Current Directors 

   

President: Jane Beddall, Connecticut

(term as president expires 2013; term as director expires April 2014)

jb@dovetailresolutions.com

     Jane is the founder of Dovetail Resolutions, LLC, a Connecticut-based mediation and consulting firm that helps prevent, reduce, and resolve conflicts with a focus on businesses (including family businesses), estate planning and settlement issues, and eldermediation.Dovetail also works with nonprofits to help them with strategic planning and conflict resolution. Jane founded Dovetail Resolutions after practicing as an attorney and mediator for a number of years. She graduated from Trinity College with a B.A. in economics and received both her M.A. in public policy analysis with a concentration in conflict resolution and her J.D., cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania. Jane has taught at the University of Connecticut School of Law, the University of New Haven, and in the state of Connecticut In-Service training program for employees. She has been appointed to the American Dispute Resolution Center’s Commercial Panel (arbitration and mediation) and the mediator roster of the US Postal Service REDRESS program. A member of the executive committee of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Section of the Connecticut Bar Association, Jane is also a volunteer mediator and arbitrator on the CBA Legal Fee Disputes Resolution Committee and a volunteer mediator for Community Mediation, Inc., in New Haven.

Vice president: Roni Lipton, Massachusetts

(term as vice president ends April 2013; term as director expires April 2014)

roni.lipton@umb.edu

 

                                                                                                               

Treasurer: Anita Aherne, Massachusetts 

(terms as treasurer and director expire April 2013)

aherne@comcast.net

   Anita is a mediator, trainer, and licensed clinical social worker who began her career as a high school teacher and worked for more than 20 years as a psychotherapist in private practice, primarily with couples and families, and for 15 years as a mental health trainer. She is now a training consultant who presents to businesses, organizations, and schools in areas related to mental and physical health, covering topics such as effective communication, conflict resolution, and stress management. A graduate of the University of Massachusetts/Amherst, she has a master’s in counseling psychology from Northeastern University and recently received her graduate certificate in conflict resolution and mediation from UMass/Boston. Anita, who also works as Court Programs Coordinator at Metropolitan Mediation Services, has been trained in marital and divorce mediation and currently mediates court, family, and consumer conflicts. She has served on the board of the Alliance for Inclusion and Prevention, a program affiliated with the Boston public schools, and is active in Habitat for Humanity. 

                                                      

                                      Secretary: Jessica Hynes, Connecticut

                               (terms as secretary and as director expire April 2013)

jessica.hynes@quinnipiac.edu

   Jessica, who is a mediator, trainer, and assistant professor at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut, received a bachelor of science in human development and family studies from Cornell University and a JD from Boston College Law School.  She has practiced law at a large Connecticut law firm, clerked for the Chief Judge of the Connecticut Appellate Court, and spent eight years as a professor at two  law schools before joining the Legal Studies faculty at Quinnipiac, where she teaches a variety of legal and conflict resolution classes and supervises the new minor in conflict resolution minor. Jessica, who has completed training in divorce, marital, and USDA mediation as well as basic mediation skills, has worked with community mediation organizations in Rhode Island and Connecticut and has trained college students and adults in negotiation and the mediation process. A member of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts and the Connecticut Council for Divorce Mediation and Collaborative Practice, she is a co-trainer for the basic mediation training offered at Community Mediation, Inc., in New Haven.

Immediate Past President: Louisa Williams, Massachusetts

      (terms as past president and as director end April 2013)

louisa@sswmediation.com

     Louisa is a partner in SSW Mediation Collaborative, LLC, a dispute resolution practice based on the island of Martha’s Vineyard. Before going into private practice, she was director of the nonprofit Martha’s Vineyard Mediation Program, Inc., which works in the island’s courts and community. Most of her mediation work on Martha’s Vineyard and in Cambridge, where she is a member of Community Dispute Settlement Center’s panel, is in family conflict and divorce, but she also mediates business disputes, trains students and professionals in conflict resolution skills, and works as a facilitator. Since 2007, she has served on the Massachusetts Trial Court’s Standing Committee on Dispute Resolution, practitioners and court personnel who advise court managers on ways to promote dispute resolution. A graduate of Princeton University, she has a master’s in journalism from the University of California at Berkeley. Before moving to Martha’s Vineyard, she worked at the Boston Globe in a variety of editing positions.

                                                                

                                                          

Director: Richard Barbieri, Massachusetts

(term expires April 2014)

richarde.barbieri@gmail.com

Richard has spent four decades in education, mostly at the K-12 level, and is now beginning a second career in the field of conflict resolution. He has been a college and high school teacher, director of the Massachusetts Advanced Studies Program, executive director of the Association of Independent Schools in New England, and interim head of eight schools from Maine to New Mexico, including schools in Newton and Cambridge, MA; Portland, ME, and Branford, CT. He has served on the board of Facing History and Ourselves, where he is currently a senior fellow, and was a founding board member of the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network. He has studied mediation and negotiation at the Harvard Project on Negotiation and at the McCormack Graduate School at UMass. He has written for such publications as Educational Leadership, Independent School, Trusteeship, the Providence Journal, the Maine Times, America, and the Boston Business Journal. He divides his time between Milton, Massachusetts, and Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard.

                                                      

                                                       

Director: Dianne Carter, Vermont

(term expires April 2014)

diannecar@gmail.com

   Dianne recently became the Military Child Care Liaison for the state of Vermont. Before this, for more than 15 years she was the associate director of a Head Start program in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. A significant part of her work there included providing communication skill training to staff and mediating staff disputes. She has experience as a parent coordinator for the state of Vermont and as a  member of a restorative justice panel with the Newport Community Justice Center. Dianne provides conflict coaching training to community agencies and is an adjunct faculty at Springfield College in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. Her educational background includes a BA in Elementary Education from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and an MS in Mediation and Applied Conflict Studies from the Woodbury Institute at Champlain College.

                                                         

                                                         

                                          Director: Rosalind Cresswell, Massachusetts 

                                                  (term expires April 2013)

                                                 roscresswell@earthlink.net

   Rosalind is a partner of Resolution Partners, LLP, a new general service ADR practice on the North Shore that she founded with two attorneys. Ros, who was born in England but has lived in the United States since 2001, has been helping people handle conflict in the commercial, government, healthcare, and family areas for nearly 30 years. She worked in consumer protection and for the British local government ombudsman and National Health Service and is an active mediator with the Harvard Mediation Program, where she was previously advanced case coordinator, and with North Shore Community Mediation Program, where she was a board member for several years. She has been involved in training new mediators with both programs for several years and has also worked on Massachusetts Trial Court projects involving mediator standards and public awareness. Most recently Ros, who is a member of the International Ombudsman Association and contributor to the US Ombudsman Association Model Standards of Practice, has worked as an ombudsman at a Massachusetts hospital. As part of the master’s program in conflict resolution at UMass/Boston, she recently completed a course in workplace conflict.

                                                   

Director: Theodore A. Johnson, Massachusetts

(term expires April 2014)

tajohnson@brandeis.edu

     Theodore A. Johnson is an assistant professor in the Conflict and Coexistence master’s program at Brandeis University, where he teaches courses in international mediation, conflict and development, diversity and development and research methods. He is also the advising head for students in the dual degree program in Conflict and Coexistence and Sustainable International Development. Before joining the Brandeis faculty in 2006, he was a senior program manager and legal advisor for Mercy Corps, based in Cambridge, and worked for Conflict Management Group from 1994 to 2004. During that time he conducted negotiation training in many countries, including South Africa, Angola, Cyprus, and Iraq. He has also worked as a negotiation trainer and consultant with corporations such as IBM and Microsoft and with many UN organizations. He continues occasional consulting with UN organizations at CM Partners in Cambridge. Before his international work, he was a deputy district attorney and judge pro tem in Orange County, California, where he established legal education programs in elementary and secondary schools and was an arbitrator for the state bar of California. He has an LL.B and JD from Western State University and also received an MALD and Ph.D. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

                                 

                                                      

                                    Director: Rebecca Minard, Rhode Island

                                                Beckyminard@gmail.com

   Becky is a social worker at Blackstone Academy Charter School in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, where she works with students with individual education programs. Becky, who started her career as a lawyer in 1983, is a founding member of the Community Mediation Center of Rhode Island and has been a mediator and social worker since 1996. She has mediated and trained for CMCRI and also in her capacity as director of mediation programs for Rhode Island Youth Guidance, which partnered with the Rhode Island Family Court to administer a juvenile restorative justice program and provide parent child mediation services. Becky has trained middle and high school students in peer mediation and conflict resolution and has been a permanency mediator for Children’s Services of Roxbury, negotiating open adoption agreements for children.  She is on the board of directors of CMCRI, has served on the boards of many human services organizations, and is a past chair of Planned Parenthood of Rhode Island. A graduate of Wesleyan University, Becky received her JD from the University of Pittsburgh, and her MSW from Rhode Island College.

                                                     

Ruthy Kohorn Rosenberg, Rhode Island

(term expires April 2013)

rkohorn@gmail.com

     Ruthy is Faculty Ombuds at Brown University, where the ombuds' mission is to promote the well-being and mission of the faculty, postdoctoral research fellows and associates, and the University. She is also an adjunct professor at Roger Williams University School of Law, a board member of the Community Mediation Center of Rhode Island, and a facilitator and mediator with the Massachusetts Office of Dispute Resolution. Ruthy graduated from Smith College, has a JD from the University of Connecticut School of Law, and earned a certificate in non-profit management from Case Western Reserve University. Before becoming ombuds at Brown, she worked as director of student mediation at MIT, assistant dean for academic affairs in the Division of Biology and Medicine at Brown University, and director of family mediation at the Cleveland Mediation Center.

Director: Nan Starr, Massachusetts

(term expires April 2013)

nanostarr@gmail.com

     Nan is a mediator and facilitator with a private practice in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, who has worked on projects ranging from small family disputes to larger community-wide conflicts. With training and experience in divorce mediation, marital mediation, permanency mediation, elder mediation, facilitation, and restorative justice, Nan has mediated extensively as a volunteer mediator with the Community Mediation Center of Rhode Island and has served on the District Court panel for Mediation Works Incorporated in Boston. In addition to her role on the board of directors of NE-ACR, Nan is currently serving on the board of directors of the Community Mediation Center of Rhode Island. A founding member of Restorative Justice and Practices of New England, she is working to harness the collective energy of this networking group of restorative advocates. Her educational background includes a BFA from Tufts University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and an MS in Mediation and Applied Conflict Studies from the Woodbury Institute at Champlain College.

 

Director: Sharon Tracy, Massachusetts

(term expires April 2014)

sharon@quabbinmediation.org

     Sharon is executive director of Quabbin Mediation, based in Orange, Massachusetts. A mediator and trainer for 15 years, she develops and implements mediation and conflict resolution curricula in a multitude of settings and specializes in creating innovative programs and writing grant proposals to fund them. An example is Veterans Mediation, which trains military-connected community volunteers to mediate for their peers; another is Training Active Bystanders, a locally developed school-based violence prevention program. She is a proponent of the concept that ADR practitioners’ skills can be successfully applied to community organizing by convening stakeholder alliances and facilitating their work together to meet their communities’ needs. She earned a bachelor of arts degree in legal studies with a concentration in journalism from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and has worked as an editor, publisher, and business development consultant.