Tessa Tompkins Byer is a Mediator and Housing Specialist at Just-A-Start Corporation in Cambridge, MA. In this position, she mediates landlord/tenant and small claims cases inside and outside of court and provides mediation and facilitation for condo associations. Tessa is also a divorce mediator through MWI, Inc., and a restorative justice facilitator through Communities for Restorative Justice (C4RJ). In the Spring of 2019, Tessa taught a graduate course in Mediation at Brandeis University. Tessa received her Basic Mediation Training from the Harvard Mediation Program in 2015, and she trained the next two cohorts of mediators in this model.
In May 2016, Tessa graduated from Brandeis University’s Coexistence and Conflict program, and her thesis for the program focused on the role of organizational ombuds offices in defusing tension and resolving conflicts in college and university settings. In July 2017, she published an article based on this research in the Negotiation Journal entitled “Yea, Nay, and Everything in Between: Disparities in the Academic Ombuds Field.” Tessa also holds a Master of Community Planning from Auburn University and a Bachelor of Arts in Social Entrepreneurship from Belmont University.
