My Story

I am an internationally-recognized expert, speaker, author, coach, and teacher on negotiation, mediation, consensus-building, dialogue, and facilitation. Currently a Senior Fellow at Harvard Law School, I served as the Thaddeus R. Beal Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law School for more than two decades where I also founded and directed the Harvard Law School Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program. I am also on the roster of neutrals and part of the organizational systems practice at The Mediation Group in Brookline, Massachusetts.

I have taught thousands of executives, government leaders, healthcare professionals, military officials, and diplomats over the last two decades through tailored executive education and leadership programs for companies, schools, government and non-profits as well as through Harvard’s Program on Negotiation’s Negotiation and Leadership Executive Education Program and through the Harvard Negotiation Institute at Harvard Law School. I have also served as a visiting faculty member at the Georgetown University Law Center and at Boston University’s School of Theology.

I currently serve on the Board of Directors of Seeds of Peace, the Board of Advisors for the Center for Empathy in International Affairs, the Advisory Board for the Catholic Common Ground Initiative, and the Advisory Board for the Paulist Initiative on Polarization. In addition, I am a Senior Advisor to the National Institute for Civil Discourse and an appointed member of the LGBTQ+ Commission for the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In the past, I served on the Board of Overseers for the Center for Social Impact at Dartmouth College, the Executive Committee of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, the Advisory Board of the Systemic Justice Project at Harvard Law School, and as the faculty advisor to the Harvard Mediation Program, Harvard Negotiators, the Harvard Negotiation Law Review, the LGBTQ affinity group, and the Catholic Law Students Association. I also served on the J.D. Admissions Committee of Harvard Law School for more than a decade.

During my time on the Harvard faculty, I taught a number of courses, including the school’s flagship Spring Negotiation Workshop, a seminar on dispute systems design, an advanced workshop on multiparty negotiation, group decision-making, and teams, and an interdisciplinary research seminar on dispute resolution. I also developed an innovative new class at Harvard Law School, entitled The Lawyer as Facilitator.

Research, Writing, and Media

My research interests include developing and testing methods of effective public dialogue on issues that cut to the core of identity, meaning, belonging, and belief and the assessment, reform, design, and implementation of dispute handling systems for organizations, societies, and institutions.

The second edition of my textbook, Designing Systems and Processes for Managing Disputes (Wolters-Kluwer 2019) was published in January 2019. Written with my colleagues Nancy Rogers, Craig McEwen, and the late Frank Sander, it is the first textbook that integrates systems design literature and the latest research in dispute resolution. I also co-edited The Handbook of Dispute Resolution (Jossey-Bass, 2005, with Michael Moffitt) and have authored articles in leading dispute resolution and business journals including the Harvard Business Review, the Harvard Law Review, the Harvard Negotiation Law Review, the Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution, Negotiation Briefings, and Negotiation Journal.

Along with Joel Salinas, MD, I am currently writing Conflict Resilience: Negotiating Disagreement Without Giving Up or Giving In (HarperBusiness, March 2025). This book uses brain science to provide a cutting-edge toolkit for helping us come together in a conflicted and polarized world.

My writing and commentary have appeared in various print and broadcast media outlets including The Boston Globe, NBC News, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, CNN’S The Situation Room, America, and BBC Radio.

Consulting

Mediation, Facilitation, Consensus Building, Coaching, Dispute Systems Design and Training in Negotiation, Conflict Resolution, Conflict Resilience, Facilitation and Challenging Conversations

As referenced above, I maintain a robust private practice, consulting for, coaching, and training businesses, non-profit organizations, and government agencies.

My private work spans a wide range of functions:

Training in Negotiation, Conflict Resolution, Conflict Resilience, Challenging Conversations, Facilitation, Empathy, and Managing Group Process
Mediation, Facilitation, and Consensus-Building Services
One-on-one or Group Coaching in Negotiation and Challenging Conversations
Dispute Systems Design

I have worked in many sectors, both in within the United States and internationally. I have a particular interest in working in healthcare contexts and on issues related to political dialogue and managing differences in faith communities.

I’ve had the opportunity to work with organizations as diverse as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Partners, the Swiss Foreign Ministry, Delta Airlines, Gap, Inc., Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Nestlé, the U.S. Department of Justice, Health Net, Edwards Lifesciences, and Coca-Cola.

I’ve also trained physician leaders at Massachusetts General Hospital, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, and Tufts Medical Center, attorneys for Microsoft in Europe, and senior partners and associates at the international law firms of Freshfields, Bruckhaus, & Deringer, Clifford Chance, LLP, Shearman & Sterling, LLP, & Weil, Gotshal, & Manges, LLP.

Education & Other Experience

After graduating summa cum laude from Dartmouth College and cum laude from Harvard Law School, I clerked for Judge George A. O’Toole, Jr. of the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts. Before joining Harvard Law School’s faculty in 1998, I worked briefly at Crowell & Moring, LLP in Washington, D.C., Cravath, Swaine, & Moore, LLP in New York, the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department, the Boston Consulting Group, the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather.

Personal

My outside interests include politics, broadcast journalism, travel, volunteerism, and my puppy Rosie. I cherish time spent with friends discussing issues such as faith, identity, emotions, politics, meaning, and belonging. This is a true sign that I love having and teaching difficult conversations! I very much enjoy observing people in their daily interactions and I love to learn about their stories and life experiences.