The term Ombuds or Ombudsman (om-budz-man) comes from Sweden. An ombudsman is one who assists individuals and groups in the resolution of conflicts or concerns. There are many types of ombuds, including organizational ombuds who, like the Ombuds Office at Boston Children’s, are internal to organizations.
Jenn Mahony is the Boston Children’s Hospital Ombuds Office Director. She has 20 years of conflict resolution and conflict resiliency work as an ombuds, mediator, facilitator, conflict coach, and educator. She focuses on restorative practices so that people can feel successful at work and in their working relationships. She obtained her J.D. from Emory University School of Law in 2001, worked as a dispute resolution professional and ombuds in New Zealand for almost 10 years, and was most recently an associate ombudsman at the National Institutes of Health. She is a member of the International Ombuds Association and the Arbitrators and Mediators Institute of New Zealand, where she is a fellow in arbitration and on the AMINZ mediation panel. She is a frequent presenter and educator on conflict resolution and building conflict resiliency at work.
For more than 20 years, Mike Rozinksy has partnered to create impact through a variety of conflict management, people development, facilitation, change enablement, and organizational development practices and workshops. Mike consults with clients locally and globally, serves as an external organizational ombuds as part of the ombuds teams at multiple organizations and universities, and is a confidential coach and dialogue facilitator at Bravely. He holds a graduate certificate in conflict resolution from University of Massachusetts Boston (UMB) and is a Certified Organizational Ombuds Practitioner (CO-OP™) through the International Ombuds Association.
Earlier in Mike’s career, he served on the leadership team of a healthcare consultancy, United BioSource Corp., that oversaw research operations, technology product management, and the project management office in the development and delivery of information products and consulting services including databases as well analyses of and reports on clinical data.