Background
Biography
Mark Keppler has been an active employment mediator and labor-management arbitrator for over 30 years in both the private and public sectors. During that time, he has mediated or arbitrated over 1,000 cases in 17 states (AZ, CA, CO, HI, IA, KS, MT, MO, NB, NV, NM, OK, OR, TX, UT, WA and WY), covering virtually every type of labor and employment claim.
Mr. Keppler has served on numerous permanent alternative dispute resolution panels as an active labor-management arbitrator with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and the California State Mediation and Conciliation Service, as well as an employment mediator with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the California Superior Court.
He is currently Professor Emeritus at California State University, Fresno where he taught undergraduate and graduate courses in employment law, labor relations, and human resource management at the Craig School of Business from 1987 to 2023. From 1998 to 2003, he served as the School’s MBA Director. From 2004 until 2023, he was the Executive Director of the Maddy Institute, a public policy and public affairs institute in partnership with the University of California, Merced and the California State University campuses in Fresno, Bakersfield, and Stanislaus.
Prior to moving to California, he practiced labor and employment law in Hartford, Connecticut, and was an adjunct professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Hartford Graduate Center, where he taught labor/employment relations and negotiations.
Mr. Keppler has a law degree and a master’s degree in industrial relations (with a concentration in collective bargaining) from the University of Wisconsin. He earned his bachelor’s degree (Magna Cum Laude) in business administration, with a minor in economics, from the State University of New York.
His awards include the Clovis Citizen of the Year, Faculty Advisor of the Year (twice) from the Society for Human Resource Management – Region VI, Duncan Enterprises Faculty Award and the School of Business Faculty Award for Classroom Excellence.
He is currently the Chair of the Clovis Community Foundation.