About Us

Ron became the Executive Director of Conflict Resolution & Conciliation Services (now known as Conflict to Peace), a non-profit peacemaking organization, in February 1995. He has over thirty-four years of experience dealing with individual, family, business, workplace, employment, organizational, community, and public policy conflicts.

While with Conflict to Peace he has conducted over four thousand hours of conflict coaching, mediation, conciliation and arbitration for a broad range of disputes including family (including, relationship preservation and restoration, parenting, separation, custody, equitable distribution, elder care, and estate issues), victim/offender, community, employment, commercial, contractual, educational, organizational, and church. He is also experienced in conflict intervention, particularly in church, workplace and other inter- and intra-organizational contexts. Mr. Zabel previously served on the Advisory Council for the Institute for Christian Conciliation. He currently serves on the Fairfax Bar Association’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Section.

He also has extensive experience teaching dispute resolution principles and practice, Christian Conciliation, mediation and personal peacemaking in a variety of formats including overviews, workshops, seminars, multi-day intensive blocks, and extended multi-week programs. He has provided instruction in conflict resolution for a variety of organizations and churches, including programs at Fairfax County Public Schools Student Mediation Conferences, Marymount University, the Virginia Mediation Network Annual Conference, George Mason University’s Northern Virginia Mediation Service Monday Night Forum, the Fairfax Bar Association Religious Leader Seminar, and the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center’s Life Learning Block. He is a coach/trainer for Peacemaker Ministries’ Reconciler Training Program and Certification Program for Christian Conciliators and has taught at multiple Peacemaker Ministries conferences and Conciliator Training Practicums.

Prior to founding Conflict Resolution & Conciliation Services he completed a career as a legal officer for the United States Coast Guard where he was recognized for exceptional ability in negotiating development of regulatory policy and achieving improved intra-agency relationships. With the Coast Guard he had extensive experience dealing with people in conflict and facilitating conflict resolution. He managed delivery of all facility and support services for the 400,000 square foot Headquarters building and administered civilian and military personnel program for its staff of 2400, which involved mediation of issues between program elements and between staff personnel on an almost daily basis; conducted extensive ethics training and resolved numerous standards of conduct disputes; trained regulatory project teams in the art of regulatory development and negotiated extensively with maritime and environmental interest groups, other Federal agencies and the Office of Management and Budget to resolve controversial issues during development of the significant rules; conceptualized and orchestrated the Coast Guard’s first negotiated rulemaking effort in order to develop the very controversial major rule on pollution response plans for vessels. Mr. Zabel also has extensive experience in military trials and administrative proceedings serving as counsel for parties, hearing officer, or Judge.

Mr. Zabel’s education includes: J.D, George Washington University; B.A. University of Washington. He has extensive training in dealing with people in conflict including: multiple courses in negotiation and mediation from the Justice Department’s Legal Education Institute, American Arbitration Association, Northern Virginia Mediation Service, Institute for Christian Conciliation, Christian Counseling and Education Foundation, Association for Conflict Resolution, and Virginia Mediation Network with an emphasis on family, employment, church, and relationship based disputes; Procurement Law; Human Resources Management; Labor Relations; Managing Diversity; Workplace Discrimination; Organizational Program Development and Team Building.

Mr. Zabel’s professional memberships include: Virginia State Bar, Fairfax Bar Association, Association for Conflict Resolution, Collaborative Professionals of Northern Virginia, Virginia Collaborative Professionals, International Academy of Collaborative Professionals, Christian Legal Society, Virginia Mediation Network, and The Virginia Alternative Dispute Resolution Joint Committee. He is certified by the Judicial Council of Virginia as a Circuit Court level court-referred mediator for both civil and family cases and as a mentor for Virginia certification candidates. He is also certified by the Institute for Christian Conciliation as a Christian Conciliator and coaches candidates pursuing certification in Christian Conciliation.