Division of Administration and Finance
University Services
Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Lindsay Blagg
Communications Coordinator
832-842-4722
lmblagg@central.uh.edu
OFFICE OF SUSTAINABILITY AND HUMAN RESOURCES COLLABORATE ON
COMMUNICATION AND CONFLICT WORKSHOP
Houston, May 10, 2012 – The Office of Sustainability and Human Resources have teamed up to
provide UH faculty and staff with a workshop on “Nonviolent Communication,” a process that
teaches participants to communicate compassionately and with mutual respect and
understanding.
Human Resources is committed to providing opportunities for professional and personal growth
and success for UH faculty/staff and hosts many training and workshop opportunities each year.
The Office of Sustainability collaborated with Human Resources on this new communication
workshop in an effort to support development of conflict transformation skills of the faculty/staff as
a tenet of relationship-building for sustainability on campus.
“Our goal is to support positive, transformative conversations happening on campus with the
thought that truly sustainable solutions are those that work for all, and that can only happen when
we’re all able to request what we want and listen with empathy to understand what others want,”
said Leah Wolfthal, Program Coordinator for Sustainability.
The tools discussed in the workshop stem from Marshall Rosenberg’s research on nonviolent
communication. Rosenberg earned his PhD in clinical psychology from the University of
Wisconsin and is the founder of The Center for Nonviolent Communication. Bren Hardt,
chairperson and founder of the local nonprofit Power of Compassion, will be the presenter for the
workshop.
In the workshop, participants will learn tools for peacefully resolving differences at home or at
work and how to connect compassionately to others. The Nonviolent Communication workshop
will be a brown-bag lunch held on May 24 from 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. To register for the
workshop, click here.
For more information on Nonviolent Communication, check out the MD Anderson Library’s online
version of Nonviolent Communication, A Language of Life by Marshall Rosenberg at
http://library.uh.edu/, or the Houston NVC webpage http://www.houstonnvc.org/#!about-nvc.
About the University of Houston
The University of Houston is a comprehensive national research institution serving the globally
competitive Houston and Gulf Coast Region by providing world-class faculty, experiential learning
and strategic industry partnerships. UH serves more than 38,500 students in the nation’s fourthlargest city, located in the most ethnically and culturally diverse region of the country.