Connie's Biography

CONNIE BARNABA, CTM, GPHR, SPHR

Connie Barnaba is the president of Barnaba & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in values-based leadership, effective communication and conflict management. A certified global professional in human resources (GPHR), with a bachelor’s degree in education from Clarion University and a master’s degree in communication from the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, Connie has more than 20 years’ experience in human resource management, including strong credentials in change management and building organizational consensus on policy direction. Her background in conflict management includes experience with for profit and non-profit businesses, public and private sector employees, and in unionized and non-union work settings. In addition, Connie is a mediator (CTM) certified by the Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation affiliated with the Hofstra University School of Law. Although she is certified to deliver accredited training programs in Managing Workplace Conflict and her consulting practice focuses on conflict management in the workplace, she holds certifications as a family mediator and as a mediator of child protective services and has volunteered to mediate cases for dispute resolution centers in Harris and Montgomery County. Prior to establishing her consulting practice, Connie served as Executive Manager, Affiliate Services, for the Ohio Education Association (an affiliate of the National Education Association) where she recruited and trained labor relations consultants and was responsible for the delivery of labor relations services to 700 teacher unions in Ohio. As Affirmative Action Officer, she designed and successfully implemented an intern program aimed at increasing the number of women and minorities in highly-compensated staff positions – a program that was later adopted as a model by the NEA. More recently, Connie served as VP, HR Services operations, for Administaff, Inc., a Fortune 500 company listed on the Barron’s list of best-performing companies. With direct responsibility for quality client service delivered by a staff of 200 professional service providers, Connie managed client EEO compliance and client retention, working with the Office of the General Counsel, the client, and the sales team to facilitate agreements to sensitive non-compliance issues. An accomplished public speaker, Connie has been a repeat presenter at the HR Houston Gulf Coast Symposium and has presented at the 2005 Capital University Law School ADR Minority Conference, the 2006 American Bar Association DR Section Conference, the 2007 national ACR conference, and the 2008 New York State Unified Court System Advanced Mediator Institute, the Capital University National Training Institute, and the Conference of the Texas State Auditor’s Office. Since January 2008, Connie has been heavily involved in research relative to the conflict conditions created by mergers and acquisitions with the objective of marketing her consulting services to those companies. Recently, she was the recipient of an executive scholarship awarded by the Houston Minority Business Council and the Shell Oil Company to take several classes at the Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation. Her plans are to capitalize on the Harvard learning experience to design strategic conflict management solutions for companies involved in mergers and acquisitions.

Barnaba & Associates, Inc.
410 Pierce Street, Suite 226
Houston, Texas 77002
www.conniebarnaba.com