
Our stellar team of researchers and conflict management practitioners includes Mary Rowe, PhD (former MIT Ombuds and fondly known as the grandmother of organizational ombuds both near and far), Tim Hadeen, PhD (head researcher and university ombudsman), Neil Katz, PhD (head researcher and conflict management extraordinaire), Deborah Katz, JD (former head and creator of the Office of Collaborative Strategies at TSA), Carole Houk, JD (creator of the Medical Ombuds/Mediator Program in place throughout Kaiser Permanente) and Lauren Marx, MS (our fantastic millennial program manager and researcher for the project). We’ll be joined by ACUS interns and staff and aided by a top notch working group of practicing ombuds.
We’ll be looking at all federal ombuds programs, both externally and internally focused, surveying the population, identifying best practices and even digging deeper into a few programs to shine the spotlight on them.
This project offers an exciting opportunity to better understand the current programs and practices of federal ombuds offices and can help inform policy, improve practice, and strengthen both the profession and federal government conflict management systems.
We’re psyched and have already begun working on the project, but wanted to share our good news! If you are a federal ombuds, you can expect to hear from us soon. If you are interested in what’s happening in the world of federal ombuds, stay tuned and we will let you know when the report is ready for publication!