Areas of Experience

Dawn Miller Sander is an experienced and IOA certified organizational Ombuds. She currently serves as the Assistant Ombuds for the American Red Cross. Additional roles include outreach, informal mediation, facilitated conversations, & shuttle diplomacy. The Mission of the American Red Cross is to prevent and alleviate human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors.

Dawn has been an Ombuds since 2014, and has assisted K-12 school districts, small-large non-profits, higher education institutions, and for-profit organizations. She is a member of the International Ombudsman Association (IOA), Maryland Program for Mediator Excellence, the prior IOA’s K-12 Group. She was the co-founder of the Mid-Atlantic Ombuds Network (MAON), a network of Ombuds meeting monthly to support each other through speaker presentations, difficult case discussions & overall peer support. Dawn is a certified Level 2 Mediator through Community Mediation Maryland and a trained mediator in Community Mediation in VA. Dawn recently completed, May 2024, a 40-hour mediation program required by the state of Massachusetts for its volunteer mediator team.

Dawn earned her master’s degree in Conflict Transformation from Eastern Mennonite University and applied her learnings within the corporate space. Dawn’s research practicum on the organizational ombudsman solidified her desire to be an organizational ombudsman and included training programs provided by IOA (International Ombudsman Association). Dawn passed the original IOA exam and participated in IOA conferences & activities since 2010. She recently earned, May 2024, the COOP (Certified Organizational Ombuds Practitioner) designation from the IOA.