FAQs
- What education and/or training do you have that relates to your work?
I constantly attend both academic and professional conferences related to communication, mediation, and alternative dispute resolution. For example, I am one of the co-planners for the 2011 Association of Missouri Mediator's Annual Conference in St. Louis, MO. Through my research program, I am always interviewing and chatting with ADR practitioners and legal professionals; this allows me to stay on top of the latest developments in the field...such as online mediation.
- How did you get started doing this type of work?
For my research program, I study organizational communication which looks at how large groups of eclectic individuals coordinate their actions to achieve a wide variety of goals. I am very interested in how people structure their lives, especially their work lives. Much of our social and professional time is spent dealing with conflict, so this was a rich research area. Because of these research interests, I decided to become a volunteer community mediator and study how the nonprofit organization managed its practice, its people, and its mission. From this experience, I recognized that I love mediating in addition to studying effective mediation practices, so once I graduated I opened my business in addition to remaining an academic.
- What types of customers have you worked with?
1. Mediating family disputes such as child custody issues, property distribution, child custody payments, and visitation rights. 2. Mediating civil issues including neighborhood disagreements (i.e., barking dogs, property lines), family business squabbles, and neighborhood association (e.g., HOA) disagreements. 3. Mediating workplace disputes between employers and employees or customers and businesses. 4. Facilitating effective team meetings and/or multi-party problem-solving sessions. 5. Presenting seminars on a variety of issues related to communication and conflict management. 6. Conducting on-site mediation and conflict management training.