Susan Hackley was the Managing Director of the Program on Negotiation (PON) at Harvard Law School from 2001 to 2021. PON, a consortium program of Harvard, MIT, and Tufts University, has for 35 years played a leadership role in developing the field of negotiation and dispute resolution. As chief administrative officer for PON, Hackley oversaw all operations and activities, which include a wide range of public events, educational programs, research seminars, publications, and executive education courses.

A graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School, Hackley has taught negotiation and communication in China, Singapore, Italy, Slovakia, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, and the United States. Before joining PON as Managing Director, she worked in politics as a policy analyst and speechwriter for numerous political candidates and served as Communications Director of the Massachusetts Democratic Party.

Hackley’s article, “In the Global Village, Can War Survive?”, published in Marquette Law Review, examines the role of journalists in reporting on wars and how the work of conflict management professionals is an important part of the “back story.” In “Negotiation and Nonviolent Action: Interacting in the World of Conflict,” published in the Negotiation Journal, she and her co-author demonstrate the intersection of these two important fields.

She recently completed a documentary film, “Veteran Children: When Parents Go To War”, about the impact of war on America’s children and families. The film premiered on Indiana public television in April 2019 and has won numerous awards.

Hackley co-founded an Internet company, Givenation.com, an e-philanthropy portal dedicated to helping people connect to causes they care about, and she served as Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Alliance for Peacebuilding. She currently is a board member of Trustees for Alaska, an environmental law firm.