The CBD team can help you achieve your goals.
Cooperative By Design comprises a collaborative team of Eight colleagues located in five states (Arizona, Indiana, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia, including the Washington D.C. area). Together we bring over a century of experience of working with communities, congregations and organizations to achieve greater health and effectiveness. Below you’ll see a bio for each of us describing our respective areas of expertise. Please contact any one of us for more information about our services and availability.
Members
David Brubaker
Dayton, VirginiaDavid Brubaker is a Professor Emeritus of Organizational Studies at Eastern Mennonite University with four decades of experience in workplace mediation, organizational consulting, facilitation, and training. David began his career in the peacebuilding field with Mennonite Conciliation Service in 1986 and was one of the founders of Cooperative By Design in 1999. He is also on the roster of the Congregational Consulting Group (comprised of former Alban consultants) and the Center for Healthy Churches.
In addition to consulting with over 100 organizations in the US, David has consulted or trained with organizations in 12 other countries–including Angola, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Myanmar, Nepal, Fiji, Canada, and the United Kingdom. He is a member of the Association for Conflict Resolution and of the Organization Development Network, and volunteers with nonprofit organizations in his local community and with his congregation.
David is the author or co-author of four books, including The Little Book of Healthy Organizations (Good Books), Promise and Peril: Understanding and Managing Change and Conflict in Congregations (Rowman and Littlefield), When the Center Does Not Hold: Leading in an Age of Polarization (Fortress Press), and Reconciling Mission: Realizing God’s Reign through Community Engagement (Bloomsbury). David earned an MBA degree from Eastern University and a Ph.D. In Sociology, with concentrations in both Religion and Organizations, from the University of Arizona.
Dr. Rachel Goldberg
Greencastle, IndianaDr. Goldberg has been mediating for over 35 years, and her work and training background include: individual, organizational and multi-party interventions; and work around controversial issues like pro-life/pro-choice activism, police accountability, and Native American land claim conflict. Her research includes work on how worldview and values affect practice, best practices in environmental and inter-cultural conflict resolution, and her new framework developed with colleague Dr. Blancke, Multidimensional Conflict Resolution, which integrates emotional, somatic, and spiritual intelligence with classic conflict resolution practice.
During her tenure in the field she jointly founded two mediation centers, and has coordinated three. She was also senior staff for the National Association for Mediation in Education (NAME, now CRENET/ACR) and is a trainer for the Alternatives to Violence Project in maximum-security correctional facilities, and with other audiences. She is also certified to do NY State Lemon Law Arbitration and Matrimonial Fee Dispute Arbitration.
She is an Associate Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at DePauw University, in Greencastle, IN, and head of the Restorative Justice Mediation program there.
Gretchen Reinhardt
Gretchen’s nearly 30 years of experience in the field give her faith in the human spirit and its ability to respond to adversity and conflict with creativity. Her diverse life experiences lead her to notice how different decision-making processes address social, political, cognitive, and physical boundaries that separate and join us. As a life-long Quaker, she has a special interest in corporate spiritual discernment processes, and how they can appropriately be integrated with, or informed by, scientific discernment processes as well as public processes. Her current leading is to raise awareness of process tools that can be used to deepen and strengthen climate conversations and collaborative action. Gretchen is comfortable working with all ages, and brings Spanish language skills to her work.
She holds a MS from George Mason University‘s Institute for Conflict Analysis & Resolution, a B.A. in Politics from the University of California at Santa Cruz (Honors in the Major), and studied at Drew University’s United Nations Semester.
James Isaacs
James Isaacs has over 15 years of experience in congregational leadership as an Episcopal priest. He joined Cooperative by Design after completing his Master’s degree at Eastern Mennonite University in Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding. James enjoys consulting with congregations and coaching leaders to help them more fully live into their mission of representing God’s love in the world. He is also available to lead trainings and workshops on topics such as planning for change, engaging conflict in healthier ways, and what it means to be faithful to God in the midst of conflict.
James received a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and a M.Div. degree from Virginia Theological Seminary and serves as the Assistant Rector at St. James Episcopal Church in Potomac, Maryland.
Roxy Allen Kioko
Harrisonburg, VirginiaRoxann “Roxy” Allen, PhD is a trusted advisor and leadership coach who helps mission-driven leaders and teams navigate complex change with clarity, trust, and momentum. She brings deep experience strengthening strategy, culture, and collaboration across global contexts, including senior advisory work in organization & talent development and fundraising at Catholic Relief Services.
Roxy’s client work includes Tearfund (global leadership development program scoping and design) and other multi-stakeholder change and conflict transformation efforts. She has also partnered with and supported stakeholders such as World Vision, the Global Fund, and the MacArthur Foundation, and has facilitated employee focus groups with organizations including Google and Yahoo.
Roxy is an Assistant Professor of Business Administration at Shepherd University and a Lecturer of Leadership and Finance at the University of Virginia (UVA SCPS). She is certified in DiSC, the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI), the Intercultural Conflict Style inventory (ICS), Project Management for Development Professionals (PMDPro), and the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI).
Sharon Kniss
Sharon’s passion is bringing people together and facilitating spaces for constructive, collaborative dialogue and shared learning. She is energized by helping individuals and groups realize what is keeping them stuck, discover areas for growth, and dream what future possibilities may be.
Since 2006, Sharon has worked with organizations, leaders, and faith communities in situations of transition and conflict. In addition to offering tailored process design and facilitation, Sharon also offers training for leaders and organizations in healthy group processes including dialogue, mediation, and facilitation.
Sharon brings a justice and anti-oppression lens to her work, whether it is in international contexts or with local communities in the U.S. In the last five years, Sharon has increasingly focused her work in contexts addressing environmental conflict, collaboration, and justice needs.
Sharon’s educational background includes a MA in International Peace Studies (Kroc Institute; University of Notre Dame) and BA in Justice, Peace, and Conflict Studies (Eastern Mennonite University). She has additionally received training in restorative justice processes, environmental conflict, public participation, community development, and non-profit management. Sharon resides in the Washington D.C. area.
Affiliate Members
Barbara Robbins
Barbara Robbins is an associate consultant with Cooperative by Design. She is currently semi-retired from her consulting work but is continuing to offer team-building and leadership development through equine-assisted experiences at her farm in the Shenandoah Valley of VA.
Her professional experience, training and passion focused on leadership development, teambuilding, organizational change management and conflict transformation. She enjoyed helping organizations discover and tap into unused potential in their staff, taking them to a new level of understanding, motivation and performance.
Barbara utilized a collaborative process in her consulting practice that yielded transformative outcomes for her clients. Her processes were especially suited for conflict transformation and change management. Times of conflict in an organization’s life present unique opportunities for growth and positive change. She has many years of experience working with non-profit organizations, corporations, and congregations. She has written leadership development and teambuilding curriculum highlighting the important components of personality and how it connects to performance. She is founder of a unique experiential learning program, which involves working with horses, called HALT® (Horse Assisted Learning and Therapy) which many organizations and individuals have benefited from.
In 2020 Barbara founded The HALT Foundation, a nonprofit that envisions being a leading advocate of Equine Assisted Services throughout VA and beyond. Their mission is to resource and advance the life-giving field of equine-assisted psychotherapy and learning.
Among her educational credentials is a MA in Conflict Transformation and Organizational leadership from one of the leading peacebuilding programs in the country, the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding of Eastern Mennonite University. She holds a bachelor’s degree in social work from Baylor University and a Master of Divinity with an emphasis in Pastoral Counseling from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
In addition to her consulting work, Barbara and her husband of 40+ years, Alan, owned and operated a horse boarding business in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. They have three sons, Michael (and his wife Jen), Brian (and his wife Emily) and Matthew (and his wife Nikki). They have five grandsons, Thomas, Will, Luke, Jay and Henry. Her hobbies include anything related to being outdoors including trail riding, yard work, and water activities.
Jane Ellen Reid
Dayton, VirginiaJane Ellen has three decades of practice experience in conflict analysis and resolution. She worked as University Ombudsman, first in Arizona and later at Eastern Mennonite University(EMU) in Harrisonburg VA, and Washington and Lee University in Lexington VA.
Jane Ellen retired from EMU in 2019 but has continued to consult with churches and organizations in conflict or experiencing change. love working at the micro and macro levels within organizations, including strategic planning, maintaining consistency between stated values and goals, role clarity, and healthy communication.
Jane Ellen’s passions lie in individual and executive conflict coaching, organizational health and productivity, and resiliency in interpersonal relations. Her work includes organizational strategic planning, seminars on engaging difficult conversations in the workplace, mediation, restorative circles, and facilitation. In addition to consulting, Jane Ellen teaches an undergrad course in Conflict Transformation and Mediation at Eastern Mennonite University.
Among her educational credentials is Ph.D. coursework completed at NOVA Southeastern University in the Department of Conflict Analysis and Resolution (DCAR); MEd in Educational Psychology and Human Development from Northern Arizona University; BA in History from the University of Vermont.