DRAWING ON FIRSTHAND EXPERIENCE AND SOUND RESEARCH
Faculty
BRDGES Academy values excellence. In order to ensure our students quality education and innovative courses using best practices, we reach across the globe to engage experienced and highly-qualified conflict resolution practitioners and mediators as our faculty.
Lynn H. Cole | President BRDGES Academy
FULLTIME MEDIATOR AND PROFESSIONAL IN INTERNATIONAL CONFLICT RESOLUTION
Ms. Cole is a former President and Chair of the Board Mediators Beyond Borders International and has been a force for mediation over the past several decades. In the early 1990s as Chair of the Civil Justice Reform Act Commission, she recommended to the Federal Judges in the Middle District of Florida use of mediation in their civil case management process. They accepted and became the first Federal District to do to. During that same time she worked with the (now called) Florida Supreme Court Dispute Resolution Center to setup the first state court related mediation program in the United States. She is a Mediation Specialist who has worked and lived in developing rule- of-law countries, Bulgaria, Jordan, Kosovo, and Sri Lanka. She is a full-time domestic and international mediator and mediation trainer who is Harvard-trained and mediation certified by the Florida Supreme Court and, internationally, by the International Mediation Institute (“IMI”) in The Hague.
Kenneth Cloke
COURSE FACULTY
Mr. Cloke is often described as one of the original pioneers of mediation. He is one of two founders of Mediators Beyond Borders, International and served as its first President and Chair of the Board. As Director of the Center for Dispute Resolution, Kenneth Cloke has served as a mediator, arbitrator, attorney, coach, consultant, and trainer. He specializes in resolving complex multi-party conflicts which include: community, grievance and workplace disputes, collective bar-gaining, negotiations, organizational and school conflicts, sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuits, and public policy disputes. Ken also provides services in designing conflict resolution systems for organizations. He is a nationally recognized speaker and best-selling author of many books and journal articles on mediation.
Dorit Cypis
COURSE FACULTY
Born in Tel Aviv, Isreal, Dorit Cypis, artist, educator, mediator, and social activator has long explored the question “Who are we to one another”. Her artwork across performance, photography, and immersive media installation has been presented at cultural sites internationally. Dorit has developed civic programs building social change including Kulture Klub Collaborative, artists and homeless youth bridging survival and inspiration, North East Youth Council, Latinx youth responding to local social justice needs, and PeoplesLab, building peoples’ capacity to transform conflict into possibility. Dorit has published texts and designed college curriculum since 1983. Among her many awards are the Guggenheim Fellowship and a Rauschenberg Foundation award in 2014. She earned post-graduate degrees from California Institute for the Arts and Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, Pepperdine University. Cypis was born in Israel, raised in Montreal, Canada, and lives in Los Angeles, CA.
Donald Mellman, M.D.
COURSE FACULTY
As a neurosurgeon who had a busy private medical neurosurgery practice for 26 years, Dr. Mellman now cares for the indigent and offers expert witness services for medical-legal issues. He is also a qualified arbitrator and a Florida Supreme Court certified circuit
Ursula Caser
A MEDIATION LEADER IN THE EU
Born in Oberstdorf, Germany, now living in Portugal, Ursula holds a European Master’s Degree in Mediation. For many years, she has been working as a trainer and coach in the EU. Ursula specializes in intercultural dimensions and communications. She has been leading intercultural awareness coaching programs in institutional, organizational and individual training sessions for the last many years.
Kathy Komaroff Goodman
COURSE FACULTY
Ms. Komaroff Goodman is an experienced mediator with a deep interest in the role that emotional and cultural intelligence plays in a mediator’s ability to address the underlying needs of the parties in working toward durable solutions. She has developed and delivered training in emotional intelligence to mediators at the New York Peace Institute. She also has co-developed and delivered the workshop “Mediation and the Mediator” to graduate students at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. Kathy is certified to administer the Emotional Intelligence Assessment (EQ-i 2.0) and the Neethling Brain Instrument (NBI) to individuals and groups. Kathy is a founding Principal at ACCORD, a collaborative of conflict management and resolution specialists serving individuals and businesses. She is a graduate of the Masters of Science program in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution from Columbia University.
Christine Straw
COURSE FACULTY
Christine Straw is a community mediator and facilitator with interests in the dynamics that keep conflicts stuck and the shifts needed to move toward sustainable and satisfying solutions for all parties. She has co-developed and delivered the workshop “Mediation and the Mediator” to graduate students at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. She is certified to administer the Emotional Intelligence Assessment (EQ-i 2.0) and has been trained in conflict coaching. Chris is a founding Principal at ACCORD, a collaborative of conflict management and resolution specialists serving individuals and businesses. She is a graduate of the Masters of Science program in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution from Columbia University and holds an MBA. She has worked at Columbia University’s Earth Institute with the Advanced Consortium for Cooperation, Conflict, and Complexity (AC4) supporting work on the practical application of complexity science to intractable conflict. Her focused work in conflict resolution follows 20+ years working as project/program manager in government, non-profit and private organizations.
Mary Jo Harwood, MSW, LSW
SOLE PROPRIETOR OF RESILIENCE RESOURCE, LLC.
Ms. Harwood is a community mediator as well as trauma and conflict management specialist with over 30 years of experience in working with trauma and building conflict-competent communities. She is the owner of Resilience Resource, LLC.
Prabha Sankaranarayan
PRESIDENT AND CEO OF MEDIATORS BEYOND BORDERS (MBB)
Ms. Sankaranarayan is a Conflict Management Consultant with over 27 years of experience in NGO management and program development. She is actively involved in regional, national, and international civic activities focused on civil liberties, sexual violence prevention, conflict mitigation, and mediation, as well as the recovery and rehabilitation of trauma survivors. She also is the CEO and President of Mediators Beyond Borders, International (MBB).
Rachel Wohl
COURSE FACULTY
Rachel Wohl, Esq. is an attorney, mediator, facilitator, and meditation teacher, co-creating an awareness tool called “Taking STOCK” to help dispute resolvers and others to continually integrate mindfulness into their work and lives. Ms. Wohl has been teaching Mindfulness to Dispute Resolvers: Judges, Lawyers, Mediators, Arbitrators and Managers, twice a year for the past 12 years, in a 2.5-day format, at Pepperdine University Law School’s Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution. She recently co-authored an article, with Professor Leonard Riskin, called “Mindfulness in the Heat of Conflict: Taking STOCK” and published in the Harvard Negotiation Law Review Vol. 20-121.
Ashok Panikkar
COURSE FACULTY
Ashok Panikkar (www.ashokpanikkar.com), founder of Meta-Culture (https://ashokpanikkar.com/meta-culture/), and CitizenDEMOS, is a mediator, writer and teacher who has worked extensively in the US, South Asia, Europe and parts of the MENA region. Having spent three decades in communication, conflict resolution, critical thinking and designing for healthy, pluralistic communities, he is, today, dedicated to strengthening the values and culture of democratic societies. He writes a blog on Democracy called: Rights, Slights and Free Lunches: Notes from the edges of Democracy. Click on www.ashokpanikkar.com.
Aleksandra Weber, MD, PhD
COURSE FACULTY
As a medical doctor, Dr. Weber has been negotiating and bridging diversity across healthcare sectors and beyond during the past 30 years of her professional career. She has been involved in mediation for almost 15 years and has served a board member of the EUCON – European Institute for Conflict Management and Business Mediation – for over several years. She was an initiator of the ADR, Mediation and Negotiation Group for Healthcare and Life Sciences in Germany and published a book on mediation for healthcare in 2011. Dr. Weber, currently based in Germany near Munich, is a practicing psychiatrist and psychotherapist. She also works as a mediator and a consultant. www.mediation-weber.net
Anne-Karin Grill
COURSE FACULTY
Anne-Karin specializes in alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and has an excellent track-record in successfully resolving both commercial and investor-state disputes. In addition to her advocacy work, Anne-Karin serves as (sole) arbitrator and acts as CEDR accredited mediator in domestic and international disputes. Anne-Karin is a member of the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), a member of the Board of the Austrian Arbitration Association (Arb|Aut), and she also serves on the Mediation Advisory Board of the Vienna International Arbitral Centre (VIAC). Upon the nomination of the Republic of Austria, Anne-Karin was appointed to the Panel of Conciliators of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
Anne-Karin has received much acclaim for her work as dispute resolution partner at a leading CEE law firm and later at a prominent Austrian entity. Since 2020, her vision of modern dispute resolution services supports her own legal advisory business: AKG ADVISORY is an international ADR-focused boutique based in the heart of Europe with a truly global outlook and corporate client-base. AKG ADVISORY
Joseph Matthews
COURSE FACULTY
A trial and appellate advocate for more than 42 years, Attorney Joe Matthews is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Miami, School of Law where he was an Editor of the Law Review. He is a Fellow and Past-President of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates, a member of the American Law Institute and an Honorary Bencher of the Inn of Court of Northern Ireland. He is also a Chartered Arbitrator and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and a Fellow of the College of Commercial Arbitrators and a Florida Certified Circuit Civil Mediator and Certified Mediator by the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR).
Judge Kenneth (Ken) L. Fields
COURSE FACULTY
Judge Kenneth (Ken) L. Fields is a retired Judge of the Superior Court of Arizona in Maricopa County, Phoenix, Arizona. He presided over civil, juvenile, criminal, probate, special assignment and family court calendars. From February 1993 through June 1995, he served as the Presiding Judge of the Domestic Relations Department (Family Court), Superior Court of Arizona, in Maricopa County. He is the presiding commissioner for a 5-person arbitration commission deciding disputes between the Navajo Nation and the Hopi Tribe (both Native American Indian tribes). In addition to civilian courts, Judge Fields was a Military Trial Judge for the Arizona National Guard presiding over Courts-Martials until September 15, 2015. Judge Fields has conducted doing online mediations and arbitrations using zoom since 2019 as well as providing training to judges and lawyers relating to online dispute resolution.
Claudia Caluori
COURSE FACULTY
Claudia Caluori is qualified lawyer and mediator who is IMI certified. She has practiced law at the international level since 2010, focusing on international business development and trade. She has assisted companies in Europe and the Middle East in forming partnerships. From Lebanon, she currently lives in Italy and dedicated to the management and resolution of conflicts. She was trained as a mediator in Italy, France, and Lebanon. She has served as a mediator in over 500 hearings involving either Business to Business (“B2B”), Business to Consumers (“B2C”)and telecommunication disputes. She is also a Rotary Peace Fellow Alumna of the Peace Center at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand (class 27, 2019). Claudia is fluent in three languages, Italian, English, and French.
Mark B. Baer, Esq.
COURSE FACULTY
Mark B. Baer works as a mediator, conflict resolution consultant, and non-litigating family law attorney in Pasadena, California. He is a prolific writer of articles and contributions to several books.. His writings on bias, conflict resolution, and emotional intelligence have been published in several popular publications. Bias — its causes, its impact and what can be done to reduce and keep it in check — has been a central theme running through his work.
Sharon Morrissey
COURSE FACULTY
Sharon Morrissey is an accredited mediator with the Mediation Institute of Ireland and primarily specialises in Family Mediation supporting separating families and children to support the best possible outcomes for all family members during relationship breakdown. Sharon also supports parties mediate through conflict within the workplace. Sharon lectures in two private colleges, in Understanding Conflict, being aware as practitioners of our triggers and biases, Self-awareness and Reflection, Advance Mediation Theory and Practice, and Principles of Mediation Theory.
Sharon holds a Master of Arts in Conflict Management, one of three people to hold this Masters in 2017. Sharon also holds a Post Graduate Certificate in Mediation and Conflict Resolution along with a Primary Degree in Applied Social Care. She is the author of the That’s Not My Ending, a children’s book that supports children and parents to the effects that children experience during the family relationship breakdown context.
Sharon is a member of the Ireland Cultural Ambassador Project.
Hana Nasser
COURSE FACULTY
Hana Nasser is a mediator, trainer, coach and healer with a mission to bring people from different cultures and backgrounds together to accept each other and work holistically on lasting and fair peace, economic and political empowerment as well as sustainable development. She has led numerous projects in the field of human rights, conflict prevention and management, journalism and economic and political empowerment of women, youth and refugees in sensitive areas of the Middle East. She holds different degrees and masters in translation, mediation, MBA, train the trainer, healing and coaching. Her focused work in mediation and conflict management follows 25+ years working as coordinator, director and project/program manager in government, non-profit and private organizations.
Hana is a member of the Ireland Cultural Ambassador Project.
Assessors
In today’s multi-cultured world, it is imperative that all practitioners of conflict resolution have an intelligible understanding of others’ cultural nuances and behaviors – flexibility, humility, openness to differences, and effective adaptation strategies can make the mediation table a place where different cultures can meet to create a new culture conducive to building accord and amity.
The BRDGES Academy Assessor has a special role at BRDGES Academy. They view and judge online mediation simulations and make written evaluations of the mediator’s role-play required for the IMI General or Intercultural Certification. All of BRDGE’s Academy Assessors are committed to transparency and educational best practices. Assessors take part in initial start up training at BRDGES to understand their duties and responsibilities and how to make the best us of e-learning techniques.
Maureen Inglis
Maureen Inglis is a mediator from from Australia. She is an IMI certified mediator and holds the additional certification with IMI as internationally certified. She is a recipient of the BRDGES Intercultural Certificate. she has a strong interest in intercultural situations and peace building. Her vast mediation experience includes workplace, civil court, not-for-profit and community organizations. As a member of Mediators Beyond Borders International, Maureen has recently worked in Sierra Leone on a project “Building Unity for Peaceful Elections”.
Advisory Board
We are recruiting an elite Advisory Board to ensure that we are working for you using all best educational practices. These leading men and women in mediation and education will meet with us periodically to review our evaluation standards for each course and for the Final Mediation Role-play required for the IMI General and BRDGES Inter-cultural Certifications.
Dr. Maling Ebrahimpour
Dr. Ebrahimpour is the immediate past Dean of the USF St. Petersburg College of Business. He currently serves Dean of the College of Business, University of Rhode Island.
Srdan Šimac, Ph.D.
Srdan Šimac, Ph.D. is a judge and former President of the High Commercial Court of the Republic of Croatia, and chair of its Mediation Service. He is mediation pioneer in Croatia and among the world founders of court-annexed mediation.
Support Team
We will work hard to make your participation in our classes as easy as possible. We work hard to schedule courses in such a way as to include as many participants from around the world as possible. Sometimes that isn’t always possible to include everyone and if you have a question or suggestion, just contact us. We will work on scheduling special classes in a region for 8 or more participants. We want you to fully enjoy this unique experience!
Eileen Petzold-Bradley
Educational Development and Outreach Director
Eileen Petzold-Bradley is a Learning and Development Consultant, Certified Coach, and Conflict Resolution Practitioner. Eileen has many years of experience in career and conflict coaching, environmental security and policy advising, educational empowerment, outreach, and training. Eileen holds a Master’s Degree in Urban & Environmental Planning from the University of Virginia and a dual Bachelor of Arts degree in International Studies & Spanish from George Mason University. Eileen is a Ph.D. Candidate at Nova Southeastern University‘s Department of Conflict Resolution Studies and served as a Graduate Teaching Assistant for senior faculty for three years. Her doctoral research will examine the Future of ADR Education and those Successful ADR Entrepreneurs across Cultures. Eileen writes articles, blogs, and regularly speaks at conferences and events. She is a 2021-2022 Dispute Resolution Fellow on the ADR Practice Management, Business, and Skills Development Committee, American Bar Association, and is an Associate Member of the International Council for Online Dispute Resolution (ICODR).