Who We Are

Kirsi comes to CU Boulder from the University of California, Santa Barbara, having served in the Office of the Ombuds first as Associate Ombuds and then as Director since 2007. Also a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Kirsi has worked with administrators, faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, children, families and AIDS patients. She is a trained mediator and a member of the International Ombudsman Association. Kirsi is a Certified Organizational Ombudsman Practitioner™ (CO-OP™) and serves on the Board of Directors for the Board of Certification for Certified Organizational Ombudsman Practitioners.™

A national leader among ombuds professionals, Kirsi is also one of the founders of the Consortium on Abrasive Conduct in Higher Education (CACHE). CACHE is a national organization made up of leaders from all different types of higher education institutions - from Ivy League schools to large public research universities to smaller liberal arts and community colleges. The consortium aims to bring together university leaders from around the country to promote dialogue, research and thought leadership to resolve the problem of abrasive conduct in academia.

Kirsi is an alumna of Bryn Mawr College and holds an MS in Counseling Psychology from California State University, Northridge.

Liz Hill is the Associate Director for the University of Colorado Boulder Ombuds Office. She joined the Ombuds Office in May 2016. Liz is an attorney, trained mediator and certified organizational ombudsman practitioner (CO-OP®). Prior to joining the University of Colorado Boulder, Liz served as an Arizona Assistant Attorney General, Assistant Ombudsman for the State of Arizona, Organizational Ombudsman for Apollo Education Group, and partner of The Hill Firm, PLLC. Liz is a graduate of Gonzaga University School of Law and earned her B.S. from Northern Arizona University. She is member of the State Bar of Arizona, International Ombudsman Association (IOA), and American Bar Association’s Section of Dispute Resolution (ABA DR). Liz has held a variety of leadership roles for these associations and currently serves as the ABA DR Chair-Elect, Chair of the CO-OP® Communications Committee and IOA Mentor. She co-founded Ombuzz, a blog to help people in the workplace navigate difficult situations, improve communication and maintain positive professional relationships as well as OmbudsLinked, a professional LinkedIn Discussion Group for practicing ombuds.

Connect with Liz on LinkedIn and on Twitter. 

Yem Fong has served the University of Colorado Boulder in several capacities as a department director in the Libraries and liaison to Ethnic Studies and Women & Gender Studies. She has served on numerous committees including the Vice Chancellor’s Advisory Committee and the Graduate School Executive Advisory Council.  She co-chaired the Chancellor’s Committee on Women for two years and is a founding member of the national Asian and Pacific American Women’s Leadership Institute/Center for Asian and Pacific American Women.  She is a graduate of the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs and the University of California, Berkeley. Her scholarship focuses on scholarly publishing models and diversity and leadership issues for women.

Jerry has served CU Boulder faculty in several capacities. He was chair of the Boulder Faculty Assembly for two terms, was chair of the Communication Department for two terms, and served as a faculty mentor for the Faculty Teaching Excellence Program, with responsibility for new faculty in Education, Mass Media and the Social Sciences. Jerry is a trained mediator and a member of the International Ombudsman Association and the Consortium on Abrasive Conduct in Higher Education.  His disciplinary expertise in rhetoric includes rhetorical theory, political rhetoric and vernacular rhetorics of the public sphere.  

Maggie Howard joined the Ombuds Office in December 2024 as a Program Administrator. She earned a BA in Psychology at Willamette University in 2019, and a MA in College Student Personnel from the Bowling Green State University in 2021. She's worked as an Enrollment Management Specialist and an Academic Advisor before coming to the Ombuds team. She strives daily to make our office a safe place to voice and clarify concerns, to understand conflict situations and to brainstorm action-worthy options and constructive responses.