Fumble Forward: A Framework for Encountering the Unexpected, the Unknown, or the All-Too Familiar

15 October 2026

10:00 AM - 12:30 PM PT / 1:00 PM - 3:30 PM ET / 7:00 PM - 9:30 PM CET

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Registration will open soon! 

Registration Rates:

About the Course

Fumble Forward originated as Donna Mejia's pedagogical framework for navigating unexpected challenges and cultural collisions, particularly in collaborative or educational settings. It is designed to redirect mounting tension, locating a way to stay at our learning edge when we encounter disagreements. Fumble Forward provides immediate tools that bring forward an emphasis on humility, questioning, and repair. Uniquely, the Fumble Forward framework goes one step further to explore what options we have when our best efforts aren’t working! 

Learning Objectives

• We capacitate ourselves for encountering the unknown and unexpected with confidence, calm, and curiosity through communal reflection and practice.
• We deepen our practice of locating assumptions before they interfere with learning, examining what we presume to be true before awarding ourselves agency to evaluate.
• We refine, correct, and restore the precision meaning and accuracy of vocabulary and theoretical concepts that have been distorted in popular media (to increase our conversancy and ability to engage them meaningfully and wisely)
• We increase our sophistication to ask helpful and useful questions while de-escalating defensiveness.
• We refresh ourselves on the importance of clear and kind boundaries when working with or negotiating traumatied, emotionally immature, and conflict-driven humans. We then go one step further to talk about dealing with dominators, trolls, manipulators, and bullies.
• We explore how to curate caring communities capable of repair and rebuilding of trust when inevitable missteps occur.
• We explore reminders to steady and sustain ourselves when compromised, confused, or overwhelmed.
• We highlight resources for perpetual growth and learning.

Instructor 

Donna Mejia 

Additional Details and Event Policies

Ombuds Online Seminars focus on emerging topics of interest to ombuds, while others teach diverse skillsets that can enhance an ombuds’ practice. Seminars allow for a deeper dive and more interactive experiential learning formats than a webinar. You can register for a live seminar, or you can purchase that seminar on demand. 

Professional Development Hours (PDH)

This course is pending approval for 2.5 PDH. 

Closed Captioning and Languages for Online Courses

IOA is dedicated to making meetings and content more accessible. All IOA Live Seminars will offer closed captioning. This service will also be available for IOA committee meetings upon request. Participation for all is encouraged; if you have any questions, please email the IOA office at [email protected].

This course is presented in English. Captions are available in English by default. Individual participants may choose to see their captions translated into one of the following languages: Arabic, Bangla (beta), Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Czech, Danish (beta), Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French (France), German, Hebrew (beta), Hindi (beta), Hungarian,  Italian,  Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian (beta), Polish, Portuguese, Romanian (beta), Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Tamil (beta), Turkish, Ukrainian, or Vietnamese.

Cancellation Policy

Notification of cancellation must be submitted in writing via email to [email protected]. All cancellation requests received 21 days in advance of the event start date will be issued a refund, less a $10 USD processing fee. No refunds will be given thereafter except in the event of extenuating circumstances. Requests for registration cancellation must be submitted in writing via email to [email protected].

Substitute attendees will be permitted. Substitution requests must be in writing via email to [email protected] no later than two days before the event's start date. If you have any questions, please contact the office at [email protected].

Nonpayment Policy

Full payment of registration fees is required 7 days before the start of a course. If payment is not made before the start of the course, event details will not be released to you, and your registration may be canceled. The IOA office will contact registered individuals with a balance due before canceling their registration. If you have any questions, please contact the office at [email protected] or by phone at +1-206-209-5275.

Subject to Change or Cancellation

All IOA Courses are subject to change and/or cancellation. 

IOA asks that all registered attendees confirm system requirements and test their computers before the start of each virtual session. If the Zoom or other platform used experiences a failure that is beyond our control, IOA may reschedule the session. If an attendee experiences a technical failure on their end, and the session is being recorded, attendees may watch the recorded session.  If the session is not recorded, no refund will be issued.

Recording Acknowledgement

Each virtual session may be recorded. These recordings may be provided for later viewing and may be used for promotional purposes, advertising, and other print and online materials at the sole discretion of IOA. By registering for a virtual session, you consent to be recorded by IOA when attending live sessions.

Participant Agreement

IOA asks that all participants of any IOA course review the Organizational Values and Community Norms before attending. 

IOA Additional Policies

IOA Organizational Values & Community Norms