Work 2009-2019

Mediation, Facilitation, Conflict Analysis & Assessment 2009-2019

Work with UBC at its Point Grey and Okanagan campuses began in earnest in 2009, through an invitation to teach UBC’s new faculty Department Heads and Associate Deans, a key group of academic leaders. So began Conflict Resolution and Negotiation, which evolved to Conflict Engagement, a course I delivered each year until 2019.

This has led to my working with well over 50 different faculties and departments at UBC.

Some examples of my work include:

Respectful Environment Initiative (2010-2013) Under the auspices of the Respectful Environment Advisory Group, I have provided conflict assessment and analysis to Deans, Associate Deans & Department Heads.

As well, my work included:

Facilitation of leadership teams and strategic planning sessions for a number of different faculties engaged in building a culture of collaboration.

Mediation with lab research groups, work units, faculty-faculty disputes, and faculty-student disputes.

Assessment & analysis of intractable conflicts, reporting to leadership and joint strategizing of ways forward.

Coaching leadership & faculty on “conflict fluency” in approaching difficult or entrenched conflicts.

Training faculty, administrative management and staff in customized courses on various aspects of workplace conflict.




Other examples of University work include:

Student Services Annual Conference - keynote speaker, 2011

Human Resources Advisors – capacity-building for high conflict situations

Coaching at UBC – working with David Diamond –“Conflict Theatre & Conflict Engagement” for the Coaching at UBC program. (October, 2012)

Association of Administrative & Professional Staff – Professional Development training for this group, “Making Respectful Environment a Reality” (November, 2012)

Community Services – Training for Community Service Managers (Bookstore, Security, Mail & Parking) (May, 2013)

Managing at UBC – Starting in 2010 and continuing until 2019 – training to various cohorts of Managers at UBCO and UBC, “Managing Conflict in the Workplace”.


Other work:

Together with Ardith A.(Walpetko We’dalx)Walkem and Louise Mandell,QC, I organized a conference called “Indigenous Legal Orders and the Common Law”, sponsored by Continuing Legal Education BC (CLEBC) November, 2012, with speakers Chief Justice Beverly McLachlin, Supreme Court, Canada; Mr. Justice Lance Finch (then Chief Justice, BC Court of Appeal); the Honorable Steven Point, (former Lt.Gov. of BC); and Professor John Burrows, among others. This conference was webcast as far away as the Canadian Embassy in Cairo, and it received the International Association of Continuing Legal Education Societies’ Award for Best CLE Program in 2013.

Mediation:

I mediated in a wide variety of settings, with primary focus on workplace (academia and government), estate and family mediation.

In 2013, I was honoured to receive Mediate BC’s Award of Excellence in Mediation together with Carole McKnight.


Teaching:

Together with Judge Donna Senniw and Christine Hart, I taught Canada’s new Provincial Court Judges (each November at Niagara-on-the–Lake) “Settlement Conference Skills” annually until 2018.

For CLEBC, I taught an Advanced Mediation course on Mediator Presence, on Hornby Island, in the early fall, “Deepening the Mediator Mindset”.


Writing:
(See links under Activism)

* This name and concept came from colleague Bernard Mayer, Staying with Conflict: A Strategic Approach to Ongoing Disputes, New York: Jossey-Bass, 2009.

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS 2020

No matter how stimulating the work, how rich the relationships with colleagues, and how challenging the career, there comes a time to step back and make room for younger, fresher voices, for more diversity in the endlessly fascinating world of conflict engagement.

That time has largely come for me in the past 5 years, as I have gradually let go of mediation and training, referring clients to others who bring their unique backgrounds and current–day perspectives to this work.

Colleague Julie Daum, (Wet’suwet’en mediator and trainer) and I had the great pleasure of designing and delivering a three day course called Circle Process for Mediators on Hornby Island, October, 2018. We worked under the auspices of Continuing legal Education BC . Combined with Julie’s experience and wisdom, for me this course felt like a gathering together of much of the best I have learned over the years, like my course on Mediator Presence. I am ever grateful to CLEBC for their ongoing support of fresh approaches to working with conflict.

In May 2019, I delivered a two day variation on the Circle Process course to Mediators for BC’s Public Services Administration.

My working life is now at a very manageable level, so I have the luxury of time for other pursuits, including study on militarism and war-making, particularly with respect to the Middle East and to the global climate crisis, activism, and writing on those and other topics. I’ve been enjoying writing a few book reviews for BC’s Ormsby Review, a great way to develop my writing chops I figure! Travel to World Beyond War’s 5th Annual Conference in Ottawa, in May, 2020, will hopefully further challenge this cub reporter/emerging Peace Correspondent.

Who knows what’s next?