James Cumming
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Ed.D., is a director of Chaos Management Ltd. Initially trained as a civil engineer, he worked for engineering firms in England and Zambia where he began his international development career. As an assistant professor at the Continuing Education Center, Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand he consulted to Swedish development projects in Laos and Vietnam to help improve technical communication between local staff and their Swedish advisors. Subsequently, he developed extensive experience facilitating multicultural and multinational groups addressing issues of language, culture and power differences.
As a diversity consultant, James has worked for such organizations as the Woodrow Wilson International Center and Mobil Corporation. He also specializes in creating effective conditions for dialogue, learning and change in groups, organizations and communities using large group approaches such as the Future Search Conference (FSC). James has conducted FSCs on sustainable agriculture (CISA), mainstreaming gender (UNDP), eliminating racism (Town of Brattleboro), and environmental planning (Ministry of Environment, Colombia). He is a founder member of Future Search Network. He is currently adjunct faculty at the SIT Graduate Institute, Brattleboro, VT where he teaches courses on Multicultural Team Development and Organization Behavior. James has master's degrees in engineering and international management and a doctorate in international education from the University of Massachusetts.