Trustee 

Director of ADR and Restorative Practices, Center for Creative Conflict Resolution, New York City, New York, USA 

Sethu Laxmi Nair is a mediator, facilitator, coach, and trainer in the fields of alternative dispute resolution and restorative practices. Through her work, Sethu seeks to improve interpersonal and social dynamics by enhancing leadership capacity and conflict competence among leaders and groups. 

Currently, she serves as the Director of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and Restorative Practices at the Center for Creative Conflict Resolution, an innovative public service group that offers a blend of conflict resolution, training, and systems design options within and across the New York City government. Through her private practice, Sethu consults with nonprofit organizations and businesses, offering a unique blend of leadership coaching, mediation, and group conflict management. Sethu is also a mediation trainer in the understanding-based model, as taught by the Center for Understanding in Conflict.

A member of Hidden Water, Sethu facilitates restorative circles to heal the impact of child sexual abuse in the family system. She also teaches a foundational course on Restorative Justice and Practices at the School of Social Work at Columbia University and blogs about her learning and work on LinkedIn.

Sethu has worked with various gender justice and human rights organizations in New York and India. She earned her bachelor's at SUNY Purchase College and her Master's in Economic and Political Development at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.