Linda Falkson, Director of the Office of the Ombuds, and former University Ombuds Charles Walcott (in office 2011-2021) discuss the role and function of the Ombuds Office.

Bruce Lewenstein (he/him)
University Ombuds
Bruce Lewenstein was appointed University Ombuds in January 2022. He is Professor of Science Communication at Cornell, based in the Department of Communication. He is also a full member of the Department of Science & Technology Studies, where he served as chair for seven years.

This is Bruce’s second time as an ombuds. He was the Student Ombudsman at the University of Chicago in 1979-80, his final year as an undergraduate there. He brings to the office more than 35 years of experience at Cornell, including working on both the public and private sides of the university, serving as the Speaker of the University Faculty Senate, and spending four years as a faculty-elected member of the university’s Board of Trustees. He is among the founders of Cornell’s cross-college minor in Science Communication and Public Engagement. For Bruce, serving as University Ombuds is a way to use his experience around the university to help others.

In his teaching, research, and public engagement, Bruce works across the field of public communication of science and technology, including informal science education, citizen science, and communication training for scientists. Trained as a science journalist and as a historian of science (PhD, 1987, Univ. of Pennsylvania), he tries to document the ways that public communication is fundamental to the process of producing reliable knowledge about the natural world. Bruce is an author or editor of four books, more than 50 peer-reviewed articles and chapters, and more than 125 other articles and reviews. He serves on the board of directors of Embarcadero Media (based in his hometown of Palo Alto, Calif.), which produces community newspapers and related digital media.

Linda Falkson (she/her)
Director, Ombuds Office
Linda Falkson has served as a Cornell Ombuds since 2008. Prior to receiving this appointment, she served as Cornell’s Associate Judicial Administrator and then as Deputy Judicial Administrator for ten years. In this capacity, she adjudicated alleged Code of Conduct violations and she collaborated with community partners regarding the living and learning environment for students.

Linda sought to further serve the Cornell community by helping individuals in the Ombuds Office. Before her employment at Cornell, she engaged in general legal practice, including criminal defense, and in prosecution. Linda received a Bachelor of Science from Cornell University and a Juris Doctor from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Since joining the Cornell Ombuds Office in 2008, she has been an active member of the International Ombuds Association (IOA), and co-chaired the IOA ad hoc Title IX task force. She currently serves on the IOA Mentoring committee and frequently presents at the international conference.  Linda is a Certified Organizational Ombudsman Practitioner (CO-OP^®).

Linda is passionate about her role as an Ombuds and seeks to do all she can to assist a community member to clarify concerns and to identify options in managing conflicts.  She does this by bringing together her skillsets which include active listening, an understanding of policy, protocols, and resources, and coaching an individual to engage in constructive dialogue.  While maintaining impartiality, she is most proud of her non-judgmental, empathetic and caring ear.

Ati Alipour (she/her)
Assistant Ombuds
Ati Alipour joined the Ombuds Office in June 2023 as Assistant Ombuds. Ati is a lawyer and mediator with broad background in dispute resolution and has served in international organizations as well as academia.

As an Ombuds, Ati specializes in resolving workplace disputes. She served the Office of the Ombudsman to the United Nations Funds and Programmes in the role of Conflict Resolution and Mediation Consultant, where she assisted the personnel of five of the UN Organizations in identifying and employing the most efficient approach in resolving workplace disputes.

Ati has also worked at the Center for Dispute Resolution (C-DRUM) at the University of Maryland Carey School of Law in the role of Staff Attorney and Mediator. In this position, she supervised law students and conducted mediations through referrals from partnerships of the Mediation Clinic with Maryland Judiciary and Office of Civil Rights, which includes Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) matters.

In her Ombuds practice, Ati takes a holistic view towards workplace issues and is specifically interested in identifying root causes of disputes and systemic issues. Ati has a degree in Dispute Resolution from Pepperdine University and an LLM from the Cardozo School of Law where she was awarded the Jacob Burn Medal for excellence in mediation clinic. She is also a published author and a frequent public speaker in the field of conflict resolution.