Mark Umbreit

2006 Outstanding Community Service Award Winner
Professor
School of Social Work

Associate Vice President for Community Partnerships Sheila Ards, Mark Umbreit, and Associate Vice President for Public Engagement Victor Bloomfield.

Dr. Mark Umbreit is a Professor and the founding Director of the Center for Restorative Justice & Peacemaking in the School of Social Work. His dedication to restorative justice goes back at least to 1978, when he helped establish the first documented restorative justice program in America, known as the Victim Offender Reconciliation Program.

Dr. Umbreit’s work, unlike that of many restorative justice advocates whose work addresses the impact of property offenses and less serious crimes, has always focused on healing the emotional wounds of severe criminal violence. Dr. Umbreit is recognized in Minnesota and other parts of the country as a pioneer in responding to the needs of the parents of murdered children and children of murdered parents, and has also worked with victims of severe political violence in Northern Ireland, South Africa, and Israel/Palestine. Dr. Umbreit has an international reputation for his innovative work in restorative justice, and has conducted seminars and lectures throughout North America and Europe, as well as in Mexico, Colombia, China, Japan, and Israel/Palestine.

As a practitioner, he specializes in facilitating dialogues between family members of homicide victims and the offender. He is currently engaged in a study to assess the impact of new restorative justice initiatives in five regions of the former Soviet Republic, the Ukraine. He has written extensively on restorative justice, peacemaking, and mediation. Dr. Umbreit has initiated a Community Peacemaking Project to promote sustained dialogue among diverse communities in response to hate crimes, intolerance, and political violence.

Community partners include: Washington County Court Services; MN Department of Corrections; Twin-Cities Palestinian-Jewish Dialogue Group; The Lead Group, Minneapolis: Helping African Immigrants to Become Leaders; Somali Community Center, Twin Cities; Seeds of Hope, Northern Ireland; Palestinian Centre for Conflict Resolution & Reconciliation, West Bank; House of Hope, Israel; Arab-Jewish Peace Alliance in Albuquerque; International Centre for Healing and the Law; Oglala Lakota Restorative Justice Initiative, Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota.

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