A New Angle to Mediation. Member Spotlight: Kathleen E. DeWitt

Kathleen found mediation through encountering people from all backgrounds. Her father was a diplomat, therefore; she was raised in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Her educational background was in Chemical and Environmental Engineering but her first job was with Hewlett Packard in electronics manufacturing. Later, she was a petroleum engineer with Husky Oil.  After a decade, she finally started working in the area of her degree by doing environmental consulting. She first started doing environmental audits and assessments for petroleum installations both in Canada and Latin America and then she started working in other environmental areas on international development projects.  

Beginning in the Mediation Field

One of her projects in Latin America introduced her to arbitration and her consultancy recommended her to take the arbitration course offered at the University of Calgary. She stated, “When I looked at the brochure I saw they taught not only arbitration but also mediation.  I did not understand completely what mediation was, but the description looked like something I could use on my international projects.” Therefore, she took the entire conflict management certificate. She was not planning on being a mediator. She just thought she would learn it to add to her project management toolbox but ended up pursuing a career in this field. 

She stated, “it became clear mediation was not like math or physics – it has to be practiced to be truly learned.” She ended up signing up with the Better Business Bureau and the Alberta Civil Court to start as an intern-comediator. She also signed up to be a conflict coach in the classes in the certificate program that she had just completed. She stated, “My professional life became mixed with some conflict resolution and some environmental consulting, including conflict training and mediating in Spanish.” She later landed a contract working for the government of Colombia in the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Mines and Energy.  

Moving to Iraq

Through these experiences, it became clear her lack of a master’s degree was hampering her ability to get consulting contracts therefore, she returned to the UK to take a master’s in Civil Engineering for International Development. She stated, “After I graduated I worked for a civil engineering consultancy in England, then took a contract working for the Ministry of Infrastructure in Rwanda.” After these experiences, she returned to Canada where she worked for the Red Cross and a water NGO.  Then in 2015 MSF sent her here to Kurdistan, doing logistics in a camp for families displaced by the war started by DAESH.  She had never been to Kurdistan/Iraq before but when she was younger, she lived for more than six years in Iran and Afghanistan. At that point, she decided that when her MSF contract finished, that she wanted to return. Then, she accepted a contract from People in Need in Rojava (Kurdish Syria) from 2016-2017 and was present during the fighting to displace DAESH from Al-Bab and Al Raqa.  She went through a family situation impacting her personal life. Later on, she worked on a variety of NGOs, and last year she started to teach at the University of Duhok in the departments of Spatial Planning and of Engineering.

With all these rich experiences, she entered the MBBI community. She stated, “I am a member of the conflict professional associations in Alberta and Canada (through which I have my QMed (Qualified Mediator) credential but they are not relevant to where I am.” Therefore, a friend and mediation colleague mentioned MBBI. She looked it up and attended a few online sessions last year. She enjoyed the sessions and aligned well with the philosophy and vision of MBBI.   She is part of MBB-Europe and even though she actually not mediating where she is at, she recognizes that she is living in a postconflict society and there are peacebuilding initiatives.     

Livelihoods

At the moment, she is working on “Livelihoods” trying to increase job opportunities, particularly in terms of local manufacture. She is also involved with an animal shelter as there are no animal shelters in Duhok or Kurdistan. She is also involved with a project regarding Riverside park. She has city permission to look at the feasibility of constructing a park with running/cycling trails along the river. This project would help the hundreds of thousands of people still displaced as well as the host population.

With all her work and volunteer experience, her philosophy of mediation has mostly centered on not overestimating the power of mediation. She stated, “I believe conflict resolution is the most important thing I have learned since I learned how to read, write, and do basic math as a little girl.  I believe it should be taught in every school on the planet, from primary school through the end of secondary.  It should become part and parcel of everyone’s ‘way of being,’ completely integrated into our communities and governments and perspectives.”

Article by Elizabeth Gamarra, MBBI Writer