SAN FRANCISCO – Grande Lum, former director of the U.S. Department of Justice's Community Relations Service (CRS), has returned to Accordence, the California negotiation training and consulting company he founded, to serve as a senior adviser.
Nominated by President Obama, Lum began his four-year term on June 29, 2012, with the CRS, which is the federal government’s "peacemaker" for community conflicts arising from issues of race, color and national origin.
During his tenure, Lum guided CRS through prominent racial conflicts involving law enforcement, including addressing communities after tragedies in Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore, Maryland. He renewed focus on staff training and development, specifically on the CRS conciliation services of mediation and dialogue facilitation, in addition to expanding CRS’ services in the areas of transgender and law enforcement interaction, intellectual disabilities, and restorative practices.
Under Lum’s guidance, the CRS won its first-ever Association of Conflict Resolution Peacemaker Award; and in 2014, the organization won the American Bar Association Problem Solver Award.
With more than 20 years of experience in conflict negotiation, Lum hopes to bring solutions to reduce tensions in the workplace with his return to Accordence.
“There is a growing polarization of viewpoints, perhaps accelerated by the popularity of social media and the ability of its participants to take a more ‘removed’ stance,” Lum told the Northern California Record. “I will support Accordence with enriching its offerings of tools and practices to minimize disconnection and enhance problem-solution skills for minimizing tensions in the workplace.”
Founded more than a decade ago, Accordence is a global training company that teaches the skills necessary to strategically negotiate and persuade, resolve conflict, communicate and demonstrate personal effectiveness and engagement on the job.
As senior adviser, he will make recommendations to Accordence on expansion of services and offerings in the area of conflict resolution, mediation and community-building in addition to providing keynote presentations for clients.
Before joining the CRS, Lum was a clinical professor at the University of California Hastings School of the Law, serving as director of the Center for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution.
His published works include "The Negotiation Fieldbook," which is currently in its second edition; and "Tear Down the Wall: Be Your Own Mediator in Conflict." With a bachelor's degree from the University of California at Berkeley and a J.D. from Harvard Law School, Lum is currently a research fellow and lecturer at Stanford Law School’s Gould Center for Conflict Resolution and the executive director at The Divided Community Project at the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law.