Mediator and arbitrator Marcia L. Greenbaum will deliver the Jean McKelvey Neutral-in-Residence inaugural lecture at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR). Her talk, "Arbitration, the Second Oldest Profession, and Its Pioneering Professor," will take place Wednesday, Sept. 27, at 1 p.m. in Room 105 of the ILR Conference Center. It is free and open to the public.

Greenbaum, an alumna of the ILR Class of 1962, is a former president of the Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution. She has helped create dispute resolution systems for newly emerging countries in Eastern Europe and has served on numerous arbitration panels, among them one resolving a 1993 dispute between Continental Airlines and the Airline Pilots Association. In addition she has been a facilitator and fact-finder in disputes in the public and private sectors as well as a dispute resolution trainer.

"It is wonderful to have Marcia Greenbaum as our first neutral-in-residence, and we look forward to her interaction with our students," said ILR School Dean Edward Lawler.

As more groups employ alternative dispute resolution (ADR) techniques to resolve conflicts, there's a growing need for more skilled "neutrals" -- third-party arbitrators and mediators -- like Greenbaum, said David Lipsky, director of the school's Institute on Conflict Resolution. "A survey we did showed that corporations find ADR far less costly than going through the courts," Lipsky said.

Now required by such legal mandates as the Americans with Disabilities Act, ADR also produces results more satisfactory to both parties, he said. Lipsky said he hopes that Greenbaum's talk and other neutral-in-residence program events will attract more students to the field.

Greenbaum will be speaking about arbitration as a method of conflict resolution and its importance to labor-management relations. She will also talk about Jean McKelvey, for whom the ILR School's neutral-in-residence program is named.

McKelvey pioneered modern arbitration practices and worked to open the field to women and other underrepresented groups. In 1946, after teaching at Sarah Lawrence College for 13 years, McKelvey became the first faculty member of the Cornell ILR School, developing the first curriculum and teaching a variety of courses in arbitration, labor law and labor practices. A labor arbitrator for the National War Labor Board during World War II, she was named the first woman member of the National Academy of Arbitrators in 1947 and in that role established an arbitration training program for women. She is credited with training and influencing several generations of arbitrators, among them Greenbaum, who was one of her students.

Greenbaum is mediator for the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination and has been a vice president and member of the board of governors of the National Academy of Arbitrators. A believer in mediation and arbitration techniques as a means of solving societal problems, she has discussed how they might be used to prevent violence in the schools as well as the workplace. She also has written extensively on the implications of workers' personal problems, sexual harassment issues and the training of mediators and is a team member of Workplace Solutions, a consortium of professionals in conflict resolution and crisis management.

Greenbaum is a recipient of the Cardinal Cushing Award of the Labor Guild of Boston and the Pioneer Award of the Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution's New England chapter. At the ILR School she was given the 1981 Judge William B. Groat Alumni Award, which honors graduates who are exceptional professionals in the field of industrial and labor relations and service to the school. She is a member of the school's alumni board.