Empowering People to Find Their Own Justice. Member Spotlight: Rut Rivera-Encarnación
For Rut Rivera-Encarnación, mediation is far more than a professional skill. In her world, it is a calling rooted in dignity, empowerment, and the belief that “people are the experts of their own situations.” Rut earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from the Universidad de Puerto Rico before earning her JD at the Facultad de Derecho Eugenio Maria de Hostos and her Master of Laws at the Inter American University School of Law. Her unique background of life sciences and biology combined with legal logic and workplace mediation has nurtured a human-focused approach, always putting the needs of the individual at the heart of everything.
Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Rut discovered mediation while still in law school in 2005, reflecting on this pivotal time as life-changing and momentous. “When you go to law school, you’re always looking for justice and you want to save the world,” she recalls with a smile. “But then you realize it’s not that easy. To have the opportunity to learn more about mediation — and to see that people can have the best answers for themselves when they are in conflict — for me, it was mind-blowing.” While completing her legal studies, she traveled to Mexico, where she observed tribal mediation processes. “That experience opened my eyes even more,” she says. “I realized mediation was bigger than I thought: something with real power to transform relationships and communities.”
After graduating, Rut became both a mediator and an arbitrator, first working with the Department of Labor for nearly five years before joining the Puerto Rican court system as a full-time mediator. “That was a great school for me,” she explains. “I worked with so many types of cases — family, community, labor, criminal, juvenile, contracts. I learned a lot.” Over the past 20 years, Rut has been an Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) & Conflict
Management Consultant in both the public and private sectors and the US Federal Government, helping organizations and teams navigate difficult situations both in workplace conflict and commercial disputes.
Her work with the United States federal government focused primarily on workplace mediation. “That experience really helped me understand how essential peace at work is,” she says. “We spend so much of our lives in the workplace. Work gives us dignity — it provides shelter, food, meaning. When you don’t have peace at work, you bring those issues into your personal life, your family life.” Rut’s passion for workplace mediation runs deep. “I think we need to educate people more about what mediation really is and what it can do,” she says. “Sometimes people confuse it with therapy or arbitration. But once they go through the process and realize they can solve their issues — and even learn tools for resolving conflict — things change.”
Empowerment, she emphasizes, is at the heart of her practice. “It’s so easy when a third party makes a decision for you, often a judge or an arbitrator,” she explains. “But when you empower people to see that they are the experts, and they create agreements that are perfect for them, that’s transformative. That’s justice for them.”
During her years with the federal government, Rut not only mediated but also led a team of mediators, with a shared commitment to treating clients as people, not case numbers. “We focused on what happened before and after mediation rather than just during the session,” she says. “The client is not a file. They are a human being with emotions. We wanted them to feel seen.” That client-centered approach earned her team an agency award for service excellence. Rut recalls this achievement as one of her proudest professional moments. “We weren’t the biggest team, but our phones never stopped ringing,” she laughs. “People felt that we really cared.”
In recent years, Rut has stepped into a new role as a speaker and advocate for the field, sharing her insights internationally. “I’m very shy. I don’t like the stage,” she admits. “But when I was invited to Singapore to give a conference on innovation in mediation, I told myself: if I want to see change, I have to go out there and speak.” To her surprise, the trip ended with an unexpected honor: an award recognizing her contribution to the field. “It reminded me that when you do things because you believe in them, rather than for recognition, life rewards you in beautiful ways.” In 2021, Rut launched a private Alternative Dispute Resolutions practice based in Puerto Rico called Pivot Resolutions, providing mediation, coaching, facilitation, mentoring and conflict management services to clients.
At the core of her mediation philosophy is deep, intentional listening. “Listen, listen, listen,” she says simply. “When I’m in mediation, I turn off my thoughts. It’s almost a sacred moment. I tell parties, ‘Don’t pretend to be someone else. Just tell me your truth.’ I prepare my office so they feel comfortable. I provide coffee, candies, and create a relaxed space. Just by listening, you learn the exact questions to ask. There’s always a story waiting to be told.” By fostering comfort, safety, and openness, Rut goes the extra mile to provide her clients with the best possible experience. Human connection, she emphasizes, is a core foundational value of mediation. As a bilingual mediator, Rut also values the role of language in building connection. “Our emotional language matters,” she says. “I don’t express the same way in English as I do in Spanish. When people can speak in their emotional language, they feel safe. They feel home.”
Looking to the future, Rut hopes to see mediation embedded more deeply across all sectors of society, particularly in workplaces, schools, and business settings. “Every conflict is waiting to be heard,” she reflects. “Even sitting together at the table for the first time, regardless of whether or not you reach an agreement, is a transformative moment in itself.” She envisions more organizations adopting mediation clauses in contracts and more institutions integrating conflict resolution education early on.
Above all, she believes mediation is about transforming relationships, not just resolving disputes. “When you improve the way people relate at work, you improve their personal lives — and the services they provide to others,” she says. “That’s the power of mediation. It transforms people, workplaces, and entire cultures.”
Article by Sarah Stenovec, MBBI Writer