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Susan Levin

Lecturer, Negotiation and Conflict Resolution

Susan Levin is a global facilitator, coach, trainer, mediator, and organization development practitioner with more than 30 years of experience. She has worked with thousands of employees in a variety of organizations in the United States as well as more than 40 countries. She focuses on maximizing individual and organizational strengths to get great results. She uses an appreciative approach to help her clients leverage their best practices to achieve their future vision. Whether abroad or in the US, she’s mindful of making sure her work is culturally relevant.

Susan is a certified mediator with the Supreme Court of Virginia Office of Dispute Resolution, and mediates cases between individual employees, often a supervisor and a direct report, as well as cases between teams. As a result, participants create an opportunity to resolve their problems, and transform their relationship and the way they deal with conflict in the future. She also teaches courses on conflict resolution, including conducting difficult conversations, which she presented at The World Bank, Women in Aerospace, and National Institutes of Health.

For more than 20 years, Susan has been a consultant to USAID Bureaus and more than 25 missions conducting needs assessments, designing agendas with staff participation, facilitating meetings, leading trainings, and writing summary recommendations. Most recently, she designs and delivers online virtual strategic planning and teambuilding sessions for the Democracy, Human Rights and Governance Center and for the Innovation, Technology, and Research Hub in collaboration with the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. She designed and facilitated retreats for the next implementation of Global Acquisition and Assistance System to take the next steps to move the IT project forward.

Susan also consulted with the United Nations; Daimler/Mercedes Benz; the Joint Technical Commission for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology Observations Programme Support Centre; the Obama White House Executive Office; Native American Management Services; Metro Washington Airport Authority; National Public Radio; Mars Candy; and the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades.  

As a certified coach, Susan works with staff at all levels using reflective questioning to help them uncover their own wisdom to find the answers they need. By identifying what’s working, clients strengthen communication; build stronger, more diverse and inclusive teams; implement collaborative decision-making; determine new strategic direction; implement needed changes; and plan for professional development and transition.

Susan taught at American University, consulted with the University of Maryland, and was a guest speaker at Johns Hopkins University and Jimmy and Roslynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University. For the University of Virginia, she designed and delivered facilitation training for dialogue groups on issues of race, age, ability, culture, gender, and violence.

She has a master’s degree in international affairs from George Washington University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida focused on the impact of culture on international development, after transferring from Tufts University.

Education

M.A., George Washington University

B.A., University of Florida