Advisory Board

Phyllis Bernard, Professor/Director of the Center for Dispute Resolution, Oklahoma City University School of Law, Oklahoma City, OK

Linda Baron, Recently served as Interim Executive Director of the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR); formerly executive director of the National Association for Community Mediation and the National Conference on Peacemaking and Conflict Resolution, and on the staff of the American Bar Association Section on Dispute Resolution.  Reservist with FEMA's ADR cadre; deployed for fourteen months to Mississippi and Louisiana following Hurrican Katrina.

Lee Jay Berman, Director, “Mediating the Litigated Case” program for the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, Pepperdine University School of Law, Malibu, CA. Advisory Counsel, Harvard Negotiation Insight Initiative, Cambridge, MA.  Trainer, “Mediating the Complex Case,”  Institute for Conflict Management, Lipscomb University, Nashville, TN. 

Billy Brown, Esq, Gulfport, MS, Associate Dean of Business Programs and Director of MBA Program William Carey University. 

Kenneth Cloke, Mediator/Arbitrator/International Conflict Resolution Trainer.  Also a noted author in the field of Conflict Resolution, Ken is the founding President of Mediators Beyond Borders.  Santa Monica, CA

Mary Culbert, Director, Center for Conflict Resolution and Clinical Professor of Law, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, CA

Pauline Eisenstadt, NM State Senate (1996 – 2000) and NM House of Representatives (1984-1992), a recognized national leader in public policy and spokesperson for the underprivileged, Eisenstadt continues to work with the numerous indigenous communities in New Mexico in capacity building and community cohesion. Corrales, NM

Sarah Gartner, Mediator/Arbitrator, New York, NY

Timothy Hedeen, Mediator/Assistant Professor of Conflict Management, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, GA

David Hoffman, Mediator/Arbitrator/Collaborative Attorney, Boston, MA

Lela P. Love, Professor of Law/Director of the Kukin Program for Conflict Resolution, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, New York, NY

L. Randolph Lowry, President, Lipscomb University, Nashville, TN

Beryl Minkle, Cambridge, MA. Psychotherapist and Mediator. Co-founder and Chair of the Mental Health Dispute Resolution Professionals Study Group, which began as an initiative at the Program on Negotiation at the Harvard Law School.

Anthony Nowak, Attorney/Mediator/Municipal Court Judge, Hernando, MS

Peter Robinson, Associate Director, Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA

Melvin A. Rubin, Mediator/Conflict Resolution Trainer, Miami, FL 

Deborah Thomas, Mediator/consultant/trainer.  Adjunct professor, CSU, Dominguez Hills, CA (Negotiation, Conflict Resolution, and Peacebuilding Graduate Program); California State Bar Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee; Expert consultant on youth peer mediation programs, Los Angeles City Youth Summit Committee (2006) on Conflict Resolution in Schools and Peacekeeping; Honored at the White House Conference on Youth Violence.  Ms. Thomas was instrumental in creating the first Los Angeles County Police/Community Mediation Program, Pasadena, CA. and the training component for sworn and un-sworn officers, community stakeholders and mediators. She has collaborated and worked directly with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and the Department of Justice in Mediation Services and Programming.  Los Angeles, CA

Daniel L. Shapiro, Professor of Negotiation/Associate Director of the Harvard Negotiation Project, Harvard Law School/Harvard Medical School/McLean Hospital.  He also directs the International Negotiation Initiative, a Harvard-based project that develops psychologically focused strategies to reduce ethnopolitical violence. Cambridge, MA.

Tom Stipanowich, Academic Director, Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA

Stephen Thom, Retired Federal Mediator and Deputy Director, Community Relations Service, United States Department of Justice; Former Director, Asian and Pacific American Concerns for the Undersecretary of Intergovernmental Affairs; Chief Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Education. Los Angeles, CA

A. Marco Turk, J.D., Los Angeles, CA. Program Director and Professor of Negotiation, Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding at California State University Dominguez Hills, CA

Maria Volpe,  PhD., Professor of Sociology/Director, Dispute Resolution Program, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York; Convener of the CUNY Dispute Resolution Consortium, New York, NY

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