Shortly after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, FEMA hired a cadre of dispute resolution professionals to work with responders and recovery employees in FEMA field offices to provide ADR services including consulting, coaching, mediation, facilitation, and training. Linda Baron, one of the first members of the cadre, was initially deployed to Biloxi, MS, and since has deployed to field offices responding to fourteen disaster declarations, including Hurricane Matthew, the Joplin tornado, fires in California, and floods in the Midwest. She is currently deployed to the Sandy Recovery Office in Manhattan. She will talk about her experiences providing ADR services in FEMA headquarters, regional offices, and field offices and describe some of the challenges and opportunities associated with being an embedded workplace ADR practitioner.
LINDA BARON is a FEMA Supervisory Deployable Field ADR Advisor, providing dispute resolution services in disaster field offices and at FEMA Headquarters. Before working at FEMA, Linda, with more than 25 years experience, was on the staffs of several national conflict resolution associations, including the Association for Conflict Resolution, the National Association for Community Mediation, the American Bar Association Section on Dispute Resolution, and the National Conference on Peacemaking and Conflict Resolution. She was also the Interim Operations Manager for the Community Mediation Center of Montgomery County (Maryland). Linda also worked for many years with local and state governments, public interest groups and associations in the fields of urban planning, housing, economic development, and community development.