American Bar Association
Section of Administrative Law & Regulatory Practice
Fall 2002 Conference
The Ritz-Carlton, Washington, D.C.
Evolution of Ombudsman Worldwide
October 17, 2002
9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., 2:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Moderator:
Sharan Levine is a shareholder the law firm of Levine & Levine in Kalamazoo,
Michigan. Ms. Levine has been representing Ombudsmen in government, academia, and
corporations since 1991. Ms. Levine is the chair of the Ombuds Committee of the
Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice, a member of the Ombuds
Committee of the Section on Dispute Resolution and the dispute resolution committee of
the Business Law Section. She is an associate member of The Ombudsman Association,
The United States Ombudsman Association and The International Ombudsman
Institute.Ms. Levine attending Bennington College, received her BA from Florida
Atlantic University and her JD from the Thomas M. Cooley Law School.
Speaker Bios:
Ronald P. Adcock
Ronald P. Adcock was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and raised on the New Jersey
coast. He received a Bachelor of Arts from Union College, Barbourville,
Kentucky, and a Master of Divinity from Boston University. As a United
Methodist minister, he has served pastorates in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and
Idaho. In 1970 Ron began work with the State of Idaho and served as a trainer
and administrator in a number of programs, including: Operation Mainstream (an
adult work experience program), Long Term Care Ombudsman Program,
Community Services Block Grant, and Adult Services. While employed by the
State, he also periodically served as a part time interim pastor. He returned to
New England in 1994 to assume the responsibilities of the director of the New
Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Elderly and
Adult Services. In April of 1996 he was appointed Ombudsman for the
Department of Health and Human Services in response to a legislative mandate
for that office. His staff includes an Assistant Ombudsman, four Associate
Ombudsmen, and an Administrative Secretary. In addition, he served as the
acting State Long-Term Care Ombudsman from January of 1999 until mid-July of
this year. Ron has been a United States Ombudsman Association Board member
for the past 5 years, and has served as Secretary/Treasurer on the USOA Board
for the past three years.
John Barkat
John S. Barkat is a specialist in conflict resolution with an emphasis on organizational
and cross-cultural negotiation. He is the University Ombudsman at Pace University and
also serves as an instructor at Columbia University for the International Center for
Cooperation and Conflict Resolution where he teaches graduate level courses in
negotiation and mediation, and advanced courses on establishing integrated conflict
management systems in organizations. He has regularly taught as an adjunct professor of
business management at both Pace University Graduate School of Business, and Nyack
College. Dr. Barkat is currently the president of The Ombudsman Association, which
represents organizational ombuds people internationally, and is co-chair of the
ombudsman committee of ABA's section on dispute resolution. Dr. Barkat has conducted
research on the effect of unilateral conciliatory initiatives (goodwill gestures) on the deescalation of intractable conflicts involving culture and identity. He also trains and
advises many organizations on organizational conflict, cultural communications, and
dispute resolution systems designs. He has assisted many organizations including, the
United Nations Secretariat, UNICEF, the United Nations International School, the
National Institutes of Health, Citicorp and the New York Chief Medical Officer's
Association. An experienced mediator, Dr. Barkat mediates in the courts and
communities of New York and serves on the board of directors for The Westchester
Mediation Center.
Dr. Louis R. Chao
Education: Ph. D. Duke University USA, 1971
MSEE, National Taiwan University, 1968
BSEE, National Taiwan University, 1965
Career Background
Member o the Contro Yuan (National Ombudsman), 1993 – now (reappointed in 1999)
-Chairman International Affairs Committee
-Chairman, Committee on Educational and Cultural Affairs
-Public construction supervision, human rights protection
President, Tamkang University, 1990-1993
Vice President TamkangUniversity, 1985-1990
Dean of Academic Affairs, Tankang University, 1979-1985
Dean of Engineering College, Tamkang University, 1974-1979
Head, Department of Information Engineering, 1972 – 1974
Howard Gadlin
Howard Gadlin 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 coming to UCLA, 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). For three years he was chair of the Ethics Committee of the Society of
Professionals in Dispute Resolution. 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 “Meditating
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."
Gerald “Jerry” Kasunic
I began my health care career in Anne Arbor, MI., between 1989 and 1992, when
I was hired fresh out of college as an Educational and Clinical Liaison for
troubled teens. I was suited for this position because I graduated with a Bachelor's
in Science from Eastern Michigan University, my focus was English Literature
and Language, with minor in History. My then employers, The Huron Services
for Youth and The United Way, fine-tuned my educational experiences by training
me in educational counseling for emotionally disturbed children, which
encompassed both residential services and incarceration services. In 1992, I
moved to Washington, D.C. in search of continuing my work and gaining a
broader experience with the teenage population, but instead I found myself
working as a Mental Health Crisis Specialist managing residential crisis and
intensive facilities for adults of all ages. I grew to love the adult population, and
my position flourished into a Case Manager, then Case Manager Supervisor in
1996.
During the years of 1994 and 1996, I was being trained to assist geriatric mentally
ill adults adjust to community style living. My duties were to train residential staff
to assist with the elderly to adjust to independent living conditions, educating
residents with taking more of an independent, active role with their own
treatment, and continued identify and create housing programs to maintain both
the residents and facility programs in D.C. In 1998, through my advocacy services
with the geriatric, mentally ill populations and community services, I was
recruited by the D.C. Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program as a Board and Care
Ombudsman and was lucky enough to be chosen as their director just last year.
Frank J. Liao
Education Master of Laws, Unversity of Washington, 1990
Master of Laws, National Taiwan University, 1972
Career Background
Member of the Control Yuan (National Ombudsman), 1999-now
-Chairman, Committee on the Internal and Minority Nationality affairs
-Committee on Judicial and Prison Administration Affairs
-Committee on human rights protection
-Committee on National Defense and Intelligence Affairs
-International Affairs Committee
Attorney at Law
Director, Candor Law offices, 1992-1999
Member, Committee of Education, R.O.C. Consumers’ Foundation, 1991-1998
Executive Supervisor, Taipei Bar Association, 1996-1999
Convener, committee of Legal Affairs, R.O.C. Consumers’ Foundation, 1991-1998
Partner, Baker & Mckenzie Law Offices, 1987-1992
Partner, First Law Offices, 1986-1987
Partner, Century law offices, 1980-1986
Partner, Ming Dir Law offices, 1978-1980
Director, Taiwan Law Society, 1977-1979 & 1986-1988
Treasurer. Taiwan Law Society, 1976-1977
Director, Liao and Associates, 1974-1978
Chief of Staff, Taipei Legal Aid Center, 1973-1974
Neville Melville
The Banking Adjudicator is Advocate Neville Melville. Neville Melville was the
founder and former Executive Director of the Independent Complaints Directorate and
took office as South Africa's new Banking Adjudicator on 1 May 2000. Mr. Melville is
an Advocate who holds the degrees of LL.B and LL.M (cum laude) from the University
of Natal. Adv Melville started his career in law as a prosecutor and was later a member of
the Attorney-General's staff in Natal. He was called to the Durban Bar in 1991. Before
starting the Independent Complaints Directorate in 1996, Adv Melville was the Police
Reporting Officer for KwaZulu-Natal, appointed under the National Peace Accord
following his nomination by the Society of Advocates, Natal.
Nina Olson is the National Taxpayer Advocate and serves as an advocate for taxpayers
to the IRS and Congress. She leads the Taxpayer Advocate Service, a nationwide
organization of more than 2,000 taxpayer advocates who help taxpayers resolve
problems, work with the IRS to correct systemic and procedural problems, and develop
legislative proposals to reduce taxpayer burden. Nina is an attorney licensed in Virginia
and North Carolina. She was the founder and Executive Director of The Community Tax
Law Project, the first independent 501(c)(3) low income taxpayer clinic in the United
States. The Community Tax Law Project provides free legal services to Virginia low
income taxpayers in federal, state, or local tax disputes. Nina served as an adjunct
professor of law at the College of William and Mary School of Law and at the University
of Richmond School of Law; she taught the federal tax practice seminar at both schools.
She was also an adjunct professor in the Master's Program in Nonprofit Studies at
Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Public Administration and Political
Science. Prior to joining the IRS in March 2001 as the National Taxpayer Advocate,
Nina maintained a private law practice for eight years, concentrating in tax controversy
representation. From 1975 until 1991, she owned and operated Accounting, Tax &
Information Services, a tax planning and preparation firm in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Nina served as the chair of the ABA Section of Taxation Low Income Taxpayers
Committee as well as the Pro Se/Pro Bono Task Force of the ABA Tax Section's Court
Procedure Committee. Nina is the 1999 Recipient of the Virginia Bar Association's Pro
Bono Publico Award and the City of Richmond Bar Association's 1999 Pro Bono Award.
She also received the Lewis F. Powell, Jr. Award in 2001 from the Virginia State Bar, a
special recognition for pro bono service. In addition, Nina has served as chair of the
Virginia State Bar's Special Committee on Access to Legal Services. Nina graduated
from Bryn Mawr College cum laude with an A.B. in Fine Arts. She received her J.D.
cum laude from North Carolina Central School of Law and her Masters of Law in
Taxation, with distinction, from Georgetown University Law Center.
Tony Redmond is Chairman and Chief Executive of the Commission for Local
Administration (England) and Local Government Ombudsman. Prior to this he was
Chief Executive and Director of Finance with the London Borough of Harrow and
Treasurer to the West London Waste Authority. His previous posts included Finance
Director and Deputy Chief Executive of a Merseyside local authority (Knowsley),
Treasurer to the Merseyside Police Authority, Deputy Finance Director of Wigan (in
Greater Manchester) and the City’s Chief Accountant in Liverpool. Tony is a Chartered
Public Finance Accountant (and a member of its Council), a Fellow of the Chartered
Association of Certified Accountants and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He is
also a Member of the Queen Mary Westfield College (University of London) Public
Policy Advisory Board. Tony is married with four children and outside of his work,
involvement in the above organisations and his family, still has time for his interests of
sport, theatre, music and an abiding passion for ballet.
Richard Reuben is Associate Professor of Law at the University of Missouri-Columbia
School of Law, a Senior Fellow at the law school’s Center for the Study of Dispute
Resolution, and Vice-Chair of the Ombuds Committee of the ABA Section of
Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice. He also served as a Reporter for the
Uniform Mediation Act Project, which was recently enacted by the National Conference
of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws and endorsed by the American Bar
Association House of Delegates. Professor Reuben’s primary teaching assignments at
Missouri are Administrative Law, Negotiation, Conflict Theory, and other dispute
resolution related topics. He comes to Missouri from Harvard Law School, where he was
a Senior Research Fellow and Instructor of Law, teaching negotiation. He has also taught
Alternative Dispute Resolution Law and Policy at Stanford Law School; Conflict Theory
at Hamline Law School and Central European University; Negotiation at Pepperdine Law
School; and is currently a Research Affiliate of the Harvard Program on Negotiation. A
lawyer and journalist, Professor Reuben has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his
coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court and other legal matters. He is currently the Editor of
Dispute Resolution Magazine, a quarterly publication of the American Bar Association,
and an Adjunct Associate Professor of Journalism at the University of Missour-Columbia
School of Journalism. Professor Reuben received a B.A. in History from the University
of Georgia, a B.A. in Journalism from Georgia State University, a J.D. from the Georgia
State University College of Law, a Masters in the Science of Law from Stanford Law
School, and a Doctor of Laws from Stanford Law School. His most recent article,
Constitutional Gravity: A Unitary Theory of Alternative Dispute Resolution and Public
Civil Justice, was published in April 2000 in the UCLA Law Review. His current
research focuses on arbitration, the relationship between conflict resolution and
democracy, as well as the transformation, escalation, and formalization of disputes.
Stina M. Santiestevan was appointed Assistant Ombudsman in 1995. A member of the
Michigan Bar, she graduated from Wayne State University Law School in December
1994, and was named Legal Analyst for the City Ombudsman's Office in 2000.
Prior to accepting appointment as Assistant Ombudsman/Legal Analyst, she was a
researcher for the Detroit Charter Revision Commission and legal assistant to law
professor Otto J. Hetzel. Stina Santiestevan served as Assistant to Mayor Coleman A.
Young for over 16 years where she functioned as an administrative assistant, a
community organizer, and a complaints manager. During this period she also managed a
full staff at a neighborhood city hall, and graduated cum laude from the University of
Michigan with a major in sociology and public administration. Also during this period,
and following graduation from U of M, Stina graduated from Wayne State Law School,
having received two scholarships and honors in legal research and writing.
Stina has also served for several years on the ABA Section of Administrative Law &
Regulatory Practice Ombudsman Committee. She is currently also serving as co-Vice
Chair to the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution Ombudsman Committee.
Judi L. Segall
Judi L. Segall has served as the Ombudsperson at Stony Brook University since 1997 and
as adjunct professor in Stony Brook's School of Social Welfare since 1996. Segall was
recently appointed to the Advisory Board of Stony Brook's Social Justice Center, which
seeks to promote social justice through education, training, and consultation in
communities throughout the New York metropolitan region. Prior to serving as
Ombudsperson, Judi held a senior student affairs administrative post for eight years,
specializing in strategic planning and organizational development. Ms. Segall is
immediate past President of the University and College Ombuds Association (UCOA)
and is currently a board member of The Ombudsman Association (TOA). Segall was
chair of the UCOA Standards of Practice Committee and served as a UCOA
representative to the American Bar Association Ombudsman Steering Committee.
Gary Yamashita
Gary Yamashita has served as an Ombuds person for Chevron Texaco since 1997.
He joined Chevron Texaco in 1981. Prior to serving as an Ombudsperson, Gary
worked in Accounting Policy, Upstream Accounting, Audit, and IT Finance. He
also served as a QI coach for a year and a half. Prior to joining Chevron Texaco,
Gary was a Professor of Accounting at California State University, Hayward.
While at CSUH, Gary served as Acting Chair of the Accounting Department and
Coordinator of the Accounting Internship Program. Gary has an A.B. in
Mathematics from Bowdoin College; an M.B.A. in Accounting and PhD. in
finance from Columbia University.