Mediator/Facilitator/Instructor/Consultant
Emmett I. Aldrich is a specialist in facilitated discussions, is a certified Mediator and has been involved in community, employment, and interpersonal conflict resolution since 1986. From 1986 through 1994, he served as a Mediator with the Citizens Complaint Center, D.C. Superior Court, Washington, D.C. He mediated resolutions that covered the full range of community, employment, domestic relations, divorce settlements, customer relations, neighborhood disagreements, landlord/tenant, visitation/child custody, and small claims disputes. He assisted the parties in developing options for resolution and drafted written settlement agreements for well over 100 cases.
From 1968 through 1991, Mr. Aldrich held a number of leadership positions in federal sector labor/management relations with the former U.S. Civil Service Commission (now the U.S. Office of Personnel Management), the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Bureau of Mines, the U.S. Department of the Interior, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In these positions he represented the agency in labor union negotiations and mediations with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, and the Federal Service Impasses Panel. He also served as the agencies representative for third-party proceedings before Arbitrators, the Merit Systems Protection Board and the Federal Labor Relations Authority. He ended his Federal career in 2008 as the Director of Human Resources and previously served as the Deputy Director for the Human Resources as well as the Director, HR Policy Division and the Director of Labor Relations at HUD. He also assisted in the development and review of mediated settlement agreements with HUD’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Program for Equal Employment Opportunity complaints, and has served as a Facilitator for the Office of Human Resources.
In Spring 1988, he was a member of a mediation delegation for the “People to People” organization that visited six provinces in the Peoples Republic of China to examine mediation techniques in that country. He also presented a paper on Resolving Federal Labor Disputes to the Ministry of Justice in Beijing, China . He has also published an article on “Dispute Resolution in the Federal Sector” in the Federal Service Labor Relations Review (a journal for the Society of Federal Labor Relations Professionals) in Spring 1982.
Since 2001, Mr. Aldrich has been mediating cases on behalf of the Community Dispute Resolution Center, with the Citizens Complaint Review of the DC Metropolitan Police Department. Here he mediates resolutions for complaints filed against police officers. From 2001 through 2005 he also mediated misdemeanor cases with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C. From 2002 through 2006, he also was mediating multi-party Child Protection cases with the Multi-Door Program of the DC Superior Court in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Aldrich serves as member of the Board of Directors for the non-profit Center for Dispute Settlement, in Washington, D.C. since 1987. He has a BS degree with a double major in psychology and sociology from George Washington University and a Masters degree in Labor Studies from the University of the District of Columbia.
More recently, Mr. Aldrich has devoted considerable time and study to developing a Christian response to conflict resolution, and is promoting Biblically based mediation programs for Churches. Mr. Aldrich is a third generation Lutheran, and has been a life-long member of Mt. Olivet Lutheran Church in Washington, DC, where he has served as the Congregational President, Treasurer, other ad hoc positions; and currently serves on the Board of Trustees and the Board of Elders.
Mr. Aldrich has also recently become qualified to conduct Elder/Care Giver Mediations.