program. "Establishing a quasi-ombuds program at a large university by adapting Ury, Brett, and Goldberg’s dispute system design model: A practitioner’s experience" was written by Nkaze Chateh, the former and founding Director of the Conflict Resolution and Mediation Programs at Eastern Carolina University. 

Faculty Seek to Expand Ombuds Program at University of Pittsburgh

The Faculty Assembly at Pitt has created a working group to explore the creation of a centralized Ombuds program that would serve faculty, staff and students. Currently, the public university has only a network of school-based collateral duty Ombuds that provide services to graduate students and postdocs. (Pitt News.)

Job Posting: United Nations, Mali

The United Nations Ombudsman and Mediation Services is hiring a Conflict Resolution Officer to be based in Bamako. The position will provide Ombuds and conflict resolution services to UN staff in the region, primarily the Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). The position reports to the Regional Ombudsman in Goma, Salif Boïté. 

Chuck Howard, IOA's First Executive Director, to Retire

Charles Howard, the leading advocate for Organizational Ombuds, will step down as the inaugural Executive Director of the International Ombudsman Association at the end of the year. During his four decades as a litigator, he often served as independent counsel and consultant for Ombuds. In 2010, he wrote a landmark legal guide for the profession, which was published by the American Bar Association. After he retired from active practice, Howard became IOA's first Executive Director in September 2019. Since then, he has helped guide the IOA Board of Directors through a series of challenges, not the least of which was the association's response to the coronavirus pandemic. During his career, Howard spoke out about the flawed Ombuds program at BP, encouraged public school districts to adopt Ombuds programs, advised the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, defended the embattled Ombuds at the University of Mississippi, and urged IOA members to update the association's bylaws. 

Midwestern University Appoints Ombuds for Medical Residents

The private graduate school with campuses in Illinois and Arizona has designated Kate Jansen as its Ombudsperson for medical residents. Midwestern University sponsors ACGME accredited residency programs at four hospitals an one clinic, all in Arizona: Canyon Vista Medical Center; Kingman Regional Medical Center; Mountain Vista Medical Center; Midwestern University Multispecialty Clinic; and Verde Valley Medical Center.

Job Posting: One Acre Fund

The Kenya-based nonprofit organization that supplies smallholder farmers in East Africa with asset-based financing and agriculture training services is hiring its first Ombuds. The fund's Global Ombuds/Mediator "will mediate employee conflict and investigate conduct complaints and resolve them, usually through recommendations and/or mediation." The position is to be based in East Africa and Kigali, Rwanda preferably. 

Texas A&M Announces New Faculty Ombuds

John J. Buchanan has been named the Faculty Ombuds Officer for the state's flagship public university. Although Texas A&M has several Ombuds that serve particular schools or programs, Buchanan will serve faculty "at the university level." He succeeds George Welch, who served as Faculty Ombuds for the past three years.