North Dakota State University

 NDSU's first Ombudsperson is Kristine Paranica.  She began her official responsibilities on May 30, 2014, following 15 years as the Director of the UND Conflict Resolution Center where she assisted the academic community as well as communities in the state and region to manage and resolve conflict. 

KRISTINE PARANICA, JD, served as the Director of the Conflict Resolution Center at the University of North Dakota since 1999 and has been providing training and education in transformative mediation, conflict management, and other processes for over 15 years.  She is nationally recognized as a Certified Transformative Mediator™. 

Kristine has served as Adjunct Professor of Law in Alternative Dispute Resolution at the UND School of Law since 1999.  She developed online courses in Leadership and Conflict Resolution through the UND Medical School and Mayo Clinic (CLS 508) and has taught that class several years; a course in Conflict Resolution: Basics of Conflict Management through UND’s Continuing Education program; and developed and managed an academic Certificate in Conflict Transformation at UND.

As a current Fellow of the Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation, she served on the Management Team and as Director of Administration for the ISCT from 2005-2008. Kristine serves on North Dakota’s Joint Committee on ADR, and was past chair of the Subcommittee on Family Mediation.  She recently penned the protocol and rule for the statewide family mediation pilot project, as well as the ethics code.  She also served on the UND Council on Campus Climate, the President’s Advisory Council on Women, and currently is on the Board of the North Dakota Coalition for Abused Women’s Services.  As a member of the International Ombudsman's Association, she is active with the IOA Conference Committee and the Professional Development Committee.  Kristine also serves as a mentor to new Ombudspersons.

Kristine has been published in the North Dakota Law Review, in collaboration with the Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation, at Mediate.Com, and has authored a chapter “Transformative Mediation: A Sourcebook”  published in 2010 by the Institute and the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR).  She has presented several times at the International Conferences of the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR); the Workplace Mediation Symposium in Houston; keynote speaker at the 2004 Conference of the Family Mediators Canada in Toronto; the First National Conference on Transformative Mediation in Philadelphia; the International Conference on Transformative Mediation: Purpose Drives Practice in St. Paul, 2006; and the 3^rd in Santa Barbara in 2008.  She was the keynote speaker at the 2009 Conference of Conflict Resolution Minnesota.  She was a tri-chair of ACR’s International Conference in San Diego in 2011.  She has presented many times at human resources conferences, and other statewide and regional conferences in North Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Canada.