Although they say that a picture is worth a thousand words, this photograph of the panel who spoke at the NE-ACR fall program does not begin to do justice to the rich and complex topics they covered. “Conflict, Consensus and Leadership in the Political Debate” could have gone in many directions — some of them quite tired and tiresome. We weren’t really concerned that our panelists and moderator would disappoint us and they certainly did not. Instead, they used their individual perspectives, based on a variety of impressive experiences, to talk about dialogue, consensus-building, mediation, and negotiation in the public sphere. It was a great program which prompted interesting questions from the audience and gave us a great deal to think about as we do our work. 
