Howard Gadlin, PhD

Ombudsman & Director of the Center for Cooperative Resolution
National Institutes of Health

Howard Gadlin, PhD has been Ombudsman and Director of the Center for Cooperative Resolution, at the National Institutes of Health since the beginning of 1999. Before that, from 1992 through 1998, he was University Ombudsperson and Adjunct Professor of Education at UCLA. He was also director of the UCLA Conflict Mediation Program and co-director of the Center for the Study and Resolution of Interethnic/Interracial Conflict. While in Los Angeles, he served as well as Consulting Ombudsman to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Prior to moving to Los Angeles Dr. Gadlin was Ombudsperson and Professor of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He currently serves as Chair of the Coalition of Federal Ombudsmen. Dr. Gadlin is past President of the University and College Ombuds Association and of The Ombudsman Association (TOA).

An experienced mediator, trainer and consultant, he has years of experience working with conflicts related to race, ethnicity and gender, including sexual harassment. At present he is developing new approaches to addressing conflicts among scientists. He is often called in as a consultant/mediator in “intractable” disputes. He has designed and conducted training programs internationally in dispute resolution, sexual harassment and multicultural conflict. He is the author, among other writings, of “Conflict, Cultural Differences, and the Culture of Racism,” and “Mediating Sexual Harassment.” He is the co-author of the “On Neutrality: What An Organizational Ombudsman Might Want to Know.” Recently he was Guest Editor of a Negotiation Journal section entitled “The Many, Different and Complex Roles Played by Ombudsmen in Dispute Resolution.”