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Cris Gilbert is a member of MWI’s ombuds panel. She has served as both an organizational and advocate ombuds. Her ombuds career started in 2012 as an advocate ombuds in the State of Texas where she advocated for residents in long-term care and assisted living facilities, working with closely with regulatory and individual facilities and their administrations.

Utilizing more than30 years in the ADR field as a mediator, facilitator (specializing in Faith-based organizations), professor and trainer, Cris was instrumental in resolving conflicts at all levels from family, civil court cases to facility issues. Cris has served as an organizational ombuds with a university, assisting faculty, staff, and students as well as training compliance investigators in mediation, conflict resolution, and DEI initiatives for the organization. She has also worked as a facilitator, assisting HR and Compliance with informal resolutions. She serves in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) on two campus initiatives (the President’s DEI Council and Social Justice, Equity and Inclusion Council)

Scott has nearly three decades of experience in academia, nonprofit, and federal sectors as an ombuds, mediator, and trainer. He is an expert at helping organizations build and sustain community-centered cultures that focus on people, their interconnected journey together, and their ability to accomplish great things through collaboration and dialogue. For a decade, Scott was a certified mediator and mentor through the Virginia Supreme Court, and he has retained his Certified Organizational Ombuds Practitioner (CO-OP)® credential since March 2010. Scott has mediated more than 250 employment-related disputes, and has been an ombuds in six organizations, where he 4,500 people explore resolution options for 18,000 workplace issues. Within academia, Scott’s interventions helped enable productive dialogue and problem-solving on complex issues, including academic freedom, curriculum change processes, lab operations, faculty workloads, authorship, and other unique challenges faced by staff and senior administrators. Scott has a master’s degree from George Mason University’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution (2001) and a bachelor’s in psychology (major) and music (minor) from James Madison University (1997).

Peggie R. Smith, JD, is the Charles Nagel Professor of Employment & Labor Law. She is a leading scholar in the regulation of care work that occurs both inside and outside of the home, including domestic work, child care and home care. She has published widely on these and other issues including work and family balance, elder care, and parental discrimination. She is the lead author (with R. Gely, A. Hodges, & S. Stabile) of Principles of Employment Law (2009). She teaches in the areas of labor and employment law, employment discrimination, and contracts. She joined Washington University in St. Louis in 2010, after spending several years on the faculty at the University of Iowa College of Law. Since her arrival, she has been actively involved in the university community, including serving on the Faculty Senate Council and as a member of the Ferguson Academic Seed Fund Committee. She has also served on many law school committees and she currently serves as Vice Dean for Academic Affairs at the Law School. In the spring of 2017, she completed a three-day training course, offered by the International Ombuds Association, to prepare for her appointment as faculty ombuds on the Danforth Campus.

Danforth Campus
13 Sever Hall
One Brookings Drive
St. Louis, MO 63130-4899

For more Ombuds information for Danforth Faculty, please visit the Faculty Ombuds website.

Mwiza Ushe, MD, has built a distinguished career at WashU Medicine, starting as a graduate student and earning both a master’s degree in neuroscience and a medical degree. He currently is a professor in the Section of Movement Disorders within the Department of Neurology. Throughout his tenure, Ushe has contributed significantly to both WashU Medicine’s clinical practice and its commitment to diversity. As director of the Deep Brain Stimulation Program and Movement Disorders Clinic since 2014, he has supported an impactful patient care and training environment. He also has served as vice chair of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging in the Department of Neurology since 2021, and worked diligently to foster an inclusive environment. Ushe’s varied experiences as a student, resident, staff member, fellow, junior faculty member and senior faculty member enable him to empathize deeply with individuals across WashU.

Alison Antes, PhD, is an associate professor in the Bioethics Research Center and Division of General Medicine and Geriatrics in the Department of Medicine at WashU Medicine. Trained as an industrial-organizational psychologist, she has spent the last decade at WashU conducting research on responsible leadership and management in science and the decision-making processes of researchers. Antes actively contributes to researcher education and career development, having taught, trained and coached researchers across career stages, disciplines and institutions. She directs a national program to support early-career biomedical researchers and enhance their leadership and management skills, and co-directs a coaching program for researchers facing issues related to research integrity or compliance. She is known for her ability to listen to and appreciate the diverse perspectives and experiences of those pursuing their education and careers in academic medicine.