Meet Our Staff
The Ombuds Office staff consists of Marsha L. Wagner, Bathabile K. S. Mthombeni, and Les J. N. Mau. The administrative assistant, Les Mau, manages office operations and makes appointments for visitors on both the Morningside Heights and CUMC campuses. Marsha Wagner and Bathabile Mthombeni, the ombuds officers, listen to concerns, offer a range of options, and with permission, help to facilitate conflict resolution.
Marsha L. Wagner
Marsha L. Wagner has been Columbia University ombuds officer since 1991, when the Ombuds Office was first established. Experienced in mediation, she has led many training workshops on conflict resolution, and she has designed national professional development programs for organizational ombuds. She served three terms on the Board of Directors of The Ombudsman Association, 1993–99 and 2004–05, and one year on the Board of Directors of the International Ombudsman Association (IOA), 2005–06. She chairs the IOA Committee on Ethics, Standards of Practice and Best Practices. Marsha's Ph.D. is in the field of Chinese and comparative literature; she was previously affiliated with Columbia University as assistant and associate professor of Chinese literature and director of the C. V. Starr East Asian Library. In addition to two books on Chinese poetry and an anthology of essays on the 1989 Chinese democracy movement, she has written several articles, including "The Ombudsman's Roles in Changing the Conflict Resolution System in Institutions of Higher Education" (PDF), "Apologies," "The Organizational Ombudsman as Change Agent" (Negotiation Journal 16, no. 1 [January 2000]: 99-114), and "Alternatives to ADA Mediation."
Bathabile K. S. Mthombeni
Bathabile K. S. Mthombeni joined the Ombuds Office as associate Columbia University ombuds officer in June 2006. An experienced mediator and mediation trainer, Bathabile was born in South Africa and grew up in California. After graduating from Princeton University, where she concentrated in sociology and received certificates in African Studies, African American Studies, Women's Studies, and Visual Arts, she earned her J.D. and studied mediation and negotiation at Columbia Law School. Most recently a litigation associate at Stroock and Stroock and Lavan LLP, where she was appointed to the firm's Diversity Committee, Bathabile is also on the roster of mediators for the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board.