Susan Carpenter is a mediator, trainer, and writer in private practice. She has spent the past thirty-five years developing and managing programs to reach consensus and resolve controversies at the local, state, and national level. She was the founding director of the Program for Community Problem Solving in Washington, D.C. Prior to that she spent ten years as the associate director of ACCORD Associates in Boulder, Colorado mediating complex public disputes and training others to handle conflict productively.

Ms. Carpenter holds a Doctorate in Future Studies from the University of Massachusetts. She was the first Visiting Fellow at the Program on Negotiation at the Harvard Law School. She taught for two years in Ethiopia as a Peace Corps volunteer. Ms. Carpenter has authored numerous materials including the book, Managing Public Disputes: A Practical Guide to Handling Conflict and Reaching Agreements. She currently works with diverse stakeholder groups to reach agreements on complex public issues and to build capacity for collaborative leadership. She resides in Southern California.