Meet Your Ombuds Mentor & Guide
Reese Ramos
Congratulations on starting your journey as an Ombuds! Whether you are in your first couple of years as a practicing Ombuds, or you’re looking to be an Ombuds, you’re in the right place. My commitment to you is to help transform you from an uncertain new practitioner to an Ombuds that has confidence, insights, skills and strategies needed to succeed.
Stepping into the Ombuds role is both an honor and a challenge. You’re expected to be confidential, strategic and wise - often without a wide body of knowledge or an experienced mentor to help you. No Ombuds should feel alone in a role that is designed to support everyone else. With Ombuds Fundamentals, this is about to change. I will help you by taking my decades of experience, both successes and blunders, and compressing them into a four day comprehensive training, for you.
For more than 20 years, I have been an organizational Ombuds in every major sector: academic, corporate, governmental and non-profit. I have experienced every lifecycle of an Ombuds program - from designing an Ombuds program, to implementing new Ombuds offices, to scaling programs, managing a robust Ombuds program, and even being part of a program that was eliminated (and brought back)! What all this means is that no matter what sector you find yourself in, whether you're launching an office or are part of a robust team, you’ll be able to apply practical insights and effective strategies to enhance and enrich your practice.
I have been a leader in the Ombuds field since before the inception of the International Ombuds Association (IOA). As a past Director and President of IOA from 2015-2019, I helped guide the profession through pivotal conversations about standards of practice, growth, and impact. I began my work shaping the next generation of Ombuds as an Instructor, teaching pre-conference workshops through the California Caucus of College and University Ombuds and the Ombuds 101 and Foundations of the Organizational Ombuds Course through IOA. I am a frequent presenter at the IOA Annual Conference, the California Caucus of College and University Ombuds, and have been the Keynote speaker at numerous regional conflict management groups.
With my years of experience, I decided to create the Ombuds Academy to provide what every new Organizational Ombuds deserves: structured guidance, practical tools, and a trusted thinking partner.