CARBONDALE - A commissioner with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service will be at Southern Illinois University Carbondale Tuesday to present a training seminar for SIUC employees that will focus on leadership development and dealing with change.

Rich Kirkpatrick will present "Building Leadership throughout Change," Tuesday, Dec. 9, in the Student Health Center Auditorium. "Building Leadership" is from 8 to 10 a.m. and "Dealing with Change" is from 10 a.m. to noon.

Registration is free, and open to University supervisory and management staff, and other staff whom supervisors identify as potential leaders.

Topics included in the seminar are successful leadership methods, handling conflict modes, communication for leaders, workplace issues, and dealing with change.

SIUC's Office of Labor and Employee Relations Workforce Learning and Development is sponsoring the seminar.

According to the University's Office of Labor and Employee Relations, Kirkpatrick mediates labor and management conflicts, Equal Opportunity Commission disputes, and other workplace-related issues.

Kirkpatrick, who is from Du Quoin, earned a bachelor's degree in education from SIUC. He earned a master's degree in labor and policy studies from Empire State College, State University of New York.

He previously served as a chief labor negotiator for the United Mine Workers of America. He has also taught labor relations and collective bargaining, speech, business and society, and a conflict management course that he developed at National College in Denver.

Kirkpatrick worked with the Ministry of Labor in Argentina and the Organization for the American States in South America, training mediators from Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Chile in advanced mediation techniques. He is a former vice president of membership for the St. Louis chapter of the American Society for Training and Development.

Contact Carol Fisher at 453-1393 for more information or with questions about registration.

To register, go to http://www.siuc.edu/~laborrelations/training/index.html. Go to the "Professional Series: Building Leadership throughout Change," and hit the "reserve your seat" button. That will take you to the Division of Continuing Education Web site. Follow the prompts to register for the specific workshop. You may either enroll yourself, or someone else.

On the next screen, you will see "New to DCE-create account," or "returning customers"-"ID: -___" The ID number refers to the employee's DCE number. If you do not know your DCE ID number, select "Forget Your ID?" You may request your identification number by entering your SIU email address.

Employees may also attend by signing in at the door the day of the seminar.