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Gregorio Billikopf (September 23, 1954 in Santiago, Chile -July 5, 2023 in Citrus Heights, California) was a Chilean mediator, author, and, from 1981, a farm advisor specializing in labor management for the University of California, Davis.
In May 2005, Billikopf accepted a visiting faculty appointment as an honorary professor of agricultural labor management at the University of Chile in Santiago. [1]
Billikopf was a frequent national and international speaker (including United States, as well as in Russia, México, Canada, Uganda, Colombia, Argentina, Spain, Japan, New Zealand [2] and his native Chile) in his field. [1]
His agricultural extension research and teaching efforts focused on such topics as employee selection, compensation, performance appraisal, discipline and termination, supervision, interpersonal relations, conflict resolution, and interpersonal negotiation skills. [ citation needed ]
Billikopf received the 1989 National Association for County Agricultural Agents (NACAA) Achievement Award and the 2006 Distinguished Service Award. He received a number of other awards from NACAA, including two National Winner communication awards: Webpage in 1999 (Agricultural Labor Management); and Publication in 2006 (for his book Labor Management in Agriculture: Cultivating Personnel Productivity, 2nd Edition, 2003).[ citation needed ]
Billikopf authored numerous articles published in academic journals and several books. These included Labor Management in Agriculture (1994, 2003) [3] and Party Directed Mediation: Facilitating Dialogue Between Individuals (3rd Edition, 2014), [4] which portrays practical examples of party-directed mediation, a specialty within the field of alternative dispute resolution. He presented his two mediation models, party-directed mediation (PDM) and Negotiated Performance Appraisal (NPA), for dealing with peer to peer conflict and supervisor-subordinate conflict, respectively, at the International Association for Conflict Management [IACM] annual meetings in 2005 (Seville, Spain) and 2009 (Kyoto, Japan).[ citation needed ]
Billikopf was raised in Chile's Central Valley, where his maternal family had been grape growers in Chile for generations. It was at the labor-intensive family vineyard, where he spent much of his youth, that he first developed an interest in labor issues, horses and agriculture.[ citation needed ]
Billikopf went on to obtain his Bachelor of Science in agronomy from UC Davis, and his Master of Arts in labor management from California State University, Stanislaus. [5] In March 1974, after reading the Book of Mormon, Billikopf became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. [6]
Following his retirement from the University of California in 2014, [5] Billikopf and his wife resided in the Lake Region of Llanquihue, Chile. [7] His interests included acting as a dressage (equestrian sports) instructor, [8] amateur radio operator, soccer referee. He wrote an online blog about the Hebrew Holy Scriptures, [9] especially Isaiah and the latter prophets (NEVI'M). [10]
Billikopf was of Lithuanian-Jewish and German-Jewish descent on his father's side, [6] being the grandson of Jacob Billikopf (involved in social work, Jewish philanthropy and labor arbitration) and great-grandson of Louis Marshall (corporate, constitutional and civil rights lawyer as well as a mediator and Jewish community leader). On his Chilean mother's side, Billikopf was related to Francisco Antonio Encina, author of the 20 volume Historia de Chile.[ citation needed ]
Billikopf returned to California in his later years. He died in Citrus Heights, California at age 68. [5] He was survived by his four children.[ citation needed ]