Ada Emmett

Ada Emmett became the University Ombuds in August 2022. She joined the Ombuds Office as the part-time Faculty Ombuds in July 2019, serving the university community of students, staff, and faculty, and took on the role of Acting University Ombuds in January 2021. In January 2022 she became Interim University Ombuds, and in August of 2022, after a national search, was named the permanent University Ombuds. 

She has seen over 400 visitors in her various roles in the Ombuds Office. As a result of her sabbatical explorations, while a faculty member, she completed the State of Kansas approved training in Core Mediation at Johnson County Community College and Restorative Justice Training in June 2019; in October 2020 completed the International Ombudsman Association’s Foundation Training for new ombuds, and in the Spring of 2023 completed a second deep dive training into restorative justice practices. She continues to explore alternative dispute resolution and coaching practices in her role as University Ombuds, and is an active member of two university ombuds discussion and practice teams that partner together to support university ombuds across the Midwest. 

Ada has been at KU for over 21 years, the first 17 years as a member of the faculty in the libraries. She concluded a meaningful sabbatical project in December 2018, “Sophisticated Forms of Cooperation”, that shifted her professional focus to how communities and diverse groups can come together to solve complex, dynamic, so called, “wicked” problems. One branch of her sabbatical work focused on training to support individuals in their communities to resolve conflict. This led her to the faculty ombuds role at KU and to her growing experience serving the KU community as an ombuds.