Neil Katz, Ph.D., Named as Chair and Professor of NSU’s Department of Conflict Analysis and Resolution

FT. LAUDERDALE (DAVIE), FLA. – After more than three decades as a professor, director or co-director of five conflict resolution programs in the Maxwell School of Citizenship of Syracuse University, Neil Katz, Ph.D., has taken on a new challenge as Chair of Nova Southeastern University’s (NSU) Department of Conflict Analysis and Resolution (DCAR) and Professor of Social Science.

“I am delighted and excited about assuming this new position and challenge at Nova Southeastern University and DCAR,” says Katz. “The emphasis on social responsibility, community engagement, diversity and reflective practice is very important to me.”

DCAR’s programs are housed within NSU’s Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences. The programs advance the study of a dynamic field seeking to improve relations among individuals, groups, nations, and organizations using a constructive, nonviolent, non-litigious approach. DCAR’s student population are a diverse mixture of mid-career professionals who are passionate about the value and potential of conflict analysis and resolution as a means to “better the world”, a trait that Katz says was one of the great attractions of this position for him.

A professor emeritus at Syracuse University, Katz is considered one of the influential pioneers of Conflict Resolution studies. After receiving his doctorate from the University of Maryland in 1974, Katz’s academic career at the Maxwell School included service as founder and director of the Program in Nonviolent Conflict and Change; founder and director of the Annual Summer Institute on Creative Conflict Resolution; co-founder and faculty supervisor for the Campus Mediations Center and the Conflict Resolution Consulting Group; co-founder and associate director of the Program on the Analysis and Resolution of Conflicts, and associate professor of Social Science and Public Affairs. In addition, he has served on the faculty at Colgate University, McMaster University in Canada, and in the Whitman School of Management and the Newhouse School of Communication at Syracuse University.

Katz has authored more than 35 books, articles and book chapters about Conflict Resolution, Interest –Based Negotiation, Mediation and Non Violent Action. He is a Danforth Teaching Fellow, a mediator, a process consultant, a facilitator, and a trainer/ consultant in organizational leadership, conflict resolution and negotiation skills for numerous prestigious business, government, education, and community groups.

In recent years, Katz headed a consulting/ training team from the Executive Education Programs of the Maxwell School that has worked closely with the U.S. Social Security Administration and with the New York State Departments’ of Health, Labor and Education. In this capacity he has directed over 150 programs in communication and conflict resolution skills, team building and group dynamics, leadership and learning, and interest-based negotiations for members of labor management teams and over 8000 managers through out the country. Most recently he has been involved with many school districts throughout the county in training and successfully facilitating school contract negotiations using an interest-based approach and facilitated a successful resolution of a decade old environmental conflict over a solid waste landfill.

During his career, Katz has received many honors for his teaching and practice, among them, “The Best Professor Award” from the Army Comptrollers Program, and the Martin Luther King Jr. Human Rights Award from the Syracuse community for his career-long commitment to nonviolent conflict resolution and the principles embodied in Dr. King’s life and work.

Additional information about NSU’s Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Department of Conflict Analysis and Resolution is available at http://shss.nova.edu/programs/dcar/phddcar/index.htm

Contact:
Felecia Henderson
NSU Office of Public Affairs, (954) 262-5315 (office), fhenders@nova.edu