Sara Cobb, Ph.D.

Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution 
3330 Washington Blvd 
Arlington, VA 22201 

Phone: 703-993-4452 
Email: scobb@gmu.edu

Dr. Sara Cobb is Director of the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (ICAR) at George Mason University. As ICAR provides graduate degrees in conflict resolution, Dr. Cobb works to support both the production of original research, but also the integration between theory and practice. As a faculty, she teaches theory, research and practice-based courses on narrative facilitation and conflict transformation. In her role as Director, she provides liaison between ICAR and other private sector agencies/corporations, at national and international levels.

Dr. Cobb has a Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Through her research, she has specialized in the analysis of conflict narratives and has contributed to the critique of “neutrality” in conflict resolution processes. Dr. Cobb has published widely in communication studies and legal studies, supported by Grants from the Ford Foundation and the UN High Commission on Refugees. She has held both administrative and academic positions at a variety of research institutions including Harvard Law School, University of California, Santa Barbara, and the University of Connecticut. She has consulted to a host of family-owned businesses in North and South America, as well as to public and private organizations, including UN High Commission on Refugees, La Caxia Bank, and Exxon, to name a few. She has conducted training for the American Bar Association, Fox Learning Academy and a number of universities in Europe and Latin America. The blend of academic research, program development, and practice enables Dr. Cobb to offer both systematic critique of traditional methods for conflict intervention, as well as new methods for intervention that focus on the transformation of narratives in conflict processes.