Eddie Genna

Eddie is a tenured professor of philosophy and political science at Phoenix College. He is currently Associate Vice Chancellor for Faculty Affairs and formerly served as the Associate Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs and Collaborative Governance for the Maricopa Community Colleges and as a president of the Maricopa Community Colleges Faculty Association. He played a central role in introducing interest-based negotiation to the Maricopa Community Colleges’ meet-and-confer processes, mediation services, and leadership training programs, and he is the founding director of the mediation and facilitation services center that provides internal training, consulting, and mediation and facilitation services.  He also co-founded, with the Provost, the newly created Committee on Academic Freedom. Eddie has also served as an Adjunct Instructor in Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations Outreach Division. He has trained various institutions in interest-based negotiation and problem solving and regularly facilitates negotiations and group-decision making using this process. He consults with clients about implementing interest-based conflict resolution systems, especially as they relate to labor relations and the practice of shared governance. He teaches courses in Mediation, Organizational and Workplace Dispute Resolution, and Skills Building in the Master of Legal Studies Program (Conflict Resolution) at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law.

He has trained various institutions in interest-based negotiation and problem solving and regularly facilitates negotiations and group-decision making using this process. He consults with clients about implementing interest-based conflict resolution systems, especially as they relate to labor relations and the practice of shared governance. He teaches courses in Mediation, Organizational and Workplace Dispute Resolution, and Skills Building in the Master of Legal Studies Program (Conflict Resolution) at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law.

Eddie earned his law degree (JD) from the UC Berkeley School of Law, where he served as Editor in Chief of the Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law and an Executive Editor of the California Law Review. He studied political and legal philosophy at the CUNY Graduate Center (MA) and both political science and philosophy at ASU’s Barrett Honors College (BS/BA). His doctoral degree in political science (PhD) from ASU focused on the relationship between deliberative democracy and conflict resolution.

Prior to his career in teaching and facilitation, Eddie worked as a Berkeley Law Foundation Fellow at Community Legal Services in Phoenix advocating for the employment rights of low-wage workers.

Eddie combines this skill with his experiences with higher education, government, and private sector organizations to lead Inspired Engagement’s IBN and Shared Governance projects.