Ramona Buck, BA, MA, MS - Expert

I am a mediator, trainer and consultant for conflicts in the workplace, community, and family, including multi-party issues.

Education and Training:

Ramona Buck has a Master of Science Degree from George Mason University in Conflict Management, and has participated in many additional trainings and conference sessions in mediation, conflict resolution techniques and the facilitation of meetings, public policy issues, and complex situations over a 35-year period.  She also has a BA in English and a Master of Arts in Teaching from the University of Iowa

Employment: 

Alternative Dispute Resolution Consultant:  As of July, 2019 to the present, she works as an ADR Consultant, both via GovernanceAlive consulting firm, and on her own.  She provides mediation, facilitation and training. 

FMCS:  She was a Commissioner with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) from July 2011 to July 2019, providing mediation and other services to federal and state government agencies.  FMCS is a federal government agency initiated in 1947, providing labor/management facilitation and ADR EEO mediation and training for federal government agencies.

MACRO:  From 2001 to 2011, she served as the Public Policy Director at the Maryland Mediation and Conflict Resolution Office, MACRO, the Dispute Resolution Office under the Maryland Judiciary in Annapolis Maryland where she focused on the facilitation of public policy issues around the state.

Circuit Court for Prince George’s County:  From 1995 to 2001 she worked at the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County as the ADR Director, with a focus on family mediation. She managed a roster of mediators and provided mediation within the Circuit Court.

NVMS:  From 1992-1995, she served as the Executive Director of Northern Virginia Mediation Service (NVMS) where she managed a roster of mediators, provided training, developed new programs, and provided mediation for neighborhood, consumer/vendor, and organizational disputes.

Awards:

In 2008, she received the Honorable Robert M Bell Award from the Maryland State Bar Association; Alternative Dispute Resolution Section, for outstanding contribution to ADR in Maryland.

In 2018, she received an award from the US Postal Service for her support of the interagency agreement between the postal service and FMCS, and for her mediation services.

Description of Services/Skills: 

Facilitation:  Her experience as a facilitator includes leading town meetings on issues of controversy, facilitating multiparty - complex issue cases, leading workplace team building sessions, facilitating regulatory negotiations for the U.S. Department of Education, and facilitating retreats and meetings for a variety of teams, non-profit boards, and federal government work groups for the discussion of challenging issues. 

Mediation:  Her experience as a mediator includes workplace mediation, family mediation, community disputes, consumer/vendor issues, and small claims disputes.  She has mediated mostly solo, although she also has experience co-mediating.  Her mediation cases have often involved multiple sessions.  Her process is basically facilitative although she also has training in Transformative mediation.

Training:  Her experience as a trainer includes mediation training, workplace conflict resolution strategy training, and multi-party facilitation training.  She has provided trainings in India, Bangkok, and in Taiwan, as well as in the United States.  She has provided sessions at multiple conferences, including ACR and the ABA ADR Conferences.

Organizations and Memberships: She has served as president/chair and/or meeting facilitator for multiple groups such as the Maryland Council for Dispute Resolution (MCDR), the MCDR Certification Committee, the Conflict Management Group (CMG), the planning committee for the Maryland Mediators Convention, and on a task group for the Maryland Dispute Resolution Commission.  She is a current member of the ABA/ADR Section.  She is certified by the International Mediation Institute (IMI) and serves on one of their working committees to review trainings for possible IMI certification.  She is also certified as a mediator by MCDR.