About

Universal Consensus is a peace-building and cross-cultural training firm consisting of Denise Pirrotti Hummel, J.D., Founder and Director, in conjunction with an alliance of strategic partners from across the globe. In her former life as an attorney, Ms. Hummel tried and won the first class action under the Americans With Disabilities Act, representing 200,000 hearing impaired citizens of the City of New York against New York City to secure for them 9-11 emergency services. She was named one of the top twenty attorneys in the United States that year, but longed for a career where her international interests and skills could be applied on a global scale. Passionate about bridging cultures, the concept of peace-building and cross-cultural training was her dream, and over time, that dream became a reality. On the peace-building side of her business, she has been accepted to the U.S. State Department World-Wide Speaker and Specialist Program, an embassy-request driven program which allows Ms. Hummel to train foreign audiences globally. Hummel was chosen, in part, due to the model she developed which is an adaptation of the Western Facilitative Mediation Model for Non-Western cultures. She also actively seeks grant funding to promote this work. On the cross-cultural side of her practice, she provides consulting and training services to multinational companies. Hummel has also spoken at the Pentagon, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, where she conducted a presentation called, “Beyond Multi-Lingual: The Future of DoD” to the Director, Associate Director and Deputy Director of Culture under the Obama Administration. She is also the developer and instructor of a series of global trainings which USD (the University of San Diego) will offer as a Certification in Cross-Cultural Competence & Inter-Cultural Business Practices Strategy. Hummel is described by clients and colleagues as a compassionate, but driven, “can do” connector of people and ideas.

In addition to her eighteen years of training and conflict resolution experience, Ms. Hummel helped champion the movement now known as Peace Through Tourism, and was a keynote speaker at the International Institute of Peace Through Tourism Global Summit in Pattaya, Thailand, where she shared the podium with Ministry and dignitaries from all over the world. Her conflict resolution and cross-cultural training experiences have taken her to almost every continent of the globe. She speaks English and Italian fluently and French and Spanish, conversationally.