Over the course of 30+ years I have engaged in mediation and other types of intervention in a wide range of contexts. The items below are, in my opinion, some highlights.
Working with the Director of the Palestinian Conflict Resolution Center (Wi’am), I edited and published a guide to a traditional Palestinian mediation method.
Working with Assidiq Al-Jarani, I helped coordinate educational and social interactions between American and Libyan groups during the period after the Locherbie plane sabotage when there was no formal diplomatic relationship between the US and Lybia. As a result of our efforts (in the US, Malta, and Maastricht) informal and then formal talks were begun that led to a renewal of diplomatic relations.
From 1990 through 1994, I worked with Ron Gurley and Larry Slagle (Director of Personnel at the Dept. of Agriculture) to develop and launch the Senior Executive Service Candidate Development Program (SESCDP). When we started, there were fewer than 10% of the SES incumbents in the government who were minorities or women. When we concluded the program after three years, minorities and women made up almost 20% of the SES corps.
Starting in 2001, I mediated a contract between CSX railroad and the Train Dispatchers union that was the first contract to be concluded using ADR techniques, and without the parties applying for traditional mandatory mediation under the National Mediation Board.
I was invited to deliver ADR training to the American Airlines managment team and the unions representing American’s ground crews at Heathrow airport in London. They were not under the US labor laws and were bargaining against a strike deadline. I delivered the training, and was asked to stay on to begin the bargaining. We concluded the deal in one week, avoided the strike, and all went out for a pint at the pub near the bargaining site.