Dionne Pohler Named Inaugural Lipsky Professor

Dionne Pohler has been elected the inaugural David and Alexandra Lipsky Professor in Dispute Resolution and Labor Relations. The Cornell Board of Trustees approved the professorship, which began Nov. 1.  

Pohler joined the ILR faculty in the fall of 2025 as a professor in the Department of Global Labor and Work and as Associate Director of the Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution. Her primary research interest is in understanding how institutions, policies, processes and perspectives can lead to conflict or cooperation. She hopes her work will facilitate greater understanding of a shared responsibility to help bring about peace. 

What is your research about? 

My research interests span several topics in conflict and dispute resolution, work and employment, co-operative governance and development, unions and labor relations, rural studies, rural-urban polarization and public policy. However, I’m primarily interested in what leads to conflict and cooperation across individuals and groups in workplaces, organizations, communities and countries. 

How did you become interested in your field? 

I followed a winding life path without any clear sense of where it would end up. When I eventually found myself doing a Ph.D. in industrial relations and human resources, I love that it allowed me to explore a lot of different topics that interested me. Most historical and contemporary areas of our economic, cultural, social and political lives can be explored through the study of work and labor. 

What impact do you hope your research will have? 

I hope my research, teaching and outreach work will ultimately contribute to relationship-building – especially among people who come from different perspectives – and facilitate greater understanding of our shared responsibility in helping to bring about peace. I don’t think my work has had that impact yet, but this vision increasingly drives what I focus on in my career. 

What attracted you to the ILR School? 

The faculty are doing very interesting research that spans disciplines and fields of study. And there are exciting things happening in the Scheinman Institute’s outreach and extension work related to conflict resolution. I have also been told that ILR students are highly engaged and want to help change the world. I am looking forward to contributing to the mission of the ILR School. 

What are you most excited for about your time at ILR? 

I am looking forward to helping build an undergraduate concentration in conflict and its resolution, and to extending the excellent work the Scheinman Institute has been doing in organizations, unions and workplaces to other areas of conflict. I am also excited about exploring a new area of research on what makes mediation more or less effective across different contexts. 

How will you be part of Cornell’s “Any Person, Any Study”? 

I would like a minor in conflict resolution to be available to any Cornell undergraduate student, in any area of study. The conflict resolution processes and skills we study and teach at the ILR School are transferrable to any workplace and to beyond the workplace. Conflict manifests in every domain of our lives. 

Besides your work, what’s something that you’re passionate about? 

Reading about and making connections between quantum science, mysticism and Indigenous ways of knowing. 

What is a favorite piece of advice an inspiring figure in your life? 

Take a deep breath before you speak or act. I still forget to do this at least half of the time. 

What was the best part of your college experience? 

I was raised Catholic, and I took a course on world religions in my first year of university, followed by a course on Jesus of Nazareth from a Jewish professor. I remember this professor’s patience and kindness with me as I struggled to understand and accept perspectives outside my own culture and experience. It was probably the most beneficial experience of my life for understanding the fundamental sources of conflict. 

What’s something people are surprised to learn about you? 

I am the oldest child of nine and my family made up 10% of our elementary school.