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Officers & Directors OfficersElizabeth J. Vastine - President Elizabeth has trained and practiced in the field of conflict resolution since 1994. Her mediation experience includes community, divorce settlement, custody, juvenile victim-offender and family issues. While practicing family law, Elizabeth dedicated much of her time to divorce and custody mediation. Additionally, Elizabeth’s domestic violence caseload provided the experience and motivation to teach conflict resolution skills to domestic violence survivors. She has developed curriculum and trained Basic Mediation, Peer Mediation, Conflict Resolution, Victim-Offender Mediation, Restorative Community Justice or Balanced & Restorative Justice Peacemaking Practices and Advanced Restorative Practices. Elizabeth has trained in a variety of settings including volunteer and community organizations, schools, universities, law enforcement, treatment facilities, and the juvenile justice system. Elizabeth is active in the conflict resolution community through her service and participation on boards, as a trainer, and a frequent speaker at national and international conferences. She is also an adjunct professor at DePaul University School for New Learning. Her memberships include the Association for Conflict Resolution, Chicago-Area Chapter, Mediation Council of Illinois, Wisconsin Association of Mediators, Victim Offender Mediation Association and the Chicago Bar Association. In 2007, Elizabeth joined the firm of Stone & Loevy after serving for more than four years as the Executive Director of the Neighborhood Restorative Justice Institute, Inc. in Chicago, Illinois, which developed, managed, and supervised the Cook County Victim Offender Conferencing Project and various other court alternative programs throughout Cook County, Illinois. Elizabeth received her law degree from Dickinson School of Law, Carlisle, Pennsylvania and her B.A. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts. Mary Ellen LaCien - President-Elect Mary Ellen LaCien is a mediator and trainer. She has worked in the labor and employment field for 20 years of which 12 have been involved in ADR. Since 2004 she has had her own mediation and training practice which focuses on labor and employment issues. She also conducts peer mediation training in elementary and secondary schools and teaches at the undergraduate level. She was a Federal Mediator with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service for 9 years prior to starting her own practice. Mary Thompson - Secretary Ms. Thompson has over 25 years of consulting and management experience. In 1998, she founded Atkinson Management Resources, which provides consulting, training and facilitation services to corporations, non-profit organizations and professional associations. For the past five years, Ms. Thompson has expanded her professional services capabilities to include alternative dispute resolutions services. Michael D. Pakter- Treasurer Michael Pakter is a Certified Public Accountant and holds additional certifications as a Fraud Examiner, and Insolvency and Restructuring Advisor. He is a managing member of Gould & Pakter Associates, LLC, and focuses his professional practice on financial analysis, forensic accounting, financial investigations and fraud audits. He has experience in calculating lost profits, business interruption losses, other financial and economic damage analyses, investigations and reconstruction of falsified or incomplete financial information. Elizabeth Simon - Immediate Past-President Elizabeth Simon has a private mediation and arbitration practice, specializing in employment, commercial and healthcare matters. A labor and employment lawyer for over 20 years, Elizabeth has a broad-based background working with clients in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors. Elizabeth has trained and practiced in the field of conflict resolution, since 1999, working as a mediator, arbitrator and trainer, and designing conflict management systems for businesses and federal agencies. She serves on mediation and arbitration panels for the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the Federal Executive Board, FINRA, and the Better Business Bureau. She is a mediator and trainer for the Center for Conflict Resolution, and a member of their Peer Review Committee, which certifies CCR’s volunteer mediators. She also teaches dispute resolution at John Marshall Law School. Elizabeth received her law degree from Loyola University School of Law and her undergraduate degree from Vassar College. Board of DirectorsHolly Campbell Holly Campbell is a staff member with Diversity, Inc., where she works with clients in implementing diversity strategies and techniques and applying her grassroots organizing experience. Prior to joining Diversity, Inc., Holly worked at the Newberry Library with the Chicago Metro History Education Center, where she served as the spokesperson to 17,000 Chicago Public School students advocating and promoting local history. Michael Cohen, MS Michael Cohen is a consultant and trainer in areas related to leadership practices, conflict management, organization diagnosis, change management, team development and organization development. Prior to his consulting career, he was Vice President, Human Resource Development at the Quaker Oats Company and also worked at the
Gillette Corporation. Mike is currently on the Executive Education faculty at Loyola University Chicago and Northwestern University and has taught at DePaul University. He is a mediator and past board member at the Center for Conflict Resolution and currently serves on the board at the Chicago Chapter of the Association for Conflict Resolution. Mike is also a former board member of the Midwest Human Resource Planning Society. He has completed the Advanced Organization Development Program at Columbia University (NY) as well as the Organization Development Program sponsored by National Training Labs (NTL). Mike is a graduate of the University of Illinois where he received both his undergraduate and graduate degrees. Gino L. DiVito Gino L. DiVito served as a judge for more than 20 years, 8 as a justice of the Illinois Appellate Court and 12 as a judge of the circuit court of Cook County. Before that, he was a Cook County assistant state’s attorney for 13 years, trying hundreds of felony cases and serving for the last three of those years as the chief of the criminal division, supervising more than 330 attorneys. After his retirement from the appellate court in 1997, Gino became a partner in a Chicago law firm and, in March 2001, he co-founded the Chicago law firm of Tabet DiVito & Rothstein LLC, where he litigates civil cases at the trial and appellate levels. He is also a principal in Judicial Dispute Resolution, Inc. (JDR), an alternative dispute resolution firm for which he conducts mediations and arbitrations. He has been an adjunct professor at Loyola University of Chicago School of Law, where he teaches advanced trial advocacy, since 1979. Since 1982, he also has taught an annual week-long course in trial advocacy at Willamette University College of Law in Salem, Oregon. He has served as the president of the Illinois Judges Association (1993-94), the president of the Appellate Lawyers Association (2002-03), the president of the Markey/Wigmore Inn of Court (1992-93), and the chairman of the Illinois chapter of the American Judicature Society (1999-2002). He has served on the boards of the Chicago Bar Foundation, the Chicago Bar Association, the Illinois State Bar Association, the Lawyers Assistance Program, and the John Howard Association. Hon. Allen S. Goldberg Karen Lambert Karen Lambert has been a manager, and is currently a Restorative Justice Specialist, in the Restorative Justice Program at Alternatives, Inc., a community-based social service agency. In that capacity, she works with administration and students at 43 Chicago Public School high schools to develop and implement Alternative’s award-winning peer jury model and other school-based restorative justice practices. She developed and runs the Peer Jury Ambassador Program, which creates opportunities for Chicago Public School students to learn from Chicago area legal professionals and develop confidence, self-esteem, and professional skills. Karen is a nationally certified Trainer in Restorative Justice, having been certified by the National Institute of Corrections and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. She is certified as a mediator by the Harvard Law School Mediation Program and the Chicago Center for Conflict Resolution and recently taught Mediation and Restorative Practices as an adjunct professor at Governor’s State University. Karen has been a frequent guest lecturer on juvenile restorative practices throughout the State of Illinois for groups such as the Chicago Bar Association, Chicago Kent Law School students, Chicago State University Masters candidates, DePaul Law School students, members of the Chicago Center for Conflict Resolution, and the International Institute of Restorative Practices Annual Conference. Kent Lawrence Kent Lawrence, a Chicago attorney and partner in the law firm of Lawrence, Kamin, Saunders & Uhlenhop, has been in the private practice of law for over thirty years. During his career he has, in particular and over an extended period of time, had a great deal of experience dealing with construction and securities matters. He has also, however, represented clients in a number of other fields, both in the resolution of disputes - through litigation, arbitration, and negotiation - and documentation of their transactions or arrangements. These clients have ranged from individuals (estate and tax planning, return preparation, probate and investments as well as dispute resolution) to businesses, large and small. Areas of business have varied and included, for example, binding, computer systems, construction, cosmetics, CD development, coin operated laundry machines, personal services, real estate, and securities and commodities. Mr. Lawrence has been active in the Alternative Dispute Resolution field for over 25 years and he has been appointed an arbitrator in about 60 cases. In more than 40 of those cases he participated in rendering awards. Those disputes were heard under the auspices of the American Arbitration Association (since 1974), National Association of Securities Dealers, Dispute Resolution (since 1977), National Futures Association (since 1986), and Chicago Board Options Exchange (since 1975) involving securities and commodities, construction and general commercial subject matter. He has also represented clients in arbitrated disputes and mediated over 90 securities (commodity, option, etc.), employment (discrimination, harassment, termination, etc.), divorce fee and business disputes usually under the auspices of the NASD, NFA, AAA, New York Stock Exchange or Center for Conflict Resolution. Mr. Lawrence taught "Commercial Arbitration" at Northwestern University School of Law as an Adjunct Professor for 11 years (1982-93). Mr. Lawrence is currently President of a small (14 unit)
Homeowners Association, and has served as President, Treasurer
and Director of a large (120 unit) Condominium Association.
He also is the President of a large private grant making foundation,
and has served as a Director of it for over 20 years. Corinne M. (Cookie) Levitz Cookie has been involved in the mediation field since 1978.
She has been a mediator of child custody and visitation disputes
for the Marriage and Family Counseling Service, Office of
the Chief Judge, Circuit Court of Cook County in Chicago,
since September of 1991. Since 1971, Cookie has served as
an adjunct faculty member and taught mediation at a number
of area schools, including DePaul University College of Law,
Chicago-Kent College of Law and University of Chicago's School
of General Studies. Cookie has had a strong continuing involvement
in the Center for Conflict Resolution in Chicago since 1978.
She serves as member of the Board of Directors, a mediation
and conflict resolution trainer and consultant, and a volunteer
mediator for this not-for-profit organization that mediates
a wide variety of disputes. Since November 1998, Cookie has
been a mediator for the U.S. Postal Service. She has conducted
workshops and presentations on mediation and dispute resolution
at numerous conferences, including the Academy of Family Mediators,
the Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution, the Wisconsin
Association of Mediators, the American Bar Association, the
Illinois State Bar Association, the Chicago Bar Association
and the International/North American Conference on Peacemaking
and Conflict Resolution. Cookie is a member of the Board of
Directors of the Mediation Council of Illinois and also served
as an Attorney-Administrator for the Illinois Supreme Court
Alternative Dispute Resolution Coordinating Committee. She
received her law degree from DePaul University College of
Law and her undergraduate degree from Carleton College in
Northfield, Minnesota. She is licensed to practice law in
Illinois. Mark Mayer Mark Mayer works in dispute resolution as a litigator, mediator and arbitrator. As a litigator, he handles a wide variety of matters in personal injury, commercial and other areas. Having trained and certified as a mediator at Northwestern University and the Center for Conflict Resolution, he mediates with private parties and at the Center for Conflict Resolution (where he also co-chairs the Volunteer Network Group). He is on the roster for the Cook County Law Division Court-Annexed Civil Mediation program, Resolute Systems and VirtualCourthouse.com. He serves on Cook County Mandatory Arbitration panels and arbitrates for insurance companies and private parties. He received his J.D. from IIT/Chicago-Kent College of Law and B.A. (Magna Cum Laude) from Loyola University (Chicago). Roy Maddock Roy Maddock is a Bilingual Mediation Services Manager at Center for Conflict Resolution where he regularly mediates cases in both English and Spanish and is an active member of the Diversity Committee. He has trained Peer Mediation to elementary and high school students since 2003 as well as trained Restorative Justice Practices and Consensus Building Processes at schools, housing cooperatives and direct service organizations. Roy is a member of the Illinois Balanced and Restorative Justice Initiative and a former board member of Centro Romero and Stone Soup Cooperative.
Stephanie Senuta Stephanie Senuta has been involved in the conflict resolution community since 2000. She is a mediator and mediation skills trainer for the Center for Conflict Resolution (CCR), a Chicago-based community mediation center. Stephanie worked for CCR for more than five years in the roles of Case Manager, Director of Mediation Services, and Director of Volunteer Development, and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Chicago Chapter of the Association for Conflict Resolution. She has mediated over 200 cases and coached hundreds of trainees in mediation and conflict resolution. Stephanie works as a consultant for the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning, a national not for profit organization dedicated to increasing access to education for working adults through the creation and management of effective learning strategies. Stephanie received a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Spanish from Marquette University and a Master of Science in Human Resources, with a specialization in Organization Development, from Loyola University Chicago. Past Presidents CouncilLorna Lucken Steuer Lorna Lucken Steuer joined the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2001 as a Mediator in the Chicago District Office. In 2006 she was recognized as one of the top mediators in the EEOC nationwide and received a gold medal for that achievement. Prior to joining the EEOC, Ms. Steuer had a neutral practice in which she served as a mediator, arbitrator and consultant for various governmental agencies, organizations and small businesses including the EEOC, Chicago District Office, the Illinois Department of Human Rights, the Circuit Court of Cook County, the Center for Conflict Resolution, the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), and the Better Business Bureau for Chicago and Northern Illinois. To date, Ms. Steuer has conducted over 600 mediations as well as numerous arbitrations and undergone and given over 400 hours of training and coaching in mediation techniques, dispute resolution design and arbitration. Prior to developing her neutral practice, Ms. Steuer worked in the private sector at small and large law firms as well as in the public sector at the Circuit Court of Cook County. Danielle Loevy As a co-founder of Stone and Loevy, LLC, Danielle mediates disputes, facilitates group problem solving, designs and conducts organizational trainings, and consults on issues related to conflict. Danielle’s broad professional background in law, mediation, training, and diversity facilitation uniquely qualify her to assist clients in productively addressing conflict. Danielle is the current President of the Association for Conflict Resolution Chicago-area Chapter (ACR Chicago). From 2003 until 2005, she served as Vice-President of the Mediation Council of Illinois (MCI). In 2004, Danielle was awarded the honor of “Trainer of the Year” by the Center for Conflict Resolution in Chicago, an organization in which she remains actively involved as a mediator, lecturer, and trainer. Danielle also works with The Kaleidoscope Group, where she serves as a diversity facilitator and is currently the Director of the Legal Practice, bringing the diversity journey to law firms and legal organizations. As a lawyer, Danielle practiced in the areas of employment law, domestic relations, and civil rights, and participated as trial counsel for several trials which have resulted in multi-million dollar jury verdicts. Danielle received her undergraduate degree in Telecommunications with honors from Indiana University (BA, 1992) and her law degree with honors from Chicago-Kent College of Law in 1995. In 1999, she received her certificate in Mediation Training from the Center for Conflict Resolution, and in 2001 was awarded a certificate after completing the Divorce and Custody Mediation Training Workshop by the Mediation Skills & Consultation Institute. Faustin (Frosty) A. Pipal, Jr. Mr. Pipal is a litigator, and alternative dispute resolution expert, with 24 years of experience. As a litigator, he represents both plaintiffs and defendants in employment, sexual harassment, products liability, personal injury, and insurance cases. Since 1993 he has mediated numerous cases involving business disputes, employment law, and tort cases, and over 90% of these cases settled. He has served as faculty in seminars on employment mediation, a.d.r. systems, mandatory arbitration, products liability and disaster relief legal services. He has taught alternative dispute resolution to judges and specially selected attorneys in Lake and McHenry County, Illinois. In 2001, Mr. Pipal served on the Chicago Bar Association/Cook County Circuit Court Special Committee on Mediation. He now serves on a Special Cook County Law Division Committee which is implementing a court-approved Mediation Program. He has written extensively, including an article on civil procedure used by the Administrative Office of the Illinois Supreme Court in the training of new judges. He currently serves as both an arbitrator and mediator for Mediation and Arbitration Professionals (MAP) and Resolute, Inc. He is President-Elect of the Chicago Chapter of the nation’s leading alternative dispute resolution group: the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR) (formerly “SPIDR”). Mr. Pipal was a founding board member and officer of the Coordinated Advice and Referral Program for (Pro Bono) Legal Services (CARPLS), and is actively engaged in the National Center for the Laity as its Vice President. He is also a past member of the following Boards: the Board of Directors of the Center for Conflict Resolution, the Board of Managers of the Chicago Bar Association, and the Board of Directors of Chicago Bar Foundation, among others. Education: Northwestern University, Bachelor and Masters Degrees in Communication Studies, School of Speech, 1977; Northwestern University, Juris Doctor, School of Law, 1980; Basic ADR Training, United States Arbitration and Mediation, 1993; Advanced ADR Training, USA&M, 1997. William Clark As Assistant Director of Dispute Resolution for the Better
Business Bureau of Chicago, William Clark is involved in the
administration of local and national programs and services
involving the resolution of consumer/business disputes through
mediation and arbitration. He also assists companies in the
development of conflict resolution processes. Additionally,
he is an arbitration panel member of the National Futures
Association and is a mediator for the U.S. Postal Services
REDRESS Program. His past experience also includes mediating
adoption, guardianship and other disputes involving family
issues. Since 1993, he has served as an advisor to the YMCA's
Local Economic and Employment Council Entrepreneurship Development
Program. He has been a guest speaker for the U.S. Internal
Revenue Service Small Business Tax Workshop and has served
on the judging panel of the American Bar Association's Regional
Law School Negotiation Competition. Bill has served for many
years as a mediator for the Center for Conflict Resolution
concentrating in employment cases. He also has 13 years of
corporate business experience, prior to his involvement in
the area of ADR. John W. (Jack) Cooley John W. (Jack) Cooley is a former U.S. Magistrate in Chicago.
He is a founding member of Judicial Dispute Resolution, Inc.
(JDR) in Chicago, an Adjunct Professor of Law at Northwestern
University School of Law, where he teaches a course in negotiation
and mediation. He is a past Secretary of the International
Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution (now called
the Association for Conflict Resolution). His practice includes
service as an arbitrator and mediator of complex commercial
and insurance disputes, and employment, construction, and
international disputes; as a trainer in dispute resolution;
and as a consultant in dispute resolution system design. He
is the author of four ADR publications of the National Institute
for Trial Advocacy: Mediation Advocacy (1996)(2d Edition scheduled
for release in the Spring, 2002); Arbitration Advocacy (co-author
with Prof. Steven Lubet, 1997) (published in both English
and Portuguese); The Arbitrator's Handbook (1998); The Mediator's
Handbook (2000). He is also the principal designer of the
first cybercourse on Mediation Advocacy, which is currently
being offered by the American Bar Associaiton. He is a graduate
of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and the University
of Notre Dame Law School, receiving a year of his legal training
at the School's Centre for Legal Studies in London, England.
He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in
London, of he International Academy of Mediators, and of the
American Bar Foundation. Lynn A. Gaffigan Lynn Gaffigan has been a communications
trainer and a practicing attorney. She now works exclusively
as a mediator and facilitator, focusing primarily on employment,
community and family issues. Her practice includes discrimination,
harassment and wrongful termination claims, as well as employer/employee
relationship and teamwork issues, divorce, guardianship and
family business disputes. Lynn serves on the mediator panel
of Judicial Dispute Resolution, Inc. and is a volunteer mediator,
mediation trainer and peer reviewer for the Center for Conflict
Resolution in Chicago, as well as a member of its Adult Care
Mediation Program Advisory Panel. She is Co-Chair of the Chicago
Bar Association Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee,
a Director of the Mediation Council of Illinois and a former
faculty member of the Negotiation and Mediation Program of
the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA). She is also
a Practitioner Member of the Academy of Family Mediators.
Lynn began her legal career at King & Spalding in Atlanta.
Prior to practicing law, she was a communications and training
consultant to financial institutions throughout the United
States. Thomas Gibbons Thomas F. Gibbons is the dean of Northwestern University's School of Continuing Studies, and a senior lecturer with Northwestern's
School of Law. Tom, who is a mediator and arbitrator with
expertise in labor, employment and commercial issues, sits
on ADR panels for the American Arbitration Association, the
Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the Illinois Labor
Department and the Archdiocese of Chicago's Office of Conciliation.
He is also a mediator for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission and the U.S. Postal Service. Additionally, Tom
is the former executive director of DePaul College of Law's
Center for Dispute Resolution, where he also served as a lecturer
and taught courses in mediation, labor and commercial arbitration,
and collective bargaining. Tom has also conducted hundreds
of hours of ADR training for lawyers, judges, union and business
leaders, and other professionals. A graduate of Yale Law School
and DePaul University College of Law, Tom previously practiced
employment and labor law with a Chicago law firm. He is also
the co-chair of the Chicago Bar Association's Alternative
Dispute Resolution Committee. Robert W. (Rocky) Perkovich Robert Perkovich, a member of the National Academy of Arbitrators, has been an arbitrator and mediator of labor and employment disputes since 1987. He is member of the labor arbitration panels of the American Arbitration Association and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and serves on the permanent arbitration panels for various unions and employers including the Chicago Transit Authority, Pace Suburban Bus Lines, American Eagle Airlines, the State of Illinois and others. As a mediator he has served for the Center for Employment Dispute Resolution, the Center for Conflict Resolution (of which he is a member of the Board of Directors), the Indiana Education Employment Relations Board, and United Airlines as well as an appointed mediator by disputants. In so doing he has mediated collective bargaining negotiations and employment discrimination disputes. Mr. Perkovich has also served as a trainer and facilitator of interest based bargaining in a number of disputes. Mr. Perkovich is also a Visiting Professor of Conflict Management
Studies at the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business of DePaul
University where he teaches negotiation skills and conflict
resolution skills, as well as human resource management, employment
law, collective bargaining and business law. His publications
on arbitration and mediation have appeared in the Temple University
Journal of Comparative and International Law, the Hofstra
Labor Law Journal, the Stetson law Journal, and the Willamette
University Law Journal. His current research includes women's
rights in Cuba and the conflict handling predispositions of
mediators when involved in personal disputes. Anita M. Rowe Anita M. Rowe, a labor and employment attorney, now works exclusively as a mediator and arbitrator, primarily in the area of labor and employment disputes. She has served on two national mediation panels, the Merrill Lynch Claims Resolution Process,and the Smith Barney Dispute Resolution Program, both for class action employment discrimination claims in the financial services industry. She currently serves as a mediator for the Mediation Research and Education Project, Inc., the Cook County Law Division Mediation Program, and the Center for Conflict Resolution in Chicago, where she is also a volunteer mediation trainer, a member of the peer review committee, and a Board member. Since 1995, she has mediated employment discrimination and harassment disputes at several government agencies including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Postal Service, the Illinois Human Rights Commission and the Illinois Department of Human Rights. Ms. Rowe serves as an arbitrator on the following rosters:
the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the U.S. Postal Service/National
Association of Letter Carriers Great Lakes Expedited Arbitration
Panel, the Chicago Transit Authority and Amalgamated Transit Union panel, NASD Dispute Resolution, Inc.(for both employment and
securities cases), the Cook County Mandatory Arbitration Program
and the Better Business Bureau. A 1984 graduate of Georgetown
University Law Center, Ms. Rowe is also a member of the American
Bar Association, the Illinois Bar Association, and the Chicago
Bar Association.
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