Education
B.A., M.S.W, Catholic University of America; J.D., University of California

Biographical Sketch
Cathy Costantino is an attorney, law professor, mediator, facilitator, and conflict management systems designer. She is Counsel at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) where she handles complex dispute resolution and litigation matters. From 1991–2003, Ms. Costantino was the Director of the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Unit, where she had nationwide oversight for the ADR program during the savings and loan crisis. She has also served on the Attorney General’s ADR Working Group. She is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law School, The George Washington University Law School, and lectures regularly at Harvard Law School, Vermont Law School, and Pepperdine University School of Law. She has also taught at Columbia University Teachers’ College, The George Washington University School of Medicine and Public Health, George Mason University and lectured at Harvard Business School and the Federal Executive Institute. She frequently speaks at conferences and seminars, both in the U.S. and abroad.

Ms. Costantino co-authored Designing Conflict Management Systems: A Guide to Creating Productive and Healthy Organizations (Jossey-Bass, 1996), which received the Best Applied Book Award from the International Association for Conflict Management, and serves on the Editorial Board of Alternatives to the High Cost of Litigation. She has published numerous articles, including in the Harvard Business Review, the Harvard Negotiation Law Journal, the Negotiation Journal, and the Fordham Urban Law Journal.

Ms. Costantino has worked with stakeholders in the international arena: she has been a consultant to the United Nations, as well as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and has also worked with clients in Uganda, New Zealand, Singapore and Great Britain. Ms. Costantino was also the sole U.S. delegate to the United Nations Tripartite Commission on the Social Effects of Structural Change in the Banking Industry in Geneva and was elected Chairperson by 45 representatives from 32 nations. She recently participated in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on International Investment and Alternative Dispute Resolution.

On the domestic front, Ms. Costantino has worked with multiple stakeholder groups, including with federal agencies, in the education arena facilitating a union-management partnership in Montgomery County, Maryland and with numerous workplace teams and managers. She has also worked with various community groups to resolve issues of local concern and interest.

Prior to joining the FDIC, Ms. Costantino was Deputy Assistant General Counsel of Litigation at the Federal Home Loan Bank Board/Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation, and a litigation associate with Steptoe and Johnson in Washington, DC. Ms. Costantino received her J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley (Boalt Hall). She holds an M.S.W. and a B.A. in Social Work from the Catholic University of America.