Mary E. Jacksteit

Mary Jacksteit is a member of the Kunz and Company management team and is a mediator, arbitrator and facilitator. She is the team's leader for work involving labor relations and community conflict prevention and management. Her work in the field of conflict and dispute resolution began in the late 198O's, following ten years of law practice in the field of labor and employment relations, primarily in the Federal sector.  Beginning as a labor arbitrator, she expanded her work into mediation in civil cases at the DC Superior Court and then in the arena of Federal employment. Through a seven year association with the non-profit organization, Search for Common Ground, she became a skilled facilitator, developing constructive conversations between partisans in protracted and deeply divisive public policy issues, designing a variety of meetings, forums and conferences. This work, focused on the special challenge of conflict issues involving values and beliefs, has received attention from scholars, policy advocates and conflict resolution professionals.  Ms. Jacksteit's current practice incorporates this broad range of alternative dispute resolution venues: arbitration. mediation, facilitating collaborative planning and problem-solving and leading open-ended dialogue.

Ms. Jacksteit currently mediates and evaluates mediator performance in workplace and labor issues. She is on the mediation panel of the World Bank, and is working with the Center for Dispute Settlement, an evaluator of the internal mediation program at the General Services Administration. Since being appointed by President Clinton in 1995, she has been a member of the Federal Service Impasses Panel, an agency that uses mediation, arbitration, fact-finding and conciliation to resolve bargaining impasses between Federal agencies and unions. The Panel encourages an interest-based approach to bargaining and settlement. As a Panel member, she is regularly designated to serve as mediator-arbitrator or to conduct informal settlement conferences in cases before the Panel.  Outside of the area of employment, Ms. Jackstelt mediates in interpersonal and community level disputes as a private mediator and in association with community programs.

As a facilitator, Ms. Jacksteit designs and facilitates meetings and conferences where the goal is bringing together diverse viewpoints, creating the basis for productive collaboration, identifying key interests, and locating areas of common ground. Recent projects have been a meeting of the Aspen Institute addressing the role of religious voices in public policy debates; and with Edward Hartfield of the Center for Dispute Settlement, a symposium of the American Iron and Steel Institute to develop a broadly supported set of priorities for improving highway safety. For the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, Ms. Jacksteit led the design and facilitation of two lengthy community Initiatives culminating in large and diverse forums for citizens and leaders representing a wide range of perspectives on pregnancy prevention. For the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, she led a dialogue concerning a highly contentious issue and trained facilitators for an ongoing dialogue effort.

At Search for Common Ground, Ms. Jacksteit was intimately involved in developing, facilitating and training in an innovative approach to values conflicts, called the common ground dialogue process. The primary focus of the work was the abortion conflict, and venues for dialogue included local community groups, national conferences and forums, religious institutions and congregations, and policy organizations. Ms. Jacksteit has given frequent trainings and presentations on the common ground dialogue process for dispute resolution organizations, in academic settings, and in communities. Committed to furthering dialogue on our society's toughest issues, she is now a Project Consultant of the Public Conversations Project of Cambridge, Massachusetts, which works with clients to promote conversations and relationships among those with differing values, world views and positions on divisive public issues.

As a labor arbitrator, Ms. Jacksteit has arbitrated numerous grievances under collective bargaining agreements between public employers including the U.S. Postal Service, the District of Columbia, Montgomery County, Maryland, and Alexandria, Virginia and their labor organizations. In the private sector, she has served as an arbitrator for companies in publishing, broadcasting, and manufacturing. She has served on the labor panels of the American Arbitration Association and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. Ms. Jacksteit has also taught arbitration skills and brief-writing.

Ms. Jacksteit received her Bachelor's degree from the University of Pittsburgh in Political Science and a law degree from Georgetown University in 1975.  In 1993 she received a Master of Science in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from George Mason University.

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