Education Services

Jeanne Charles (fka Wood) has a multi-state Alternative Dispute Resolution practice based in the Chicago and Fort Lauderdale areas. Ms. Charles earned her Juris Doctorate (J.D.) degree from DePaul University College of Law in Chicago and maintains her law license in Illinois.  Her practice includes both arbitration and mediation services predominately in the area of workplace dispute resolution.

Ms. Charles currently serves as a labor arbitrator on permanent panels for both the public and private sectors. The panels include US Postal Service and NPMHU; IRS and NTEU; AFSCME and the states of Illinois and Florida; IAFF and Miami-Dade County and Major League Baseball and the MLB Players’ Association. Ms. Charles was recently appointed as a Special Magistrate for the Florida Public Employees Relations Commission. In addition, she is on the labor rosters for the American Arbitration Association (AAA), Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS), and the National Mediation Board (NMB). She has been a speaker at various conferences including the National Academy of Arbitrators; Minority Professionals in ADR at Capital Law School, Columbus, OH; Federal Sector Labor Law and Illinois Public Sector Labor Relations conferences at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law; and the FMCS Bi-Annual Arbitrator’s Symposium.

Ms. Charles is an adjunct professor for Penn State University where she teaches graduate courses in Employment Law and Employee Relations. She has presented webinars sponsored by the American Arbitration Association and has been a contributing author for Illinois Institute of Continuing Legal Education (IICLE) publications. Ms. Wood has been inducted into the National Academy of Arbitrators (NAA) and is a member of both American Bar Association (ABA) and the Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA). More detailed information can be found at www.woodadr.com.