Meet Your Ombudsperson

Mark Patterson currently serves as Director of Conflict Resolution Services and Ombuds at Cal Poly Pomona and as interim ombuds for Cal State University Monterey Bay. Before working at Cal Poly Pomona, Mark founded the Ombuds Office for California State University Channel Islands (CSUCI) and served as University Ombuds for the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Mark serves on the International Ombuds Association Board of Directors and co-chairs the Advocacy Committee for IOA. He also serves as an instructor for the IOA’s Foundations of Organizational Ombuds course and is a member of the Planning Committee for the California Caucus of College and University Ombuds (“Cal Caucus”). Mark has presented at the IOA Annual Conference, at Cal Caucus and was a keynote speaker for National Conflict Resolution Day at Virginia Commonwealth University. He has developed and presented hundreds of workshops on negotiation and conflict resolution topics.

Before becoming an ombuds, Mark was an award-winning and decorated judge advocate (military lawyer) in the U.S. Air Force, retiring at the rank of colonel in 2016. He served in Asia, Europe, and throughout the United States, with multiple deployments in Southwest Asia. He received a B.A. in journalism from Marietta College, Ohio; a J.D. from Duke University; and an LL.M. in International Dispute Resolution from Fordham University. He is a father of five and loves playing guitar and singing.