of Northern California Association for Dispute Resolution

Speakers and Programs

Keynote Presentation:
The Common Ground Approach to Conflict Resolution:
A Multi Media Presentation

John Marks will use talk, video and music to describe the common ground approach to conflict resolution. John will demonstrate how his work combines social entrepreneurship with conflict resolution. He addresses conflict with a diverse toolbox that includes traditional techniques of mediation and facilitation as well as less conventional ones like soap opera, community organizing and sports. He will explain how Search for Common Ground applies peace-building techniques across entire countries in what he calls “societal conflict prevention”. The keynote address will include opportunities for audience participation and dialogue with John.

John Marks is President and founder of Search for Common Ground, the world’s largest non-profit conflict resolution organization, which has 350 employees and offices in 17 countries. He is a best-selling, award-winning author and has been the producer or executive producer of numerous TV programs and series. He heads Common Ground Productions, for which he wrote and produced a four-part documentary series, entitled “The Shape of the Future”. This documentary was, in 2005, the first TV production ever to be simultaneously broadcast on Israeli, Palestinian, and Arab satellite TV. Currently a Skoll Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship, he has served as a US Foreign Service Officer, Executive Assistant to the late US Senator Clifford Case, Fellow at Harvard's Institute of Politics, and Visiting Scholar at Harvard Law School.

Afternoon Sessions:

Session 1A: Lessons from Rwanda: Comics and Conflict Resolution

In Rwanda, there is a national directive to recognize the genocide it has suffered, and to move beyond it and reconcile the country. Implementation of Gacaca, the sweeping ADR program designed to expedite justice and foster national unity and reconciliation, has been arduous and slow. Many Rwandans are unable to comprehend the process and fear testifying publicly. These exigencies are exacerbated by language and literacy challenges.

Significantly, comics and cartoons are being used to educate and encourage the citizenry to participate, despite constitutional prohibitions against trivialization of the genocide. This session will explore Gacaca and demonstrate the power of comics as a media to promote peace. Comic books will be available for browsing and purchase.

Presenter Ellen Yamshon, Esq. has a broad background in negotiation, mediation and program development. She is Director of Mediation Services for the Senior Legal Hotline and is a designated trainer for the Center for African Peace and Conflict Resolution. Ms. Yamshon served on the National Panel of Arbitrators for the American Arbitration Association and has evaluated conflict resolution operations of government agencies and community-based organizations at home and abroad. She has lectured on Conflict Management and Negotiation at California State University, Sacramento, and is a contributing author on topics concerning ADR and ethics for a number of journals as well as for “Understanding the Law”, a popular legal textbook.

Session 1B: Stumbling Over Your Style

Are your communication “skills” cutting off collaborations? Are parties’ communication efforts getting lost in translation? Through this interactive workshop, identify your behavioral tendencies and learn to recognize the behavioral patterns in others. Learn how you and others often unwittingly block efforts to move toward conflict resolution:

Take away an action plan and valuable handouts to improve your conflict resolution interventions.

Presenter Pamela V. Martin is a private Organizational Ombuds and a licensed Private Investigator specializing in labor and workplace issues. She has managed all aspects of a Human Resources Department for a legal non-profit entity, is nationally certified as a Professional in Human Resources. Ms. Martin also acts as a Small Claims Court mediator and coaches students in mediation training. She is the incoming editor of the National Association for Conflict Resolution/Workplace Section News and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of the International Ombuds Association.

Presenter Shari V. Swoish is a mediator, trainer and consultant to organizations on conflict assessment, performance management, and individual and team communications. She serves as a court-based mediator, conducts conciliation services for consumer/merchant cases, is a guest lecturer at UCLA, and is certified to train and interpret the DiSC behavioral assessment tool. Prior to founding her firm, Workforce Solutions Plus, Shari facilitated several hundred workplace conflict situations as a human resources practitioner at Fortune 500 organizations. Shari has Masters Degrees in Dispute Resolution from Pepperdine School of Law and in Public Administration from California State University at Northridge.

How do we maintain our own self-connection, self-compassion and clarity when mediating across differences? Is it possible to find creative solutions that address everyone's needs despite differences (cultural, racial, religious, gender, socioeconomic status, etc.)?
Can we speak in ways that build trust between people in the midst of our own judgments? These and other considerations will form the basis of this brief interactive workshop on mediating across differences with compassion. We'll use examples from your work.

Presenter Nancy Kahn is the Executive Director and founder of Mission Dignity, a youth-led Peer Education and College Resource Center in San Francisco's Mission District, and board chair of Honoring Emancipated Youth (HEY), formerly the San Francisco Foster Care Initiative. Her passion is bringing Nonviolent Communication (NVC) to diverse settings, to communities of color,
to youth and to under-represented groups. Nancy co-founded and is a staff trainer for the BayNVC Diversity Project, which offers NVC trainings to people in diverse communities who are working towards social change and peace, as well as contributing to greater diversity within the local NVC community.

Session 2A: Workplace Mediation: Conflict Resolution at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

Judy Gordon will describe her experience working as an ADR Advisor for FEMA last fall in Mississippi. As an “embedded” mediator, she worked with FEMA employees who respond to emergencies and who assist individuals and their communities through the recovery process. She will engage the audience in discussion of the benefits and complications of being “embedded” and in an exchange of ideas for best practices for conflict resolution in the workplace.

Presenter Judy Gordon, a mediator since 1987, handles a wide variety of disputes including employment, business and probate and estate matters. She specializes in workplace disputes and highly emotionally charged situations. She is an ADR Advisor for FEMA and is an adjunct faculty member at Golden Gate University where she teaches two graduate level classes in conflict resolution. She also serves as a consultant to businesses and organizations dealing with conflict management in the workplace. She presents workshops on effective communication, conflict resolution and customer service. Judy also served as Vice President of the ADRNC Board and Chair of the Program Committee.

Session 2B: Online Peacemaking: Resolving Disputes in the World’s Largest Marketplace

Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) is one of the fastest growing areas of the conflict resolution field. As people interact more and more online, it’s inevitable that they will experience more disputes. In this workshop you’ll learn how those disputes both resemble and differ from face-to-face disputes, and how dispute resolution is evolving to respond to online conflicts. eBay has more than 30 million disputes a year, all over the world, and is a great case study for learning what works and what doesn’t work online. More and more disputants will be coming to expect that some or all of their dispute resolution process will happen through technology. This session will give you a vision into how that might work.

Presenter Colin Rule is eBay and PayPal’s first Director of Online Dispute Resolution. Prior to joining eBay, Colin co-founded and led “Online Resolution”, one of the first ODR providers. Colin is the author of “Online Dispute Resolution for Business”, published by Jossey-Bass in September 2002, and he has contributed more than 40 articles to prestigious publications in the dispute resolution field. He holds a Master's degree in conflict resolution and technology from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, served as a fellow at Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society, and is currently Co-Chair of the Online Dispute Resolution Committee of the American Bar Association’s Dispute Resolution Section.

Learn how to address conflict resolution through body awareness, and manage mediation pressures with body-wisdom. This workshop will identify the common responses to conflict, and offers body-wisdom as a means of transforming conflict — from opposition to acceptance, inclusion, and collaboration. By working with a simple movement practice from the art of Aikido, workshop participants will, in just a few moments, notice predisposed responses to pressure in their bodies, and discover new alternatives that apply to arguments and disputes.

Presenter Jerry Green is a mediator, healthcare practice management consultant, somatic practitioner, and a student of Aikido. He maintained a general trial practice in San Francisco, specializing in personal injury litigation before studying anatomy and physiology at University of California. Jerry has specialized in medical malpractice and health care for over twenty years, including advising and representing diverse health care professionals regarding licensing and scope-of-practice matters. His self-awareness studies have enabled him to overcome many limitations of congenital cerebral palsy, and those remaining continue to inform his presence.