Terry Amsler is an Adjunct Lecturer with the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University (Bloomington) where he teaches courses on public engagement. He is also Program Director Emeritus of the Institute for Local Government’s Public Engagement Program, having retired in 2015 after nearly ten years of service in that position. The Institute is the nonprofit education and research affiliate of the League of California Cities, California State Association of Counties and the California Special Districts Association.
Terry was formerly a Program Manager for domestic conflict resolution and then Program Director for the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s Conflict Resolution funding area. He also served as Director of U.S. Initiatives with Partners for Democratic Change, an international conflict and change management organization, and as Executive Director of the Oregon Dispute Resolution Commission.
Additionally, Terry is a previous Executive Director of the Community Board Program, a nonprofit organization providing community and school conflict resolution services in San Francisco and nationally. He has served as a mediator and mediation trainer as well as a developer of mediation programs in communities, schools, juvenile facilities, universities and other settings. Terry has also taught university level classes on the structure, theory and ethics of dispute resolution and was a founding board member of the National Association for Community Mediation (NAFCM).
Terry continues to serve on boards or in executive or advisory committee roles with the University Network for Collaborative Governance, Institute for Local Government, the Deliberative Democracy Consortium, the Center for Appropriate Dispute Resolution in Special Education (CADRE) and others. He was recognized for his work in the dialogue and deliberation field with the “Hero Award” from the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation in 2014. Terry holds a B.A. in Political Science from the State University of New at New Paltz and a M.P.A. from the University of San Francisco.