The Federal Service Impasses Panel Biographies
Mary Jacksteit, Chair, Federal Service Impasses Panel
Federal Labor Relations Authority
Mary Jacksteit has over 20 years of experience in mediation, facilitation and negotiation working for non-profit organizations, government agencies and community organizations. Jacksteit previously served on the Federal Service Impasses Panel for seven years during the Clinton Administration. She began her legal career as a labor attorney for the American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO, where she later served as Deputy General Counsel. In the late 1980’s she began practicing as a labor arbitrator in the public and private sectors, serving on panels of the American Arbitration Association, Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, and U.S. Postal Service. For 10 years, she worked at Search for Common Ground - a conflict resolution organization. Since 2007 she has been associated with the Public Conversations Project in Watertown, Massachusetts and has maintained a private practice focused on community, public policy, organizational planning, and conflict management. Jacksteit has a law degree from Georgetown Law School, an M.S. from George Mason University’s Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, and a B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh.
Barbara B. Franklin, Member, Federal Service Impasses Panel
Federal Labor Relations Authority
Barbara B. Franklin is an arbitrator and mediator in Washington, D.C. She serves on arbitration rosters administered by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the American Arbitration Association and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. She is a mediator for the U.S. Court of Appeals and District Court for the District of Columbia. Since 1999, she has served as a Public Member of the D.C. Police and Firefighters Retirement Board, a position that is appointed by the Mayor of D.C. Prior to her retirement from the Federal Government in 1997; Ms. Franklin was Chief Counsel to Members Pamela Talkin and Donald S. Wasserman of the Federal Labor Relations Authority. From 1977 to 1989, she served as a staff attorney and then supervisory attorney for the National Labor Relations Board in the Office of General Counsel (Division of Advice). Franklin received her J.D. from The Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law, where she was Associate Editor of the Law Review, and her B.A. from Northwestern University.
Edward F. Hartfield, Member, Federal Service Impasses Panel
Federal Labor Relations Authority
Edward F. Hartfield is the Executive Director of the National Center for Dispute Settlement (NCDS). He has devoted his entire 36-year career to serving as an impartial party as mediator, arbitrator, facilitator, election administrator, trainer, neutral convener, and ombudsman. Hartfield has served as Commissioner with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and State Mediator for the New Jersey Office of Dispute Settlement. He was previously appointed by President Clinton to the Federal Service Impasses Panel, a seven-person panel established to resolve disputes in the Federal Government. Hartfield has also served as the International President of the Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution (SPIDR) and currently is Vice President of the Detroit Chapter of the Labor and Employment Research Association (LERA). Hartfield serves on the Michigan State Court Administrative Office Task Force on Mediation Confidentiality and previously served on the Michigan Supreme Court Task Force on Mediation. He received a Masters in International Relations from the University of Detroit and B.A. from Oberlin College.
Martin H. Malin, Member, Federal Service Impasses Panel
Federal Labor Relations Authority
Martin H. Malin is a Professor of Law and the Director of the Institute for Law and the Workplace at Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology. He teaches courses in labor law, collective bargaining, arbitration, public sector labor law, employment law, contracts and jurisprudence. Malin has published five books, including Public Sector Employment: Cases and Materials (West 2004), the leading law school casebook on public sector labor law; and more than 60 articles on labor law and dispute resolution. An active arbitrator and mediator since 1984, Malin just completed a three-year term on the Board of Governors of the National Academy of Arbitrators and is a fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. He also serves on the Executive Committee of The Labor Law Group and is a past chair of the Association of American Law Schools Section on Labor Relations and Employment Law. From 2004 - 2008, Malin served as Reporter for the Association of Labor Relations Agencies’ Neutrality Project. He was the principal drafter of ALRA’s Neutrality Report, a mini-treatise on labor board and mediation agency impartiality. During the mid 1980s, he served as a consultant to Illinois’ public employment labor boards and drafted the regulations implementing Illinois’ newly-enacted public sector labor relations acts. Malin joined the Chicago-Kent faculty in 1980, after teaching at Ohio State University and serving as Law Clerk to U.S. District Judge Robert DeMascio in Detroit. He holds a J.D. from George Washington
University and a B.A. from Michigan State University.
Don Wasserman, Member, Federal Service Impasses Panel
Federal Labor Relations Authority
Don Wasserman has been a labor relations professional his entire career. Since 2001, he has been an arbitrator/mediator, specializing in all levels of the public sector. He is a Member of the D.C. Public Employee Relations Board (DC PERB) and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Employee Relations Council (MWAA-ERC). Wasserman is also on the labor rosters of the American Arbitration Association, Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and National Mediation Board. In December 1995, he was appointed by former President Clinton as a Member and then as Chairman of the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA), where he served until 2001. Wasserman began his career at the Communications Workers of America and then the International Association of Machinists. From 1967 until his appointment to FLRA, Wasserman held various top positions at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees where he served as Director of the Department of Collective Bargaining and Assistant to the President. His major responsibilities included serving as chief negotiator in establishing initial collective bargaining agreements with several state governments and large local governments. He frequently testified before legislative bodies on key collective bargaining issues such as bargaining unit structure and impasse resolution procedures, as well as matters including government reinvention/redesign and civil service reform. Wasserman received an M.B.A from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. from Temple University.
H. Joseph Schimansky, Executive Director, Federal Service Impasses Panel
Federal Labor Relations Authority
Born in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Received a B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh in Philosophy and Political Science in 1974. Received an M.A. in Philosophy in 1979 from the University of Illinois, Champaign, Illinois, and an M.A. from the Institute for Labor and Industrial Relations of the University of Illinois in 1982. Worked for approximately 22 years at the national office of the Federal Labor Relations Authority, drafting decisions in the arbitration, unfair labor practice, and negotiability subject areas. Began employment as a Staff Associate at the Federal Service Impasses Panel in the fall of 1986. Named Assistant Executive Director of the Panel in March 1992, and Executive Director on December 8, 1996.