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Trail Blazer, Conflict Resolution Pioneer, Best-Selling Author and Attorney Mediator, Louise Phipps Senft has been transforming the lives of thousands experiencing conflict or unasked for dif-ficult circumstances. She founded the Baltimore Mediation Center in 1993 (now Senft and Associ-ates/Baltimore Mediation), the first mediation and training firm in the United States with a focus on relational approaches to negotiation and conflict resolution. She is the author of the best-seller Be-ing Relational: the Seven Ways to Quality Interac-tion & Lasting Change (2015).
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Beverly Hovmand has fourteen years of experience as a mediator with a focus on workplace, family, and eldercare mediation, the last twelve as an associate member of Baltimore Mediation. She also acts as a co-trainer with Louise Phipps Senft for Baltimore Mediation’s annual trainings including: Basic Mediation Skills, Mediation for Custody and Parenting Plans and Mediation for Workplace Issues.For the past twelve years Ms. Hovmand has been a mediator for the Baltimore City Circuit Court. Beverly helped design and is
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Sharon focuses on providing mediation services relevant to the challenges of human resource management and was employed by the State of Maryland in the area of human resources for over 36 years — in both the Executive and Judicial branches.She says, “As a senior executive human resources professional, I (along with my team) was frequently the first responder to workplace conflicts. It has been my professional philosophy that because interrelationships between individuals and work units within the workplace often remain
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Dusty joined Baltimore Mediation in 2009, after many years in which Baltimore Mediation provided training for 32 community centers which he helped found, namely the Community Mediation Centers of Calvert and St. Mary’s County, Maryland. He is past president of the Board of Directors of the Community Mediation Center of St. Mary’s County. He has mediation experience with hundreds of cases involving family, community, District and Circuit Court, discrimination and foster care cases. He is a member of the Maryland
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I am an associate on the Baltimore Mediation team, trained and certified in general mediation and family and domestic mediation. By background, I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker practicing in the field of mental health for over 30 years, having graduated from SUNY Stony Brook, School of Social Work, in 1990. I have advanced training in family therapy and, as a certified mediator using a transformative framework, my approach, like all of us on the Baltimore Mediation team, is to
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Barry Evans has 25 years of experience as a mediator, beginning his affiliation with Baltimore Mediation when Louise partnered with The Sheppard Pratt Health System and the Baltimore City Circuit Court to create the first family mediation program of its kind in the state. Barry created, with another Baltimore Mediation Team Mediator, Beverly Hovmand, the first pre-mediation orientation for never married parents in the country, called SHAPE. SHAPE was emulated by many court systems across the US.
Barry is also an
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Bill Senft, CPA and attorney, specializes in the mediation of business contract, partnership and workplace disputes including those giving rise to EEO complaints. He has served private, governmental and non-profit employers providing a neutral and confidential process for working through the difficult conflicts that arise in workplace relationships. Bill also provides mediation for corporations, partnerships, foundations and family businesses including financial planning, management and corporate control issues, business succession planning and other disputes in the family and business context –
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Judge Ronald A. Karasic (Ret.) joined Baltimore Mediation in 2013 following his retirement from the District Court of Maryland for Baltimore City. Throughout his law career, Judge Karasic used mediation as a practical forum for resolving conflict. He has extensive experience in workplace conflict including EEO, discrimination and employment claims, personnel matters related to discipline, hiring and promotions, and labor negotiations.Judge Karasic handled civil and criminal matters for nearly twelve years on the bench, where he presided over thousands of
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Vicki joined Baltimore Mediation in 2009, after years of working together with her husband, Dusty Rhoades, founding and providing mediation and facilitation services for community mediation centers in Calvert and St. Mary’s Counties. Vicki and Dusty have been partners in life for over 40 years and co-mediators in the transformative framework since 2001. Vicki specializes in mediation cases around family and community issues, She is a member of the Maryland Program for Mediator Excellence and the Association for Conflict Resolution.
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Andrew Fontanella is a mediator and attorney who practices in the Greater Baltimore and Washington DC Metropolitan area. His practice focuses on family law and consumer bankruptcy. Since 2009, Andrew has enhanced his practice by offering a range of alternative dispute resolution options to clients to deal with their conflict. In addition to mediation, Andrew is trained in conflict-coaching, and collaborative practice. In conflict-coaching a party can come to a robust understanding of the nature of a conflict when the
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Mediation Consultant for Organizations and Churches
Conflict Transformation Assistant Professor, Conflict Transformation Masters Degree Program, Eastern Mennonite University
Senior Mediator & Trainer, Community Mediation Center, Harrisonburg, Virginia
Partner, Newman Avenue Associates Family Therapists
Former Director, National Coalition Building Institute for prejudice reduction, Virginia Chapter
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Monica Koski is a dispute resolution professional with over 20 years experience with public and private litigation as a court reporter. She is a seasoned mediator having mediated hundreds of court referred and private matters over the last seven years. Monica has joined Baltimore Mediation with a commitment to educating people in the workplace on the relational approach to conflict transformation and the mediation process, and to providing third party neutral services, conflict resolution skills training, and consulting.Prior to her
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Nan has been working with Baltimore Mediation and Louise Phipps Senft, Esq. for over 15 years, as an international co-trainer, co-presenter, coach, and mediator.Nan is a dynamic facilitator, author, transformative high conflict mediator, psychotherapist, conflict systems design consultant, executive conflict coach, educator and a founding partner in Dispute Resolution Professionals, LLC, established in 1997 in the Denver metropolitan area.An expert in high conflict family systems and multiparty complex workplace disputes; she was trained as a mediator at Harvard Law School’s
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Chris Rubacky is an entrepreneur, mediator, and trainer. He has led trainings in mediation, conflict resolution, interest-based negotiations, special education mediation, stress reduction, and emotional literacy/anger management for schools, parent groups, non-profit organizations and men’s jails. He is proud to have partnered with and led workshops for a number of established training organizations on both coasts including Peer Mediation Programs (New Jersey), Bucks County Peace Center (Pennsylvania), Baltimore Mediation, Peninsula Conflict Resolution Center (PCRC, San Mateo County, California), and Community
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Nicole Davis, Ph.D., is a certified mediator, facilitator, conflict coach, harassment prevention expert, and conflict skills trainer with over 20 years of experience in the field of alternative dispute resolution. As an associate with the Baltimore Mediation team, she emphasizes utilizing a transformative approach as people seek to resolve their conflicts, eradicate communication barriers, or enrich their interactions and relationships with others. Her focus areas are family, church, workplace, and organizational leadership.
Nicole’s doctorate from Nova Southeastern University, Ft. Lauderdale,
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