Mitchell Hammer

Background

About Mitchell Hammer

Mitchell R. Hammer, Ph.D. has achieved an international reputation as a social innovator, developing powerful ideas and innovative practices that improve people’s lives throughout the world by addressing difficult social problems at the intersection of cultural differences. Dr. Hammer is the founder of several organizations that focus on intercultural competence development, conflict resolution, and critical incident management and crisis intervention. Dr. Hammer’s cutting edge work has resulted in (1) the Intercultural Development Inventory®, an assessment instrument and process to build intercultural competence,(2) the Intercultural Conflict Style (ICS) Inventory®, a framework and assessment tool to bridge cultural differences in resolving disagreements, and (3) the SAFE Dialogue™ approach to crisis intervention and hostage negotiation. Dr. Hammer was appointed by the Director of the National Institutes of Medicine (NIH) as a Charter member of the Cancer Advisory Panel for the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. He has advised the Japanese Government during the 1997 hostage crisis in Peru, advised negotiators involved in successfully securing the release of an American taken hostage in Latin America, advised the NASA Johnson Space Center for the International Space Station Program. on cross-cultural communication. In 1996, Dr. Hammer, along with four associates, identified a set of letters with the writing of the so-called “Unabomber Manifesto” helping identify Ted Kaczynski as the “Unabomber.” He has published widely, with 3 books, 73 articles, 145 conference papers and presentations, and been honored with 55 professional awards and keynote addresses. Dr. Hammer frequently provides expert analysis for the media, including NBC News, CNN, FOX National News, CTV in Canada, NHK television in Japan, Voice of America, Agence France Presse, Associated Press, United Press International, Reuters, USA Today and the Washington Post.