About Lou Gieszl

Lou Gieszl is Assistant State Court Administrator for Programs at the Maryland Judiciary, overseeing statewide initiatives in mediation and conflict resolution, juvenile and family services, problem-solving courts, behavioral health, access to justice, online dispute resolution, and policy research. Previously, Lou served 16 years as Deputy Executive Director of the Maryland Judiciary’s Mediation and Conflict Resolution Office (MACRO), a statewide resource for conflict resolution programs and mediator excellence.

Lou helped establish MACRO as a state office of dispute resolution, staffing a high-level ADR commission and engaging hundreds of Maryland stakeholders and national ADR experts to develop and implement a statewide action plan. A National Center for State Courts Certified Court Executive, he brings more than 25 years of judiciary policy and leadership experience focused on advancing justice and making court services more accessible and user-friendly.

A longtime adjunct professor at the University of Baltimore, Lou has taught negotiation and conflict management at the graduate and undergraduate levels, including through the Second Chance program in a maximum-security state prison. He helped create Big House Mediations, a prison-based conflict management program led by and for incarcerated individuals.

An experienced mediator, facilitator, trainer, and conflict manager, Lou is active at the national and local levels. He is a former president and diversity officer of the Association for Conflict Resolution and former board member of the Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation. Lou holds bachelor’s degrees in English, philosophy, and political science and a master’s degree in public policy from UMBC.