Welcome to the Restorative and Criminal Justice Section!

Dear Members of the Restorative and Criminal Justice Section: At the annual meeting in Austin, Jason Ekk, Belinda Reed and Lisa Singh were elected to serve as tri-chairs of this section. The leadership remains the same until the 2010 Annual meeting.    Jason Ekk received his B.A. in History and Communications from Fresno Pacific University in May of 2005 and an M.A. in Conflict Resolution and Peacemaking from Fresno Pacific University in January of 2009.  Jason Ekk is the Program Director of the Restorative Justice Initiative in Fresno, California.  In this position, he is assisting in the development of a pilot project for the juvenile justice system based on restorative justice principles.  He is also on the board of directors of the Victim Offender Reconciliation Program in Fresno.  Jason was the lead mediator and case manager of the Fresno Pacific Restorative Discipline Process where he led over 45 mediations.  He was involved in training various student and staff position members.  Jason was also a consultant for the International Republican Institute in Angola in the area of conflict resolution, where he led seminars and discussions in Portuguese with various political parties.       Belinda Reed is an Assistant State’s Attorney in Prince George's County, Maryland and Adjunct Professor at Howard Community College where she teaches Introduction to Conflict Resolution and Introduction to Restorative Justice. Ms. Reed is past-president of the MD Chapter, Association for Conflict Resolution. As a board member of the Maryland Chapter, and with the assistance of a number of people from a variety of dispute resolution and criminal justice backgrounds, she spearheaded the planning of Maryland's Restorative Justice Conferences on November 2006 and November 2008.    In 2005, Ms. Reed received her Master's Degree in Applied Healing Arts from Tai Sophia Institute in Laurel, Maryland and is pursing a Graduate Certificate with the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University. She has received training in Mediation, Victim-Offender Mediation, Community Conferencing, and Peacemaking Circles.  Workshop presentations include the Art of Listening, Restorative Dialogue, Use of Circles in the Classroom, Compassion Circles, and Being Creative. Lisa Singh is an independent consultant and trainer who specializes in conflict resolution, restorative justice and intercultural communication. She acts as a consultant to the Dayton Mediation Center in Ohio and was regional director of the North Platte Office of the Center for Conflict Resolution in 2004 and 2005.  Lisa has had ten years of active experience in the field of mediation, studying both the facilitative and transformative mediation models.  Lisa has been a leader in the field of restorative justice in community mediation leading a variety of mediation projects such as an Adult Victim/Offender Program, Family Group Decision Making in Children’s Services, and several other restorative justice initiatives.  Lisa is currently working with Dayton Public Schools to initiate a civic capacity project that incorporates restorative justice values.  Lisa was trained by the National Institute of Corrections and Florida Atlantic University as a trainer of Restorative Justice.