Bob Oberstein

Bob Oberstein’s conflict resolution experience encompasses the areas of workplace, human resources, discrimination, employee and labor relations, education, consumer, construction, commercial, family, civil and community from two party to multi-party disputes in both the public and private sectors.

Bob holds a certification in workplace mediation from Mediate.com. and has mediated workplace disputes for the past thirty (30) years. Bob also currently serves as a Certified Practitioner Mediator for the Snohomish, Skagit and Island Counties Dispute Resolution Center (DRC), mediating disputes in Family, Small Claims and Civil Court on-line as well as in person. Bob also participates in the DRC training program as role player, coach and mentoring observers who are still in their practicum. 

Bob has mediated community disputes for the Arizona Attorney General and the City of Phoenix, the American Arbitration Association (AAA) where he mediated employment and multi-party complex construction disputes, the National Association of Security Dealers (NASD now FINRA) and for the Better Business Bureau (BBB). 

Bob developed and conducted mediator training for the U.S. EEOC Phoenix's Regional Office's new mediation program for Title VII and other disputes within its jurisdiction then served as coach and panel mediator in the program.

It was from his experience as a mediator for EEOC that Bob became interested in the impacts of apology and forgiveness in dispute resolution which led to his developing a multi-disciplinary course entitled Apology and Forgiveness in Society at Ottawa University, Phoenix (OU) where Bob was the Director of the Labor Management Relations Program. Among other courses he taught at OU were Grievance Processing, Arbitration, Negotiations, Conflict Resolution, Ethics, and Ethics in the Public Sector. As a tenured Assistant Professor Bob also served the OU community as Ombudsman for all faculty, student, and staff disputes. Bob has also been recognized in "Who's Who Among America's Teachers."

During his time at OU Bob was appointed Special Master (a Med-Arb process) by Fry’s Food and Drug of Arizona and the United Food and Commercial Workers to resolve over 80 grievances, some of which were headed to arbitration. Four months later all were resolved, and the parties had a transformed relationship.

It was also during his time as an academic when he trained and facilitated the Interest Based Negotiation process to mediate the Meet and Confer negotiations between teachers, support staff and administrators in several Arizona school districts. Additionally. prior to moving to Washington State, he successfully mediated using the same process for all stakeholders (parents, employees, neighborhood/citizens, administrators, and school board members) of the Osborn Elementary School District to determine budgetary and program/educational priorities and an action/implementation plan to prevent the district from closing.

During the ‘90’s Bob developed and wrote the interactive column entitled “What Would You Do?” on ethical and situational "tough calls" in dispute resolution for the Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution (now Association for Conflict Resolution) quarterly newsletter. In additional to other DR related publications Bob recently contributed a blog article entitled Mediation Wisdom From an Old Joke, published for Bharati Vidyapeeth (Deemed to be University) New law College, Pune's Madhyasthta- The ADR cell's blog GIADRA- An Oracle for ADR, India. https://bvpnlcmadhyasthta.com/mediation-wisdom-from-an-old-joke-mr-bob-oberstein/

Bob was also appointed as: Commissioner, to the Maricopa County's Judicial Merit System Review Commission (adjudicated disputes and disciplinary appeals involving court employees); Public Member to the Arizona Supreme Court Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Committee; Public Member, Arizona Supreme Court's Commission on the Courts, ADR Task Force and as Member and Chair of the City of Phoenix Civil Service Board.

Additionally, Bob was awarded the Lifetime Certificate of Recognition for Achievement in Promoting Positive Labor Management Relations, by the National Director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS). Bob has also recently been honored to serve as a mediation competition judge for several law schools in India and Sri Lanka as well as Seattle University School of Law where he also coaches both the Negotiations and Mediation teams for the regional American Bar Association competitions.

Bob currently serves on the following panels:  FMCS (Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service) regions 1, 2, 4 and 7, Washington PERC (Public Employment Relations Commission), Oregon ERB (Employment Relations Board), SCMS (State of California Mediation and Conciliation Service/ California Public Employment Relations Board, Montana Board of Personnel Appeals, AAA (American Arbitration Association) Workplace Investigations Panel, Eglin AFB and LIUNA arbitration panel, the Better Business Bureau and Arizona Department of Education Hearing Officer Panel.

Additionally, Bob has been recognized by the Washington State Bar Association’s Dispute Resolution Executive Committee as a Non-attorney Advisory Member.

Bob holds a Master of Jurisprudence in Labor and Employment Law from Tulane University’s School of Law, an MS in Social Science and a Graduate Certificate of Labor Studies from Long Island University and a BA in English/Education from St. John’s University. Additionally, he has been honored with a Master of Humane Letters from Ottawa University and an honorary Certificate of Dispute Resolution from the University of Phoenix. Further details about Bob’s unique qualifications can be found on his LinkedIn profile at Linkedin.com/Linkedin.com/in/boberstein