INVESTIGATIONS

During the last 18 years, Amy Stephson has conducted over 285 investigations for a large range of public and private entities. Her public clients have included state agencies and community colleges, King County, the City of Seattle, Indian tribes, and many other counties and cities. She has also conducted numerous investigations for health care organizations, public school districts, and other private nonprofit and for profit organizations.

Amy's work has taken her throughout the state of Washington in both urban and rural areas. She has investigated a wide variety of issues including discrimination, harassment, retaliation, abusive and poor management, internet misuse, sexual misconduct, substance abuse, favoritism, disability accommodation, bullying, and tort claims. The investigations have involved

individuals at all organizational levels ranging from top management to line staff in a range of blue and white collar work environments, both unionized and not.

Investigations rarely arise out of just one incident or raise one issue. Generally they involve a range of problems including potential legal, management, communication, personality, and systems issues. The events may be relatively undisputed or unclear and filtered through different employees' perceptual lenses. In conducting investigations, Amy teases out all of these different strands in order to clarify the situation so that her client can better resolve it. She also works to defuse the stresses an investigation can produce by conducting interviews that not only elicit the necessary information, but make the witnesses comfortable and leave them feeling heard.

Amy's reports are clearly and succinctly written and are designed to be self-contained documents that enable her client to see the investigative process, the evidence gathered, her conclusions, and the analysis underlying each conclusion. If desired, she provides recommendations, in the main report, a separate report, or orally.