Caitlan Hendrickson

About Caitlan

Caitlan Hendrickson is a Certified Organizational Ombuds Practitioner with more than 20 years of dispute resolution experience and an exceptional record of service in complex public-sector and multicultural organizations.

She previously led the Ombuds Office at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, supporting a diverse workforce of approximately 20,000 employees across every U.S. state and territory as they served the nation before, during, and after disasters.

Caitlan now serves as a Conflict Resolution Advisor for the Office of the Ombudsman for United Nations Funds and Programmes, providing informal dispute resolution services to UNDP, UNICEF, UNFPA, UNOPS, and UN Women.

Fluent in English and Spanish, Caitlan helps make ombuds services more accessible to employees from different cultures, backgrounds, roles, and lived experiences. Her bilingual capabilities can reduce language barriers, expand access to support, and help organizations build greater trust across their workforces.

Government and Public-Sector Experience

Caitlan understands the distinctive pressures facing public employees and the institutions they serve. Her experience includes working with geographically dispersed teams, emergency-response professionals, senior leaders, frontline employees, and people operating in complex and high-stakes environments.

At FEMA, Caitlan provided conflict transformation and ombuds services to employees and teams serving communities throughout the United States and its territories. Her work required an understanding of large government systems, diverse employee needs, organizational change, and the human impact of demanding public-service work.

Her current United Nations work further strengthens her ability to support multicultural and international workforces while navigating differences in language, identity, organizational role, geography, and culture.

Approach

Caitlan provides a confidential, informal, and impartial place for employees to discuss workplace concerns, understand their options, and determine how they would like to move forward. She meets people where they are, listens carefully, and helps them identify constructive paths that account for both individual needs and organizational realities.

Her approach combines cross-cultural communication, restorative practices, trauma-informed care, conflict coaching, mediation, and systems awareness. This range of experience allows her to assist with concerns involving workplace relationships, communication, inclusion, organizational change, leadership, conduct, and other sensitive or complex matters.

In addition to supporting individual employees, Caitlan can help organizations recognize recurring themes and emerging concerns while protecting the confidentiality of those who use the ombuds resource.

Background

Caitlan has more than 15 years of experience leading dispute resolution and ombuds offices in large multicultural organizations. She has mediated more than 500 cases, trained hundreds of mediators, and supervised or mentored more than 100 mediation practitioners.

A member of the International Ombuds Association since 2011, Caitlan began her career as a mediator and restorative justice practitioner. Her work has included service to disadvantaged and marginalized communities, survivors of trauma, refugees, asylum seekers, and people navigating complex institutional systems.

She holds a Master of Education in Human Relations and a graduate certificate focused on Adult Learning and Training. Her undergraduate studies included Spanish, International Studies, Planning, Public Policy and Management, Peace Studies, and Latin American Studies.