Search Results for: committee

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Presenters 

 

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Adam Walsh, M.S. Conflict and Dispute Resolution, University of Oregon, (He/Him), is a mediator in Eugene, Oregon. He holds a Master’s degree in Conflict and Dispute Resolution from the University of Oregon School of Law and previously served as a Small Claims Mediator with the Lane County Circuit Court. His professional background spans the Oregon Legislature, community-based crisis response, and public education. Across these roles, Adam’s work has centered on navigating conflict, building relationships, and helping people communicate effectively in challenging situations.

 

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Agnieszka Alboszta, MA, MS – MA in Philosophy & Religion, MS in Conflict & Dispute Resolution. Her current position is Community Program Manager at Center for Dialogue & Resolution Community Program Manager, (She/Her). What I was thinking of is not so much a presentation where I teach anything much but a crowdsourcing type of session on curiosity and its function in mediation, both in mediator and in participant(s). I’ve been fascinated by curiosity (and how we toss that term around all the time) and would like to take a deeper dive. Certainly, some academic definitions of curiosity (and its various facets) would be something I could start out with, but the rest would be crowdsourced.

 

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Akanksha Marwah, Ph.D., is a Restorative Justice Facilitator and trainer specializing in restorative approaches, child justice, conflict resolution, and community-based healing. She holds a Ph.D. in Restorative Child Justice and an LL.M. in Criminal Law. Her work focuses on creating spaces where individuals impacted by harm can be heard, supported, and meaningfully involved in pathways toward accountability, healing, and restoration. She works with youth, families, schools, justice systems, and community organizations, and also designs and facilitates training on restorative practices, mediation, trauma-informed approaches, and conflict resolution.

 

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Amanda Jo Broughton, (she/they), is a Senior Research Services Coordinator at Chestnut Health Systems’ Lighthouse Institute-Oregon Group. Her role serves as one of the community liaisons for the NIH HEAL® Data2Action study, a county-level research project in Oregon; she is also one of the co-facilitators for the study’s intervention. They are a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) with a Master of Education in Behavior Analysis. As a BCBA, one of their clinical specialties is language modeling and translation across individuals in conversation with perceived misalignment. Additionally, she has a strong background in nonviolent communication.

 

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Ana Garcia, Master Degree in Mediation, Attorney in Costa Rica with more than 20 years of experience as a lawyer in family, criminal, administrative, civil, and labor matters, as well as in negotiation processes, and judicial conciliation. I participated as a mediator in the Mediation Program of the Carlos III University of Madrid and in the Family Care Center of Madrid. I have a Master’s Degree in Negotiation, Mediation and Alternate Conflict Resolution from the Carlos III University of Madrid. I am a mediator certified by the Arbitration and Mediation Center of the Bar Association and I have a Master´s Degree in Criminal Law in the University of Costa Rica (2007), Master´s Degree in Bioneuroemoción at the Enric Corbera Institute (Spain). Specialty in Family Orientation in Unimonserrate University in Bogotá Colombia (June 2022). Co-Parenting Specialist certification from The Co-Parenting Specialists Training Program with Christina McGhee and Susan Guthrie (California May 2022). Advanced Family Mediation Training from the Mosten Mediation Training (California, May 2025)

 

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Dr. Clare Fowler, Exec VP Mediate.com, International Woman of Peace, (She), received her Doctorate on designing dispute resolution systems for small businesses from Pepperdine University Graduate School of Education/Organizational Leadership and her Master’s of Dispute Resolution from the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at the Pepperdine University School of Law. Dr. Fowler also works as Managing Editor and with Caseload Manager at Mediate.com. She teaches at Pepperdine Straus Dispute Resolution Department and University of Oregon. Clare mediates and trains, focusing on workplace disputes. Dr. Fowler’s dissertation was a phenomenological study of Workplace disputes. Her 2023 book, Rising Above Office Conflict, is a guidebook for HR directors dealing with high conflict behaviors. Her motto for the dispute resolution field? Rising Tides Raise All Boats. 

 

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Deb Burke is a certified yoga instructor, yoga therapist in training, and artist. She integrates trauma-informed yoga with creative practices to support people in befriending their bodies, cultivating a compassionate relationship with themselves, and discovering the wisdom that can emerge through embodied awareness.

Deb has more than 20 years of experience as a community-based social justice educator in higher education. Since 2022, she has facilitated Communal Art Practice within a Brain Injury Community at Portland State University and Art on the Brain in partnership with Brain Injury Connections Northwest. At HeartSpring Health Naturopathic Clinic in the Sellwood neighborhood of Portland, she teaches yoga for chronic pain, yoga for people who have experienced a brain injury, and offers one-on-one yoga therapy. She also facilitates Drawing for the Joy of It with Art Makes Us.

Yoga and art have been integral to Deb’s life for more than twenty years. She is committed to creating trusting, culturally affirming, and compassionate spaces where people can slow down, listen deeply, and attend to their whole selves—mind, body, and spirit. She is currently completing her 800-hour yoga therapy certification at the Institute for Living Yoga and holds a Ph.D. in Education and an M.A. in Applied Cultural Anthropology from Oregon State University.

 

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Gracelyn Cruden, BCBA, is a Research Scientist at Chestnut Health Systems’ Lighthouse Institute-Oregon Group. Her research leverages systems science, decision science, and implementation science to develop tools, processes, and partnerships to co-develop and implement evidence-informed programs and policies. She leads a NIMH-funded trial testing a decision tool and group decision facilitation process to support intervention adoption by child welfare and mental health systems. She is also Principal Investigator for a NIH HEAL® Data2Action study that is identifying local decision makers’ data needs, then making those data available in user-friendly formats, with the goal of improving substance use services and policies.

 

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Kathryn Fahrion, Mediator, she is part of Lane County Family Mediation, Mediation Faculty, University of Oregon School of Law, (She/Her), is a prolific mediator and educator. Primarily a court-connected family mediator, Kat has mediated thousands of cases ranging from parrot breeding disputes to developing parenting plans to resolving farm strikes. She teaches for both her private practice, Compass Resolutions LLC, and University of Oregon School of Law. When she’s not mediating or teaching, Kat is on the ADR Section Executive Committee for the Oregon Bar, the State Family Law Advisory Committee education subcommittee, and is an enthusiastic gardener and cook.

 

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Kenneth Cloke, Director of the Center for Dispute Resolution and a mediator, arbitrator, facilitator, coach, consultant, and trainer, specializing in communication, negotiation, and resolving complex multi-party disputes, including marital, divorce, family, community, grievance and workplace disputes, collective bargaining negotiations, organizational and school conflicts, sexual harassment, discrimination, and public policy disputes; and designing preventative conflict resolution systems. His facilitation, coaching, consulting, and training practice includes work with leaders of public, private, and non-profit organizations on effective communications, dialogue, collaborative negotiation, relationship and team building, conflict resolution, leadership development, strategic planning, designing systems, culture and organizational change.

He is an internationally recognized speaker and author of Mediation: Revenge and the Magic of Forgiveness; Mediating Dangerously: The Frontiers of Conflict Resolution; The Crossroads of Conflict: A Journey into the Heart of Dispute Resolution; Conflict Revolution (1 s and-2 nd Editions); and The Dance of Opposites: Explorations in Mediation, Dialogue and Conflict Resolution Systems Design; Politics, Dialogue and the Evolution of Democracy; Words of Wisdom; Ordinary Ecstasy: A Meditation Home Companion; Mediation in a Time of Crisis. and The Magic in Mediation. He is co-author with Joan Goldsmith of Thank God It’s Monday! 14 Values We Need to Humanize the Way We Work; Resolving Personal and Organizational Conflict; The End of Management and the Rise of Organizational Democracy; The Art of Waking People Up: Cultivating Awareness and Authenticity at Work; Resolving Conflicts At Work: Ten Strategies For Everyone On The Job (1 st -3 rd Editions); and Resolving Organizational Conflicts: A Course in Mediation and Systems Design.

He served as an Administrative Law Judge for the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board and the Public Employment Relations Board, a Fact-finder for the Public Employment Relations Board, and a Judge Pro Tem for the Superior Court of Los Angeles. He has been an Arbitrator and Mediator for over forty years in labor management disputes and is a member of a number of arbitration panels. He received his B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley; J.D. from U.C. Berkeley’s Boalt Law School; Ph.D. from U.C.L.A.; LLM from U.C.L.A. Law School; and did post-doctoral work at Yale University School of Law. He is a graduate of the National Judicial College and has taken graduate level courses in a variety of subjects.

 

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Kristen Wright, MPA, Director of Training and Academic Services, has spent her career at the intersection of practice and education in collaborative governance. As Interim Director of Training and Academic Services at the National Policy Consensus Center at Portland State University, she facilitates complex public policy processes, manages collaborative projects, and teaches others in the skills that make collective work possible. Before joining NPCC in 2015, she led a nonprofit supporting middle school youth, served as a mediator and facilitator across communities, and conducted research on collaborative governance at PSU’s Institute for Sustainable Solutions. She holds a master’s in public administration with a focus on collaborative governance and natural resources.

 

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Dr. Mandy Davis, is a Professor of Practice at Portland State University’s School of Social Work and a licensed clinical social worker. She is Director of Trauma Informed Oregon, a program advancing trauma-informed care throughout organizations and systems through training, consultation, and implementation resources. Dr. Davis teaches and lectures on implementing trauma-informed care and trauma-specific services throughout Oregon and globally. Her current interests include measuring change when organizations and systems implement the principles of trauma-informed care, the impact of toxic stress on the workforce, policy work, and trauma-informed organizational transitions.

 

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Michelle Jackson Keating, PsyD, (She), I have been a mediator in Washington since 2005. For a few years, I was the Program Director with Community Mediation Services in Vancouver. For the last few years, I have focused on providing Motivational Interviewing in my social services work. I love mediation so much, I earned a Doctorate and used data from every single small claims mediation case at CMS from 2018-2020. I’d love to present what I learned about age, perception of mediator neutrality, and settlement connection.

 

 

 

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Milena Pacheco Revilla is an attorney with more than 20 years of experience in private companies of mass consumption and in the Government of Costa Rica; as well as in the private practice of notary work. I have an MBA with an emphasis on Marketing, I am a specialist in Arbitration, Mediation and Conciliation; Master in Leadership and Organizational Development with Coaching and Neurosciences, Master in Leadership Skills Developed at Harvard from EIDHI University, Coach certified by the International Coach Federation (ICF). In addition, I have a Postgraduate degree in Bioneuroemociónfrom the Enric Corbera Institute (Spain) and I am a certified Mediator, Conciliator and Negotiator from the Aprendo RTV Productions, taught by Rosa María Abdelnour. Co-Parenting Specialist certification from The Co-Parenting Specialists Training Program with Christina McGhee and Susan Guthrie(May 2022). Advanced Family Mediation Training from the Mosten Mediation Training

 

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Ricardo Pelegrin-Taboada, LLM, PhD, (He/Him/His), Associate Professor of History at Western Oregon University. His research and forthcoming book, which is under peer review with Stanford University Press, examines the history of the legal professions and the practice of law in the nineteenth century. He has mediated in small claims with Neighbor to Neighbor since September 2022, and domestic relations in Lane County Family Mediation since March 2026.

 

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Robin Harkless, has been practicing mediator since 2001, primarily in the public policy sector. She has been on the Oregon Consensus team since 2016, serving as Director since 2023.

 

 

 

 

 

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Sam Imperati, JD, is the Executive Director of ICMRESOLUTIONS, a Seattle-based national dispute-resolution provider offering mediation, facilitation, decision-making, team-building, and training services. Sam is experienced at the intersection of policy, politics, science, business, and law. His multi-disciplinary approach combines classic facilitation with the result-oriented tools of mediation to help polarized participants reach agreement both upstream and downstream.

Sam has been a full-time ADR professional since 1992 and has managed everything from “Admiralty to Zoning.” He represented individuals and labor unions in private practice and was Nike’s Assistant Corporate Counsel for litigation. He served as a Judge Pro Tempore and taught public policy facilitation at UO Law CRES program, leadership, negotiation, ethics, & decision-making at Willamette MBA, and environmental dispute resolution at Lewis & Clark Law.

2006 – 2026 Best Lawyers in America (ADR). 2026 edition “Lawyer of the Year” for Mediation in Portland, Oregon. AV Preeminent. OSB & OMA Lezak Awards for mediation excellence. WMA Board member. Standup comedy winner… which helps during negotiation, I kid you not!

During his free time, Sam plays “zone defense” against his four granddaughters and midfield on an Over-68 men’s soccer team, where movement is occasionally observed!

 

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Shelby Schuppe, MA. Senior Research, (She/Her/Hers), is a conflict resolution professional with experience navigating challenging conversations related to anti-discrimination, housing access, public health equity, gender-based violence, and community ownership. These experiences come from professional roles, as well as volunteering for the Master Gardener Program in Benton County. Shelby has held professional roles related to Title IX, McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, court advocacy, equity and inclusion, and now in research. Training experience includes mediation, negotiation, dialogue facilitation, community engagement to ownership, equity in communications, and public health 101. Volunteer time is solely dedicated to gardening and increasing access to community gardening spaces, building individual’s capacity to garden for themselves (and others), and how to foster an inclusive organization.

 

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Stephen Fowler, Restorative Justice Practitioner/Equity Informed Mediator, (He/They), This liberation warrior is a community educator and performing artist from Portland, Oregon. Convicted as a teenager, and sentenced to 7.5 years in the Oregon Youth Authority, Stephen used his time to educate and expand his understanding of self-worth, potential, healing, and purpose using art forms and the practice of Restorative Justice. Since release, Stephen has given wisdom to many community forums and served on statewide initiatives leading to his pardon by the Governor of Oregon for his outstanding community work. Stephen is still committed to educating organizations, school districts, community members, teachers, parents, and students about the radical practice of Restorative Justice for collective liberation. Stephen is a Consultant, Equity Informed Mediator, Race Talks Facilitator, Owner of Be The Solution LLC, and the Executive Director of the Restorative Roots Project.

 

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Tsipora Dimant, has been a mediator and trainer for 34 years. She started her mediation
career at Small Claims Court, where she mediated hundreds of cases over 25 plus years. She
also directed the Dispute Resolution Department at the Better Business Bureau where she
oversaw mediations and arbitration services for businesses and consumers in dispute.
In the last 10 years, Tsipora worked as a mediator and conflict coach at OHSU and the CIty of
Beaverton. Recently, she helped launch a peer mediation program for the Oregon Education
Association, which serves 43,000 members.

She is currently mediating and providing conflict coaching for workplace and families. She is
also teaching mediation and conflict resolution courses at Portland Community College, The
Hillsboro Mediation Center, Washington County, and other state agencies. Her work is focused
on helping people learn new communications skills as they navigate their conflicts.

 

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Does becoming an OMA Board Member interest you? Apply here!

 

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Stephanie Leffler – President

Stephanie began volunteering at Neighbor-To-Neighbor Mediation (CDRC) in 2013 and completed her training that year. She became involved with OMA as a conference helper, served on the member services, conference, standards and practices committees. She is serving her second three-year term as an OMA board member. Stephanie enjoys serving OMA members and the comradery of the OMA board. Serving as a volunteer allowed her to meet, “some of the most amazing humans.”

She worked in wood products in the 1980’s and worked her way up to manage teams in the manufacturing industries. She has experience working or consulting manufacturing, technology, retail, wholesale, hospitality, education and distribution. Her employers have been private, public, and non-profit sectors where she held executive and leadership roles. She spent most of her career in Human Resources and risk management. She owns a consulting firm that opened in 2017. Her areas of expertise include risk assessment, workplace conflict and negotiation. She enjoys helping folks through organizational change and coaching executives on the most difficult subject matters. She enjoys mentoring people and helping them become business owners and leaders.

Stephanie holds degrees in criminal justice, management, human resources, and is a senior certified human resource professional through the Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI) and the Society of Human Resource Managers (SHRM). 

Email: president@ormediation.org

 

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Jennifer Nackos – Vice President

Jennifer Nackos (she/her) is honored to serve as one of OMA’s Board of Directors, alongside fellow peacebuilders. She was born in South Korea and raised in the United States. She is a certified mediator and Restorative Justice facilitator with a strong understanding of intercultural fluency, whether it be on an international, ethnic, religious, community, or even family level. This perspective allows her to see people broadly with an understanding that “different” can be beautiful. Because of this, Jennifer is also connected to Mediators Beyond Borders International (MBBI).

Jennifer holds a bachelor’s degree in Russian language and culture. In 1995, she lived in eastern Ukraine for over a year, residing in the Donetsk Oblast and Kharkiv. She also completed an M.S. in Conflict Resolution. Formal education taught her valuable concepts and theories that explain why and how conflicts occur. More importantly, real-life experiences have magnified the importance of learning and teaching how to manage them better. She believes this is fundamentally important because angry people do angry things, frustrated people do frustrating things, and sad people can do very sad things.

Email: vp@ormediation.org

 

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Rosemary Bishop – Treasurer

Rev. Rosemary’s focus as an OMA board member is in advocacy where she works to bridge diversity gaps, develop access to/for marginalized communities and build outlets that hold the mental health and sense of belonging of mediators as priority as conflict continues to be a part of the world. Currently, she proudly works in mediation and restorative justice with Clackamas County Resolutions Services and as a Therapeutic Intervention Coach with Portland Public Schools. In her free time, she volunteers with Resolutions Northwest, builds community with her neighbors, and keeps an open door for anyone who needs an ear.

Rev. Rosemary’s academic background is in developmental psychology where she focused her studies on the diversity of conflict across social constructs. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Portland State. Professionally, her background is in both Communications & Human Resource Management along with Union Stewardship. She is a bridge builder in group settings that has the courage to challenge bulldozers. Formally trained in Interfaith leadership, servant leadership, equity informed mediation, trauma informed facilitation, restorative justice facilitation and ethics management, she makes it her mission to help people communicate. She respects the process of healthy conflict as a form of human enlightenment and believes we all have the capacity to disagree AND love one another.   

Email: treasurer@ormediation.org 

 

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Jack Hollis – Secretary 

Jack started on the path of mediation in 2018 as a volunteer with East County Resolutions.

In 2020 Jack served his first term on the OMA board and was elected President from 2021-2023. During his term he transitioned OMA to a digital workspace, increasing accessibility for mediators throughout the state. Jack spearheaded programs to provide free trainings to mediators and to increase access to OMA benefits with rural communities.

In 2024 Jack was trained as a restorative justice practitioner with Beaverton CDRC. In 2025 Jack co-founded Portland Community Mediation, a Community Dispute Resolution Center with a mission focused on providing equity informed mediation services to underserved communities in Portland.

For the last 4 years Jack has primarily focused on working contracts with Oregon Department of Human Services to return children in state care to their families and working with Clackamas County in Eviction Prevention Mediation. He averages about 200 mediations a year as an independent contractor.

Jack is dedicated to removing barriers to entry in the field of mediation and is a long-standing proponent of fair pay for mediators which includes changing the current volunteer system to a pathway to paid work system. He firmly believes that mediation should be provided by our government alongside other essential services.

Jack is dedicated to embedding equity in all the work that he is a part of and is an adamant and outspoken advocate for LGBTQIA+ rights.

Email: secretary@ormediation.org

 

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Robert Milesnick – Director

An experienced employment law litigator, former Assistant U.S. Attorney, and a certified mediator for the past 23 years, Rob is the principal and founder of Craft Mediation Northwest, an employment and workplace conflict resolution boutique.  With almost two decades of workplace litigation experience, and as a participate or mediator in over 200 mediations, during his appointment with the Oregon U.S. Attorney’s Office, he served a collateral duty assignment with the U.S. Department of Justice EEO Mediator Corps to mediate employment disputes for the Executive Office of United States Attorneys. 

Rob uses interpersonal, facilitative, and evaluative techniques to mediate litigation disputes, and fact finding, culture and climate audits, and implementation of conflict systems designs (preventative and responsive) to improve group and organizational effectiveness.  He received his BA from Virginia Commonwealth University in English and Psychology in 1999 and his JD from Syracuse University College of Law in 2002.  He has completed advanced conflict resolution training from the Syracuse University College of Law mediation assistance program, worked as mediator for New Justice Conflict Resolution Services, and has completed advanced mediation and negotiations training from the U.S. Department of Justice and the National Advocacy Center, and from the Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation.

Rob is passionate about helping Oregon, working to resolve individual and organizational conflict, and is excited to support the OMA, its members, and its many court, community mediation, and conflict resolution partners in Oregon and throughout the country.   

Email: boardseat9@ormediation.org

 

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Paul Allen – Director 

Paul was formally on the OMA standards and practices committee, former OMA board member, and mediation practitioner. He is a positive realist, lover of human beings, curiosity, wisdom of many years of experience. 

In 1970, I was an expectant father starting my career. My first promotion was to sweeper.  I chose to excel; people smiled and appreciated me! My Secret to success! 50+ years later, bestowed with a myriad of accomplishments, I continue to love who I am becoming!  Please consider this thought: Trust me, it is much easier to love others when you first love yourself. 

Email: boardseat10@ormediation.org 

 

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Maggie Stahl – Administrator

As a first time mom, I currently enjoy taking my son and daughter on adventures which include going to museums, parks, hiking trails, aquariums and the zoo! When I’m not entertaining my kids I love baking, cooking and reading. I find enjoyment in making my children’s food to provide a healthier alternative to some of the mass-produced options at the grocery store. Being an avid reader; I’m part of a monthly book club. 

I’ve used mediation in many situations when working in HR, but after taking mediation classes in college I’ve realized we use mediation frequently in our everyday lives. I believe in mediation and think it’s best first method in many scenarios. I’m very excited to join OMA and hope to help in any way I can!

Email: oma@ormediation.org

 

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Lanie Toledo – Administrator

Lanie is a full-time mom of three, including her eldest child who is on the autism spectrum. Her personal journey as a mother has deepened her appreciation for the value of mediation—not only as a professional tool but as a way of life.

Lanie believes that mediation starts at home. Whether navigating sibling rivalry or teaching her children how to resolve conflicts peacefully, she sees everyday parenting as a living practice of conflict resolution. She draws on these real-life experiences to support the mission of OMA: promoting peaceful, constructive dialogue and solutions across all communities.

Email: oma@ormediation.org

 

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