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Kelvin Chin joins Ombuds Office

Kelvin H. Chin, who has 20 years experience in conflict management as a senior manager with the American Arbitration Association, joined the MIT Ombuds Office on Oct. 7.

In addition to his AAA experience, Chin was a state-certified ombudsman in the California Long-Term Care Program for the California Department of Aging and mediated many cases for the San Diego City Attorney's Office of Municipal Dispute Resolution. He also has been an arbitrator for the National Association of Securities Dealers, and a facilitator for the stakeholders in the U.S. Department of Energy's Nevada Test Site Environmental Impact Study.

Born in Boston, Mr. Chin was valedictorian of his class at Norwood High School and took MIT classes in calculus and physics as a senior. He graduated cum laude from Dartmouth College in 1973 and earned a master's degree at Yale the following year. He received a J.D. from Boston College Law School in 1983.

Chin has delivered numerous dispute prevention and resolution presentations and workshops, and published many articles on the subject. He taught undergraduate, business and law school students at UCLA, UNLV, Pepperdine University, the University of San Diego, California Wester, and Loyola (Los Angeles) and has been a consultant to the Nevada State Legislature on conflict management.

In the early 1990s, Chin was recruited to head the American Arbitration Association's new office in Las Vegas. He was promoted in 1996 to lead the reorganization of the Los Angeles office, where he managed a full-time staff of 50 and a panel of 600 arbitrators and mediators. He also was a national trainer for the association and trained scores of mediators and arbitrators.

Chin also brings international experience to MIT, having studied in France and taught in Hong Kong and South Korea.

Chin joins Mary P. Rowe and Toni P. Robinson in the Ombuds Office. The ombudspersons may be reached by phone at 253-5921, online , or in the Ombuds Office in Room 10-213. All contact with the office is confidential.

"I'm thrilled to join the Ombuds team serving the MIT community," Chin said. "Since we ombuds are big proponents of problem prevention, I look forward to offering coaching, training and skills-building seminars to students, staff and faculty, in addition to mediating and problem-solving individual cases."

A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on December 11, 2002.

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