The Principals: Who We Are

Arlene Brownell, Ph.D., is a principal and co-founder of Connection Partners, Inc. a company specializing in changing the energy of conflict into the energy of solutions. She provides mediation, mediation coaching, group facilitation, and Non-Adversarial Communication training and coaching to individuals, couples, families, neighbors, organizations, and faith communities.

Whether she is coaching, facilitating, or speaking, Arlene models and clarifies the link between relationship and results. Arlene's professional career spans over 25 years and includes her contributions as an interdisciplinary social scientist, manager, and organizational consultant. She holds a BA in Psychology and an MA in Community and Clinical Psychology from California State University, and a PhD in Social Ecology from the University of California, Irvine. She completed a two-year postdoctoral research fellowship in Public Health at UCLA.

Arlene has over 80 publications in professional and lay periodicals including, "How Mediation Can Increase Employee and Customer Loyalty" (Boulder County Business Report, September, 2001), and, "Non-Adversarial Communication: A Strategy to Increase Client and Attorney Satisfaction. (Co-authored article published in the Boulder County Bar Newsletter, November, 2002).

Arlene lives, works, and enjoys riding her tandem bike with her husband, Tom Bache-Wiig, in Boulder, Colorado.

Tom's business experience informs his work. In process and solutions design, he strives for balance between the practical and ideal, and between the risks and benefits. With expertise in interest-based negotiation, process facilitation, and Non-Adversarial Communication, Tom seeks to find themes, reframe concerns, structure conversation, pace meetings, identify needs, and ask the right questions at the right time.

Tom brings to his work his extensive training with The Center for Nonviolent Communication and over 25 years of experience resolving business and relationship disputes. He is a mediation coach for CDR Associates and is past president of the Boulder Colorado Chapter of the Council of Mediators. He also holds a BS in Business from Regis University.

Tom has a passion for skiing, running, cycling, hiking, and for his wife of 25 years. He lives in Boulder, Colorado.