Bob Stains, Principal

When a divisive conflict threatens your organization –especially on sensitive issues like identity and religion- it’s good to have support from a someone with a cool head, a steady hand and the wisdom of long experience. Bob Stains, founder and principal of Bob Stains and Associates, has over 30 years of experience working with deep divisions by consulting, coaching, training, facilitating and mediating.

Bob has trained over 30,000 people in dialogue, conflict resolution and communication skills and worked with clients from across the US and 17 other countries. His clients have included universities, community agencies, churches, and independent schools well as national and international organizations.

Bob uses his decades of experience as a dialogue facilitator and mediator to help people in organizations to communicate across deep differences in ways that leave them connected, not divided. He is noted for his human, collaborative, client-centered approach; for his teaching and facilitation skills and for the wisdom he brings from long experience working with deep conflict in multiple settings and countries.

Bob assembles teams to best meet clients’ needs, drawing from the extensive, international network of seasoned professionals he has worked with over the years. Clients he has served include the Harvard Negotiation Project, CoRe Group in Manila Harvard Divinity School, the American Church in Paris, MIT, the House of Bishops of the US Episcopal Church, the Center for Creative Dialogue in Taipei, the National Institute of Mental Health, Christian and Jewish communities of faith, NASA, Southern Vermont College and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

In 2021 Bob launched “Transforming Dialogue,” a small group coaching, training and mentoring program, to help people develop or deepen skills for planning and facilitating dialogues on divisive issues, especially identity. To learn more, please click the link: TD link here.

Experience

Senior Associate
Essential Partners (fka Public Conversations Project)
Cambridge, MA
Feb 2017 – Present

Senior Vice President for Training
Public Conversations Project/Essential Partners
Cambridge, MA
Dec 1994 – Present

Consultant
Program on Negotiation, Harvard Law School
Cambridge, MA
2002 – Present

Guest Scholar Practitioner
Kansas State University Dialogue, Deliberation and Public Engagement program
Manhattan, KS
2005 – Present

Adjunct Faculty
Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, Pepperdine University School of Law
Malibu, CA
Jul 2015 – Aug 2015

Hamline University School of Law Dispute Resolution Institute
St. Paul, MN
June, 2014

Mediator; Mediator Trainer; Consultant
United States Postal Service REDRESS program
1998 – 2006

National Director of Training and Technical Assistance
The Better Homes Foundation
Jul 1991 – Feb 1995