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MWI's Mediators, Trainers, Staff and Board of Directors

William August Baten, MWI Mediator, began involvement in ADR during his tenure at Cleary, Gottlieb in 1987, where he participated in approximately 150 mediations and arbitrations as an advocate and became one of the firm’s ADR specialists and trainers. Since becoming a full-time neutral in 1995, has served as mediator, arbitrator, or special master in over 1,400 matters involving a wide range of disputes, including numerous high-stake breaches of contract and franchise disputes. William has extensive experience resolving franchise cases, including matters involving: claims by franchisees of encroachment as a result of establishment of new dealerships; issues involving prohibited resale of vehicles in Canada and overseas; alleged abuses of employee purchase programs; audit issues such as questionable warranty work; dealers who wished to carry other lines; claims of gender discrimination against female dealer; issues stemming from termination of lines; issues involving realignment at dealerships to accomplish new preferred groupings of brands; and the resolution of issues involved in moving dealerships to better locations, including involvement of necessary third-party dealers who might be affected. William currently serves as Vice-Chairman of the Mediation Committee of the ABA’s Section of Dispute Resolution since his appointment in 1994 and recently served as an industry advisor to the Uniform Law Commissioners’ projects to revise the Uniform Arbitration Act and to create a Uniform Mediation Act. Bill graduated cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 1987 and also serves as a trainer in ADR techniques for the U.S. Justice Department.

Dina Beach-Lynch, MWI Board Officer, Mediator, Trainer, is a mediator, conflict coach and ombudsman.  After serving as Corporate Ombudsman at Fleet Bank, seventh largest financial institution in the U.S. with over 48,000 employees, Dina launched workwelltogether.com, an online toolkit, dedicated helping employees resolve workplace disputes while preserving business relationships; and ADRPracticebuilder.com, a resource for mediators to launch satisfying and profitable businesses. Most recently, Dina was featured in Entrepreneur magazine for her work designing Ombuds programs for small and medium sized organizations. Since 1991, Dina served as a mediator in a variety of settings from community to court-based to corporate. She was a member of the panel of the U.S. Postal Service and an arbitrator on CPR Dispute Resolution Panel of Distinguished Neutrals. Formerly, Dina taught mediation at the University of Massachusetts, Graduate Program on Dispute Resolution. In addition, she has been a lead trainer for the Coca Cola Enterprises, US Trust, Fleet and other major corporations. Dina is a member of The International Ombudsman Association, Association for Conflict Resolution and serves on the Advisory Panel for Office-Politics.com, a Canadian employee coaching website.

Moshe Cohen, MWI Mediator and Trainer, is a mediator and teaches negotiation and conflict management through public seminars and customized workshops at corporations, nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and conferences. He teaches the Negotiations course in the MBA program at Boston University, and previously taught at Bentley College in Waltham, MA. Moshe is a frequent guest speaker at business functions, conferences, and universities. He has also published numerous articles on negotiation, mediation, and conflict management. Moshe serves on mediation panels at the World Bank, the National Association of Securities Dealers, the United States Department of Justice, the State of Oregon Department of Justice, the United States Postal Service, Mediation Works Incorporated, and the Harvard Mediation Program at Harvard Law School. He has also served as a judge in the American Bar Association's negotiation competition held at Boston University Law School. He has facilitated numerous meetings and group decision-making sessions. Moshe has facilitated in a public schools, at a conference organized by the United States Department of Defense, brainstorming sessions for engineers developing new product ideas, introduced ISO9000 to hostile audiences at a large corporation, and other business groups. Moshe brings the combination of facilitation, mediation, conflict management, and teaching skills to the meetings he facilitates.

Nancy Connelly, MWI Staff, is Director of Commercial Mediation and Arbitration Programs. Nancy’s focus is on early dispute resolution, the administrative and substantive components of case convening, and on training in conflict resolution and negotiation skills, as well as process design/modification, implementation and rollout. Before coming to MWI, Nancy was the national manager and single point of contact for all franchise cases mediated and arbitrated through JAMS/Endispute for a seven-year period. While at JAMS, Nancy was recognized as a Charter Member of the President's Club for quality customer service 'above and beyond' the standards set for all staff and was singled out as one of the two best case managers nationwide. Nancy coordinated six off-site mediation and arbitration training sessions for over 200 attendees with GM, BMW and Saturn. She also worked with BMW NA, Nissan NA, the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association, John Deere Construction Division and a major fast-food restaurant system. Apart from these 'institutional' ADR programs, Nancy worked on many 'ad hoc' cases in franchised businesses, medical and legal malpractice, environmental, construction, insurance, land use, employment and complex multi-party business issues.

Michael Dickstein, MWI Mediator and Trainer, is a full-time mediator, arbitrator, and negotiation/ADR teacher. He teaches negotiation at Stanford Law School, is a former partner in one of America's leading law firms (Heller Ehrman et al.), and was the national Co-Chair of the Association for Conflict Resolution's Workplace Section. Mr. Dickstein has mediated and successfully settled cases on a wide variety of topics (including commercial, contract, real estate, employment, malpractice, franchise, construction defect, personal injury, class action, and defamation issues). Examples of his work include: mediating a nationwide class action with approximately 3000 class members and tens of millions of dollars at issue; mediating a multi-party international commercial contract dispute; mediating a dispute over control and ownership of a company between two factions of the Board of Directors and shareholders; facilitating the contract negotiations between Canada's theatre actors and major theatre owners; and mediating/facilitating discussions between a nationwide organization and its regional wing. In addition, Mr. Dickstein serves as a Judge pro tem, and teaches classes on mediation and negotiation around the world. In addition to Stanford, he has taught in conjunction with such institutions as Boalt Hall Law School (U.C. Berkeley), the University of San Francisco (MBA program), the Federal District Court for the Northern District of California, and the law schools of Melbourne and Notre Dame Universities. Mr. Dickstein received his A.B. and J.D. from Harvard University.

Charles P. Doran, MWI Mediator, Trainer and Staff, is an experienced mediator, trainer, and ombudsman specializing in the resolution of business and workplace disputes.  Charles is the founder of Mediation Works Incorporated (MWI), a dispute resolution service and training organization in Boston, Massachusetts.  A mediator since 1992, he is a member of the CPR Dispute Resolution Panel of Distinguished Neutrals, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD), Mediation Works Incorporated (MWI), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Dispute Resolution Panel, the Harvard Mediation Program and the United States Postal Service REDRESS I and REDRESS II Mediation Panels.  In addition to his mediation work, Charles works nationally and internationally as a dispute resolution trainer and consultant with corporate, governmental and non-profit clients including Coca-Cola Enterprises, General Motors, Bose Corporation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Harvard Negotiation Project at Harvard Law School. Charles has served as a teaching assistant on multiple occasions with Professor Roger Fisher at Harvard Law School's Program of Instruction for Lawyers Negotiation Workshop.  In 1993, Charles completed a Specialization in Negotiation and Dispute Resolution at the Program on Negotiation and chaired two regional ADR Conferences in 1997 and 1999. Charles served as a member of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Standing Committee on Dispute Resolution and was Chair of the Qualifications Subcommittee. Charles is an arbitrator with the Massachusetts Bar Association's Fee Arbitration Board and is a past president of the Association for Conflict Resolution (formerly the Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution), New England Chapter.

Erica L. Fox, MWI Board Vice President, Mediator and Trainer, is the Director of the Harvard Negotiation Insight Initiative and a management consultant who specializes in leadership development and conflict intervention. Erica's expertise lies in building leaders' capabilities and relationships, so that they are able to navigate significant organizational change and the conflicts that accompany them. Before establishing her own consulting practice, Erica was the Director of Mediation Works Incorporated, and taught negotiation and mediation as a Lecturer on Law at the Harvard Law School. In addition to designing her own workshops, Erica has served repeatedly as a teaching assistant for Roger Fisher and the Harvard Negotiation Project he directs, both in the basic and advanced negotiation sessions of the internationally attended Program of Instruction for Lawyers. Her expertise in mediation and alternative conflict resolution has taken her around the globe, teaching and advising people in Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and Europe. Erica sits on MWI's Board of Directors and the Advisory Board of the Harvard Mediation Program. Over the past several years, she has collaborated with Diana Smith of Action Design and The Monitor Group on integrating theories of organizational change with theories of meditation. She received her Bachelors degree from Princeton University and her law degree from Harvard Law School, where she published in the Harvard Negotiation Law Review. Erica worked as an attorney at the Boston law firm Hill & Barlow. At the firm, Erica practiced in the litigation and corporate departments as well as the firm's Alternative Dispute Resolution Practice Group.

Stephen Frenkel, MWI Mediator, Trainer and Staff, is the Director of Negotiation Programs at Mediation Works Incorporated. In this role, Stephen oversees MWI's Negotiation Training programs and consulting services in the corporate, institutional and non-profit sectors. Stephen's expertise is in helping clients achieve optimal results through collaborative negotiation. He has worked with global clients including Analog Devices, ING Bank, Capital One, Citrix, NeighborWorks America, the International Professionals Network (IPN) and the Risk Management Association to diagnose negotiation challenges in the workplace and to create and deliver custom tailored negotiation training workshops and modules around the world. Stephen has also worked with several national dispute resolution organizations to redesign their internal processes and build their strategic alliance network of partners and government agencies. He has experience mediating and coordinating contract and civil disputes. In 2005, Stephen completed the design of a conflict resolution system for a technical training organization and he presented on advanced negotiation topics for the Graduate Programs in Dispute Resolution at the University of Massachusetts Boston, where he earned his Masters degree. In 2007, Stephen delivered the Keynote Address to participants at the National Black Law Student's Association's first annual International Negotiations Competition. He was also interviewed and featured in Chief Learning Officer Magazine’s “Executive Briefings,” in which he provided information about the benefits of the collaborative negotiation process for CLO’s across the nation.

Peter D. Hiddema, MWI Trainer, is a consultant in the field of negotiation, communication, and conflict management. Peter trains and advises clients on negotiation strategy and joint problem solving, and has also facilitated negotiations and mediated labor disputes. In the private sector, he has worked at senior levels with a number of Fortune 500 global companies on financial and professional services, technology and telecom, health care, transportation and manufacturing matters. He focuses on improving executives’ effectiveness in negotiation and relationship management through training, consulting and one-on-one coaching. In the public sector, Peter has advised a number of school districts as well as state/provincial and national bodies in the U.S. and Canada. He also teaches at Harvard Law School’s annual summer negotiation workshops for attorneys, diplomats, educators and executives from around the world. In addition to his private practice, Peter is an active Fellow of Conflict Management Group (CMG) of Cambridge, Massachusetts and Chief Operating Officer of CMG Canada. CMG is an international non-profit organization focused on providing negotiation and conflict management advice and training to governments, NGO’s, and international aid organizations. Peter previously worked at the Royal Bank of Canada where he handled inter bank relations with financial institutions in several European countries and managed bank relationships with a diverse group of medium sized corporate clients. He has also been an Investment Advisor in the Greater Toronto Area and a lecturer in International Business at the U.K. arm of Queen's University (Canada). In addition to his native English, Peter speaks French, Spanish, and Frisian. 

Joshua M. Hoch, MWI Mediator, Trainer and Staff, is Director of Mediation Services at Mediation Works Incorporated (MWI).  In this capacity, Josh supervises mediators who conduct over 700 mediations for MWI each year. He manages cases referred from individuals, organizations, companies, EAP’s, therapists, law firms, attorneys in private practice, judges, and for 26 divisions within Massachusetts Trial Court System including the Massachusetts BMC & District Court Departmentthe Probate and Family Court Department, and the Land Court Department.  A mediator since 1996, Josh mediates family, divorce, parenting, child support, never married parents, housing, and eviction cases with MWI and other ADR organizations.  In addition to his mediation work, Josh is also a member of MWI's training faculty and leads advanced divorce, eviction, and corporate mediation trainings in Massachusetts and throughout the United States.  Josh also coordinates MWI's Mentor Program, serves as a mentor to new mediators, is MWI's liaison for the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy's Mediation Practicum and oversees MWI’s Public Service Initiatives.  Josh is a member of the Association for Conflict Resolution, the Massachusetts Council on Family Mediation, the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC), and is on the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Chapter of AFCC where he serves as Chair of the ADR Committee.  Josh has been featured in the Boston Globe and on the award-winning New England newsmagazine television show "Chronicle" where he provided information about marriage, divorce and the use of divorce and family mediation in Massachusetts.

David Hoffman, MWI Mediator and Trainer, is a partner in the Boston Law Collaborative, LLC, a firm that focuses on collaborative law, dispute resolution, consulting, and training. He was previously a partner at Hill & Barlow, a 145-lawyer Boston firm, where he practiced for 17 years in the areas of litigation, employment, and family law. David serves as a mediator, arbitrator, and case evaluator in a wide variety of cases, ranging from complex commercial disputes to divorce, for a number of dispute resolution organizations, including the American Arbitration Association, the Private Adjudication Center, the CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution, Massachusetts Office of Dispute Resolution, Middlesex Multi-Door Courthouse, Massachusetts Appeals Court, and Massachusetts Federal District Court. He is a past chair of the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution and is a past member of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Standing Committee on Dispute Resolution. He is a past president of the New England Chapter of the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR) and has taught mediation, negotiation, and ADR at Harvard Law School and Northeastern University Law School. Along with Professor David Matz, David is the co-author of a two-volume treatise entitled Massachusetts Alternative Dispute Resolution (Michie 1994) and a number of articles about ADR. He is also the co-editor (with Daniel Bowling) of the recently released book "Bringing Peace into the Room: How the Personal Qualities of the Mediator Impact the Process of Conflict Resolution" (Jossey-Bass 2003).

Jane Juliano, MWI Mediator, has over fifteen years experience in mediation and arbitration and is an Adjunct Professor in Mediation and Negotiation at the Georgetown University Law Center at George Washington University Law School.  Ms. Juliano has mediated cases of complex litigation with multiple parties, private and governmental.  She was appointed mediator with the District of Columbia and Virginia Courts, the World Bank, the Federal Election Commission and Arbitrator, U.S. Library of Congress Copyright Royalty Arbitration Panel. Construction dispute resolution case highlights include resolving real estate matters and investment property interests for construction development, mediation and arbitration of construction disputes, including claims for failure of structure at a construction site resulting in personal injury, construction contract damages, real estate/construction of parking garage and general substantial construction contract damages.  Trainings she has conducted include the Department of Justice, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the U.S.D.A,. the EEOC, the International Trademark Lawyers Association - San Paulo, Brazil and Berlin, Germany 2007-8 and Difficulties in Settlement – Personality Disorders, Georgetown Medical School. She recently returned from conducting mediation training sessions in China. Ms. Juliano graduated with honors from Georgetown University Law Center and she is a member of the American Bar Association, Sections on Dispute Resolution, Employment and ADR in Tax; the Ethics Committee, American Bar Association, Section on Dispute Resolution and past President of the Virginia Mediation Network. Ms. Juliano is currently a Scholar of the College at Harvard University and she continues there as an associate professor as well. She also continues workplace investigation and mediation and arbitration nationally.

Arline Kardasis, MWI Mediator and Trainer, is an experienced mediator and trainer who serves as a Mentor through MWI's Mentor Program. As a mentor, Arline helps mediators become more effective and provides insight on putting theory behind practice. Arline has been a mediator with MWI and other mediation panels since 2001. She is an experienced divorce mediator who provides role play coaching for MWI's Advanced Divorce Mediation Trainings. Arline also mediates cases referred from the District Court Department of the Massachusetts Trial Courts and she mediates disputes around eldercare and estates issues. In addition to her mediation work, Arline has designed and delivered conflict resolution trainings and workshops for the Geriatric Care Managers of New England Annual Conference, for graduate students in dispute resolution and doctoral candidates in gerontology at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, and for eldercare professionals from throughout New England. She has designed and delivered conflict skills trainings for Boston teens at WilmerHale's Teen Empowerment Program. She is on the Board of Directors of the New England Chapter of the Association for Conflict Resolution where she is the former Newsletter Editor, serves on the Public Awareness Subcommittee for the Massachusetts Trial Court's Standing Committee on Dispute Resolution and is a member of the Massachusetts Council on Family Mediation.

Andrew Lee, MWI Trainer, is a Beijing, China-based negotiation trainer and coach. Andrew is Professor of Negotiation Skills at Peking University Law School. He also serves as a negotiation and mediation consultant for Beijing government officials. A former Fellow of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, Andrew’s practice has spanned both geographic regions and legal subspecialties. In Australia and the Netherlands, he worked in the field of corporate law and commercial dispute resolution. In Switzerland and China, Andrew worked with the Chinese Ministry of Justice and international NGOs in developing Rule-of-Law programs for judges, police officers, lawyers and prison officials. Andrew holds a degree in Law from the University of Sydney as well as a degree in Psychology from the University of Adelaide. He also holds a certificate from the Hague Academy of International Law, in the Netherlands and a Master of Chinese Law from Peking University.

Michael L. Leshin, MWI Trainer, is a Certified Divorce Mediator with the Massachusetts Council on Family Mediation (MCFM) and a partner at Ginsburg & Leshin, LLP in Wellelsey. He is the co-author of "Mediation and Other Dispute Resolution Alternatives," Chapter Four of the Massachusetts Divorce Law Practice Manual and "Dispute Resolution Alternatives to Promote Positive Parenting and Childhood Experiences," Chapter One of Paternity and the Law of Parentage in Massachusetts, both published by MCLE. He is the author of annual MCLE publication, "Massachusetts Family Law Sourcebook." Michael is a past President and Director of MCFM. He has spoken on divorce tax issues for the Academy of Family Mediators, the New York State Council on Divorce Mediation, the Boston Bar Association and Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education. He is a fellow of the Massachusetts chapter of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.

Diane Levin, MWI Mediator and Trainer, is a dispute resolution professional providing dispute management services, consulting, and training in conflict resolution, negotiation, and teambuilding.  Before becoming a mediator full-time, Diane practiced labor, employment, municipal, tort, and probate law. A mediator since 1995, Diane has conducted mediations in disputes in litigation or for private clients in tort, workplace, real estate, business, probate, and family matters, and serves on numerous mediation panels, including the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. An experienced trainer of mediation, conflict resolution, and negotiation skills both in Massachusetts and nationally, Diane has taught thousands of individuals in corporate, institutional, governmental, and non-profit settings, including MWI's programs for Coca-Cola Enterprises, Bose Corporation, and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. She also serves as a negotiation and conflict resolution coach to entrepreneurs and executives and consults on business development and digital technology to mediators and mediation programs throughout the world, including Meta-Culture, Bangalore's first dialogue and dispute resolution center. Committed to raising public awareness of the benefits of ADR, Diane serves on the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Trial Court Standing Committee on Dispute Resolution. Diane publishes an award-winning and internationally respected weblog, MediationChannel.com, providing news and commentary on ADR, negotiation, and law, and is the founder and webmaster of the World Directory of Alternative Dispute Resolution Blogs, which globally tracks and catalogues web media. She is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and earned her J.D. cum laude from Suffolk University Law School in Boston.

Stephen Linsky, MWI Mediator, is a mediator and a collaborative attorney with over 20 years experience in ADR beginning with service to Governor's Blue Ribbon Panel on ADR in 1985. Stephen was appointed to first-ever conciliation panel at the Department of Industrial Accidents (DIA) in 1986. In 1991, he was appointed General Counsel and Acting Commissioner. Since 1997, Stephen has helped establish collaborative law and mediation practices and has been appointed to provide ADR services to numerous state and federal agencies and courts including: the U.S. District Court, the U.S. Postal Service, the U.S. EEOC, the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, the Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation, Massachusetts Bar Association Fee Arbitration Board, Logan 2000 Project Labor Agreement, Middlesex Multi-Door Probate and Family Court Program, and the Boston Bar Association’s Boston Municipal Court Mediation Program. He has mediated a large number and range of cases from civil rights claims, to employment, family, personal injury, landlord/tenant, commercial, and real property disputes. In addition to his practice as a mediator, Stephen has administered court-connected ADR programs and has trained and instructed in dispute resolution for professional law and dispute resolution organizations and institutions of higher learning. From 2001-2004, he served as co-chair of the Boston Bar Association ADR Committee. He is a licensed real estate broker and has served as an elected member of the Newton Board of Aldermen, a legislative and special permitting body, since 2001. Stephen received his J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law in 1986 after having earned a master’s degree in Labor Relations and undergraduate degree in Political Economics cum laude from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. He is a 1973 graduate of the Roxbury Latin School.

Melissa Manwaring, MWI Trainer, is the Director of Curriculum Development at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, where she develops negotiation-related teaching materials and consults with clients on course design. She teaches negotiation at the F.W. Olin School of Management at Babson College and as well as an online negotiation course at the Simmons College School for Health Studies, and is a former instructor for the Program on Negotiation’s Seminar on Negotiation and Dispute Resolution. For over six years, she practiced commercial litigation and intellectual property counseling in the San Francisco Bay Area, working with a largely high-tech client base at the law firms of Pillsbury Madison & Sutro (now Pillsbury Winthrop) and Fenwick & West. Ms. Manwaring originally studied negotiation theory at Harvard Law School with Getting to Yes co-authors Roger Fisher and Bruce Patton and was trained as a mediator through the Harvard Mediation Program. She has mediated dozens of state court cases and online commercial disputes. As an independent negotiation trainer and consultant, Ms. Manwaring has taught negotiation theory and skills to hundreds of students and clients from around the world, including executives, attorneys, public servants, educators, law students, undergraduate students, and middle-school students. Her clients have ranged from corporations such as Fidelity Investments and the Bank of Norway, to nonprofit organizations such as the Red Cross and Save the Children, to educational institutions such as Harvard University, Connecticut College, Boston College, and numerous public school districts.

Thomas R. Marton, MWI Mediator, is an attorney at Lourie & Cutler, P.C., a panel mediator with Mediation Works Incorporated, the Boston Municipal Court Alternative Dispute Resolution Program, CDSC, and has also served as mediator for the Plymouth District Court and Middlesex Probate and Family Court.  As law clerk to the Hon. Douglas P. Woodlock, U.S. District Court, Tom assisted with multiple pre-trial negotiations, mediations and settlements, and has also served as trainer and role play coach for Mediation Works, Inc.  Tom has mediated a full range of case types, including commercial disputes, divorce, landlord-tenant, parent-child and small claims, and is a member of the Association for Conflict Resolution and the Massachusetts Association of Mediation Programs and Practitioners (MAMPP).  In addition to his mediation and legal background, Tom ran his own business as an independent contractor (construction/remodeling), assisted in the start-up of the Coffee Connection, Inc., and has spent extensive time abroad.

Tad Mayer, MWI Mediator, Facilitator and Staff, is an experienced mediator, facilitator and trainer. He is the Director of Commercial and Facilitation Services at Mediation Works Incorporated (MWI). As a mediator, Tad mediates a variety of cases including employment, business, residential and organizational disputes. He is a member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Mediation Panel. As a facilitator, Tad facilitates strategic planning meetings, multi-party disputes, and oversees a variety of facilitation projects involving housing sites, Boards and upper management. As an administrator of Commercial Programs, Tad works with the Director of Commercial Programs to convene and manage mediations and arbitrations for General Motors Corporation, Coca-Cola Enterprises and BMW North America among other clients. In addition, Tad works closely with MWI's Executive Director to design dispute resolution systems and to develop Mediation Works Incorporated's marketing initiatives. As a trainer, Tad is a member of the Coca-Cola Enterprises Solutions training team, is a mediation and negotiation trainer for MWI and has provided coaching at Boston College Law School and WilmerHale, as well as serving as a Mentor to new mediators in MWI's Mentor Program. Tad has applied his over 15 years of experience in marketing and business strategy to his responsibilities. Prior to working at MWI, he was a marketing consultant, after working for Sheraton Hotels, Northwest Airlines and DDB Worldwide. Tad has an MBA from Tuck at Dartmouth College, a BS in Communication from Northwestern University, and completed courses in Negotiation, Dispute Resolution, and Mediation at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. Tad is a member of the New England Chapter of the Association for Conflict Resolution (NE-ACR) and was co-chair of NE-ACR's 2005 Regional ADR Conference.

James E. McGuire, MWI Mediator, is a former partner with Brown Rudnick Berlack Israels LLP. As Chair of the firm's ADR practice group, he concentrates on dispute resolution in financial and commercial areas, serving as a neutral and representing firm client's as a settlement counsel. Jim is a trained mediator and arbitrator with more than 15 years experience as a neutral. He is a panel mediator/arbitrator with the American Arbitration Association, the CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution (insurance and franchise specialty panels) and the NASD. He serves as a mediator for the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Middlesex County Multi-Door Courthouse Program. Jim has also served as a mediator/arbitrator on asbestos claims for John Mansville Trust, the Fibreboard Asbestos Interim Claims Panel, and the Celotex Trust Asbestos panel. Jim also teaches Mediation at the Boston University School of Law. Jim graduated Harvard College in 1968, attended Boston University School of Law, Class of 1974, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review. Before commencing the practice of law, he clerked for the Honorable Joseph L. Tauro, United States District Court, District of Massachusetts (1974-1975).

Cynthia Monteiro is a mediator and trainer with MWI and a Clinical Instructor, Paralegal and Mediator at the Hale and Dorr Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School where, since 1979, she has supervised students in the area of family law and mediation. In 1994 she started the Family Mediation Project in addition to her work coordinating the Center’s long-running Pro Se divorce clinic teaching people how to represent themselves. Cynthia also works with the Passageway Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, providing legal advice and services for victims of domestic violence. Cynthia is affiliated with Mediation Works Inc. (MWI), Community Dispute Settlement Center (CDSC) and Children’s Services of Roxbury Massachusetts Families for Kids (MFFK) and operates Family Matters, a private mediation practice. Cynthia has mediated for the Department of Revenue’s visitation program and currently mediates with the Suffolk Probate Court mediation pilot project. Cynthia is a member of the Academy of Family Mediators, the Association of Conflict Resolution, American Bar Association Section on Dispute Resolution, and the Association of American Law Schools Dispute Resolution Section. She also served as a board member of the Alliance for Young Families for five years and is currently on the board of directors at Bright Futures Adoption Agency. During the summer of 2006 she participated in the Harvard Negotiation Insight Initiative, a program of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, Cultivating Balance: Mindfulness in the Law and Dispute Resolution with Leonard Riskin and Melissa Blacker. Before entering the world of law and mediation Cynthia was a pediatric nurse and kindergarten teacher. Her professional career has been centered on children and families. Cynthia received her L.P.N., Union County Technical Institute 1970; B.A., and Paralegal Certificate, University of Massachusetts 1987.

Elizabeth Neumeier, MWI Mediator, has been a full-time practitioner in the field of dispute resolution since 1983.  Her primary focus is the arbitration of labor-management disputes and she has decided more than 2000 cases in a wide variety of industries and for municipal, state and federal agencies. Ms. Neumeier served for ten years as an arbitrator for United States Steel Corporation and the United Steelworks of America in Pittsburgh, PA. She handled every kind of employment issue for a variety of industries. Ms. Neumeier is on the panel of the American Arbitration Association, the National Mediation Board, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the MA Board of Conciliation and Arbitration, the NH Public Employee Labor Relations Board, the North America Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAFTA) and the U.S. District Court, District of MA, ADR Program. Ms. Neumeier served as an Attorney-Advisor, Office of Chief Counsel, Federal Labor Relations Authority, Washington, D.C. and Member, Presidential Emergency Board No. 225. She has served as a permanent member of many alternative dispute resolution panels for specific industries and companies, including: ME State Employees Association and the State of ME Judicial Department, Major League Baseball and Major League Baseball Players Association, National Hockey League and National Hockey League Players Association, Port Authority of Allegheny County and Amalgamated Transit Union, Local No. 85, LTV Steel and United Steelworkers of America. Further, Ms. Neumeier is a member of several professional associations including the Association for Conflict Resolution, the Industrial Relations Research Association, the National Academy of Arbitrators and the MA and Boston Bar Associations and she served as President of the Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution, 1991-92. Ms. Neumeier received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from New York University and a Juris Doctor from Boston University School of Law.

Marjorie H. O'Reilly, MWI Mediator, is an attorney with a full-time dispute resolution practice. She offers mediation, arbitration, fact-finding, and training services, with a specialty in Labor, Employment and Parent/Child issues. Before starting a private practice, Marjorie served as an administrative law judge with the Massachusetts Labor Relations Commission and practiced labor and employment law with the firm of Palmer & Dodge LLP. Her background also includes experience as a public school teacher and administrator and a mental health counselor to the Boston Headstart program. Marjorie holds a Juris Doctor from Boston College Law School, a Master of Education in developmental psychology from Harvard University, and a Bachelor of Science from Simmons College. Currently, she sits on the board of Massachusetts Black Women Attorneys and is a member of the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution, Massachusetts Bar Association, Boston Bar Association, and National Lawyers Guild.

Nnena Odim is a mediator, trainer, attorney, and consultant. She has been mediating since 1997 and has mediated disputes involving issues such as employment, housing, business, consumer, and the full range of family/domestic relations (elder care, adoption, care and protection, CHINS, divorce, grandparent visitation, etc.). In Nnena’s permanency mediation practice she works closely with parents, children, guardians, therapists, teachers, and the Department of Social Services, in order to help all parties come to a resolution about the future stability and well-being of a child in DSS custody. Nnena has also designed and led numerous conflict management trainings for several local businesses and agencies, including the Boston Public Schools. In addition to her mediation and conflict resolution training background, Nnena is a staff attorney and clinical instructor at Harvard Law School’s Hale and Dorr Legal Services. She conducts trainings for the Harvard Mediation Program and has supervised students in their mediation studies. She has also participated in the small claims court mediation program in the local District Courts, where she mediated a variety of consumer, personal injury, landlord-tenant, interpersonal, and business disputes.

Monica R. Parker, MWI Trainer, is a trainer and consultant in the areas of negotiation, communication, and conflict resolution and a former practicing attorney at Alston & Bird, LLP and Mazursky & Dunaway, LLP. She has served as a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School teaching the negotiation course for law students and as a member of the teaching team for the executive version of the course at the Program of Instruction for Lawyers at Harvard Law. As a trainer, Monica has conducted negotiation and communication workshops for Goldman Sachs, IBM, Deloitte & Touche, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Rockefeller Foundation, among others. As a part of her consulting practice, Monica has facilitated dialogue amongst a college faculty embroiled in a dispute, coached an internet start-up on how to improve strained relationships with investors, and helped to develop and deliver a sexual harassment training program at The Citadel, a military college in South Carolina. Monica is also the founder of LeavingTheLaw.com, an organization that provides career coaching for dissatisfied lawyers. Monica earned a B.A. cum laude in English and American Literature from Harvard College and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. Prior to law school, Monica developed film scripts for Spike Lee at 40 Acres and A Mule Filmworks and worked as an assistant manager for Winn Dixie, a Southeastern grocery chain.

Alan Price, MWI Trainer, is a dispute resolution consultant with Mediation Works Incorporated and a Director at INSPIRITAS Corporation, a consulting and training firm advancing the practice of leadership development.  He is the author of, Ready To Lead? A Story for Leaders and Their Mentors. (Jossey-Bass, 2004.) Formerly, Alan served as Director of the Global Leadership Initiative at Harvard Business School (HBS). The Initiative developed world-class tools and teaching materials. Alan taught leadership cases in the executive education programs of HBS and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Alan arrived at HBS after working at a consulting firm specializing in labor-management negotiations and dispute resolution. Alan was a Senior Project Manager with Conflict Management Group where he developed dispute resolution mechanisms for international conflicts as well as inner city violence prevention. He was also a consultant for several years with Conflict Management, Inc. He served as an Infantry Lieutenant in the U.S. Army National Guard. Alan has a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a B.A. in Economics from Earlham College. In addition to his writing and consulting, Alan is a popular public speaker. He delivers keynote addresses on the global state of leadership and leadership development.

Joel M. Reck, MWI Mediator, is a retired partner from Brown Rudnick Berlack Israels LLP and is the former Chair of its Real Estate Department. For forty years, Mr. Reck’s diverse real estate practice included development projects, acquisitions, sales, financings, leases and work-outs for a variety of institutions with an emphasis on developers, real estate advisors, high-tech companies, pension plans and REITS. His practice consisted of structuring, managing and closing sophisticated commercial real estate transactions throughout the United States and has included several of the largest development projects and leases in the Greater Boston area. Mr. Reck currently serves as an Adjunct Professor at Boston College Law School where he teaches a course on commercial leases. He also currently serves as a mediator of real estate disputes for the Real Estate Bar Association and on the real estate panel of Mediation Works Incorporated. He recently served on a Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education faculty to train and certify lawyers to be mediators. Mr. Reck served as Chair of the Real Estate Section and as President of the Boston Bar Association and of the Boston Bar Foundation. He also served on the governing boards of the Massachusetts Bar Association, the Real Estate Bar Association, the American Bar Association and Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education. He is a member of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers and serves on its Leasing Committee. Mr. Reck has also served as chair and on the boards of many other non-profit organizations. Mr. Reck was listed as one of the “Nation’s Top 10 Real Estate Lawyers” published by the United States Lawyer Rankings guide, and is also listed in Woodward White’s The Best Lawyers in America for Real Estate Law. Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business named Mr. Reck as a leading individual in real estate law in Massachusetts and he has been named as a Massachusetts "Super Lawyer" by the publishers of Law & Politics. Mr. Reck received his B.A. degree with honors from Bowdoin College and received his J.D. degree from Harvard University.

Max Silverberg, MWI Mediator, was formerly a senior attorney with the U.S. Treasury Department, Vice President-Tax Counsel of the parent company for Trailways, Delta Steamship Lines and other domestic and foreign corporations. His areas of practice include all types of business, employment, commercial and financial transactions and labor relations. Further, Mr. Silverberg has mediated more than 2000 cases in conflicts regarding employer-employee relations; complex business transactions; retirement plans; franchisers and franchisees; massive torts; professional malpractice; and disputes involving municipalities and grievances filed against attorneys by the State Bar of Texas. Mr. Silverberg has extensive experience mediating a wide range of employment disputes including sexual harassment; wrongful terminations; alleged racial, sexual and age discrimination; breach of employment contracts; constructive discharges; terminations for refusal to violate the law; theft of trade secrets; violation of non-compete agreements; defamation of employees; interference with employment relationships; violations of the Family Medical Leave Act; whistleblower cases: ERISA and other retirement plans; and violations of the Americans With Disabilities Act. A member of many local, state and national professional associations, Mr. Silverberg is a former member of the Civil Justice Reform Act Advisory Committee to the Federal District Courts for the N. District of TX. He has had extensive arbitration and mediation training, including the Harvard Law School Program on Negotiations, the Key Bridge Foundation - Americans with Disabilities Act; NASDA and EEOC mediation training and International Arbitration Training with the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. Mr. Silverberg has a B.B.A. from the University of Texas and a J.D. from the University of Texas Law School. He also has an M.B.A. from Southern Methodist University, where he has been an Adjunct Professor for Dispute Resolution at the Law School from 1997. He holds several professional awards, including being named one of the Texas Super Lawyers in 2003, 2004 and 2007 for ADR.

Kim Stamatelos, MWI Mediator.  In 1987, Kim Stamatelos founded the first ADR company in her state. She was also Director of the Dispute Resolution Resource Center at Drake Law School and she traveled across Iowa, California, Arizona and Illinois under a Federal grant training judges in the use of mediation techniques. Her continued training includes thousands of lawyers and businesspersons including Warner Brothers Studios and General Motors Corporation. Her franchise experience includes positions as General Counsel for Rodeway Inns International and corporate counsel for Chili’s Restaurants. She has also mediated cases in personal injury, employment, franchise and other commercial cases.

Yvette Thomas, MWI Mediator and Facilitator, designs and implements workshops for Cultural Connection Consulting, an organization she started five years ago. She has conducted diversity training, conflict resolution skills, and parenting skills to a variety of parents including those in non-traditional roles and circumstances like homeless parents, incarcerated parents, teen parents, and grandparents raising grandchildren, as well as to the administration and staff of a number of non-profit organizations. Yvette has facilitated hundreds of workshops as an independent consultant for organizations like School Mediation Associates, the A World of Difference Program, Families First, Parents Helping Parents, and Parenting Resource Associates.  She has been working with MWI for the past year as a facilitator and began mediating small claims cases in Dorchester District Court two years ago.  Yvette also mediates CHINS cases with parents and youth for MWI.

Anthony Wanis-St. John, MWI Mediator and Trainer, is an Assistant Professor of International Peace and Conflict Resolution at American University’s School of International Service. He earned his Ph.D. (2001) and M.A.L.D. (1996) from the Fletcher School, Tufts University and was a Doctoral Fellow at Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation. He is also affiliated with the Center for International Conflict Resolution at Columbia University. He has extensive experience mediating disputes within partnerships, corporations and government agencies as well as between unions and management. He has taught in graduate programs at UMASS Boston/Dispute Resolution Program, Tufts University/The Fletcher School, Johns Hopkins University/Nitze School of Advanced International Studies and in the executive education program at Harvard Law School. Anthony consults with the World Bank on international ADR programs. Recent publications include:  “Back Channel Negotiations: International Bargaining in the Shadows,” Negotiation Journal, vol. 22, no. 2 (2006); “Cultural Pathways in Negotiation,” in Moffitt and Bordone, eds., Handbook of Dispute Resolution (Jossey-Bass, 2005);  “A Culture of Justice: Guatemala’s Post-Conflict Judicial Modernization,” World Bank, April 2004 (for World Bank’s “Scaling-Up Poverty Reduction” Conference in Shanghai, May 2004).  Ongoing research projects include the role of civil society in peace processes and the Iran-EU nuclear negotiations. Additional research interests include implementation problems in peace processes; culture and negotiation; complex adaptive systems; and global health and conflict resolution.

Jack Wofford, MWI Mediator, has broad experience in mediation, arbitration, facilitation, consensus-building and other forms of dispute resolution in a broad range of areas, including employment, family-owned and other closely held business, commercial personal injury, public policy, organizational and complex environmental, development, real estate, construction and transportation projects. In 1999, President Clinton appointed Jack to a seat on the Federal Service Impasses Panel, which resolves disputes in negotiations between the Federal Government and its unionized employees.  In the 1970's, Jack served in both state and federal government in transportation positions, including director of long-range regional transportation planning for the Boston area, Associate Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public works, and Deputy General Counsel of the US Department of Transportation. He was a partner in a Boston law firm working on complex and environmentally sensitive urban projects until 1986, and was a senior consultant at Endispute from 1987 until 1993, when he established his own ADR practice. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School and of Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.  After law school, he clerked for a US District Judge in Washington, DC. He is a member of the bars of Massachusetts, New York, and the District of Columbia (DC inactive).  He has participated in trainings for the US Department of Justice, the Massachusetts Office of Dispute Resolution, the New England chapter of the Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution, the Boston and Massachusetts Bar Associations, and a number of universities and other groups.

Thomas Zgambo, MWI Board President, Mediator and Trainer, is an Ombudsman at the World Bank.  Thomas joined the World Bank in February, 2007 after six years as the Corporate Ombudsman at Coca-Cola Enterprises. Before joining Coca-Cola Enterprises, Thomas spent three years as an Ombudsman and Training Specialist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he was also a Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, teaching Negotiation and Conflict Management.  Prior to MIT Thomas was an Ombudsman at Polaroid Corporation.  Thomas is a past President of The Ombudsman Association, now the International Ombudsman Association. Thomas served as a mediator at the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD), and has mediated Disability, public accommodation, sexual harassment, and racial discrimination cases. He also served as a member of the Human Rights Commission for the City of New Bedford, Massachusetts, USA and a member of the Governor's Advisory Council on Africa-American Affairs for the State of Massachusetts. Thomas has a Ph. D. in Analytical Chemistry and Materials Science from the University of North Texas and an MBA in Management of Technology from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

 

Please contact Mediation Works Incorporated at 800-348-4888 or mwi@mwi.org for more information.

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