Biographical Sketch:

Sandy Schuman has been helping organizations work more effectively to solve complex problems and make critical decisions for more than thirty years. He is a group facilitator, collaborative process advocate, and storyteller. He helps groups create shared meaning, make critical choices, and build collaborative relationships. He facilitates problem-solving and decision-making processes for a wide variety of public management and policy issues and provides training in group facilitation, decision making, systems thinking, conflict management systems, information management, and organizational storytelling.

Sandy is a Research Associate Emeritus of the Center for Policy Research, University at Albany, SUNY, and president of Executive Decision Services LLC. He is the series editor of the International Association of Facilitators handbooks – Working with Difficult Groups, Creating a Culture of Collaboration, and The IAF Handbook of Group Facilitation – and former editor of Group Facilitation: A Research and Applications Journal and moderator of the Electronic Discussion on Group Facilitation. He is qualified on the Udall Foundation National Roster of Environmental Conflict Resolution Professionals and the US Postal Service roster of REDRESS workplace conflict mediators. His articles have been published in Creating Collaborative Advantage, Fisheries, Government Technology, Information & Management, Interfaces, Journal of Extension, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, New York State in the Year 2000, Organizational Decision Support Systems, and Quality Progress.

Sandy has extensive experience with environmental management and policy issues (such as water, energy, waste, toxic materials, and natural disasters); redesign and integration of social service delivery systems; health policy issues (such as long-term care, managed care, and information resources for policy makers); administrative systems (such as establishing uniform evaluation or assessment methodologies); and information resource management (including information systems planning and management of end-user computing).

Sandy gained extensive experience in local, state and federal government while working with the New York State Energy Office and New York State Sea Grant/ Cooperative Extension. Sandy holds a PhD from the University at Albany, SUNY, where he also earned his MPA, and a BS from Cornell University.

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Selected Publications:

Schuman, S. (2011). Schuman's Rules of Problem Solving. IAF Europe Newsletter, Feb. 2011, pp. 22-24.

Schuman, S. (Ed.). (2010). The Handbook for Working With Difficult Groups: How They Are Difficult, Why They Are Difficult, What You Can Do About It. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass/Wiley.

Schuman, S. (Ed.). (2006). Creating a Culure of Collaboration. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass/Wiley.

Schuman, S. (Ed.). (2005). The IAF Handbook of Group Facilitation: Best Practices from the Leading Organization in Facilitation. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass/Wiley.

Schuman, S. (Ed.). (2005). Listening to the City: Public Participation and Group Facilitation in Redeveloping the World Trade Center Site. (Republication of the Special Issue of Group Facilitation: A Research and Applications Journal.) College Station, TX: VBW Publishing.

Schuman, S. and Rohrbaugh, J. (2004).� Four what ifs?� Evaluation of alternative technologies for the destruction of chemical weapons.� Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 23: 4, 2-8.

Schuman, S. (2002).� Statement of Values and Code of Ethics for Group Facilitators:�Report of the Ethics and Values Think Tank.� St. Paul, MN: International Association of Facilitators, 21 pp.

Schuman, S. (2002).� Believe in doubt (Editorial). Group Facilitation: A Research and Applications Journal. 4 (Spring), 1.

Schuman, S. (2001).� A superlative task (Editorial). Group Facilitation: A Research and Applications Journal. 3 (Spring), 1.

Schuman, S. and Rohrbaugh, J. (1998). Valuing and using data in group decision making. Working paper, University at Albany.

Schuman, S. (1998). Special Report: The 1996-1997 Survey of Group Facilitators. St. Paul, MN: International Association of Facilitators, 12pp.

Schuman, S. (1996). The role of facilitation in collaborative groups.� In C. Huxham, ed., The Search for Collaborative Advantage. London: Sage.

Schuman, S. (1996). What to look for in a group facilitator.� Quality Progress, 29:6 (June), 69-72.

Schuman, S. (1996). Electronic discussion groups provide continuous professional development. Quality and Participation Report, August-September, 4-5.

Schuman, S., ed. (1996). Conflict and Consensus in New York Public Affairs: Information and Resources. Second Edition.� Albany, NY: New York State Forum on Conflict and Consensus.

Rohrbaugh, J. and S. Schuman (1996). Meet me in cyberspace:� ATAP meetings are convenient and cost-effective for government employees. Government Technology, 9:9 (June), 32-34.

Reagan, P., S. Schuman, G. Richardson, and S. Dorf (1991). Decision modeling: Tools for strategic thinking. Interfaces, 21:6 (November-December), 52-65.

Schuman, S. and J. Rohrbaugh (1991). Decision conferencing for systems planning. Information and Management, 21:3, 147-159.

Mumpower, J., S. Schuman, and A. Zumbolo (1988). Analytical mediation: An application in collective bargaining. In R. Lee, A. McCosh, and P. Migliarese, eds., Organizational Decision Support Systems. Amsterdam: North-Holland.

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