Stay up to date on everything mediation!

Subscribe to our free newsletter,
"This Week in Mediation"

Sign Up Now

Already subscribed No subscription today
<xTITLE>Mediate.com Announces Mediation Futures Project</xTITLE>

Mediate.com Announces Mediation Futures Project

by Jim Melamed, Clare Fowler, Robert Benjamin
 January 2015
In Celebration of our 20th Year, Mediate.com Announces The Mediation Futures Project.

Ultimately, our goal is to develop a set of blueprints for the mediation field most effectively moving into the future.

In coordinating this project, Clare Fowler and Robert Benjamin are working with an Advisory Committee of:

  • Peter Adler
  • Ken Cloke
  • Marvin Johnson
  • Jeff Krivis
  • Michelle LeBaron
  • Bernie Mayer
  • Nina Meierding
  • Len Riskin
  • Don Saposnek
  • Maria Volpe
Here are some of our initial Featured Futures Articles:

Featured Futures Articles:

We encourage you to submit your own Mediation Futures article or comment addressing these core questions:

  • What from our past should be brought forward and emphasized?

  • What current promising approaches should be further developed?

  • What would you like to see the mediation field look like in 20 years?

  • What specifically should we do now to get there?

Please send your future-focused article or comment of any length to Clare Fowler at editor@mediate.com There is also a form for making comments here.

Should you have any questions about the Futures Project, please contact Robert Benjamin at rbenjamin@mediate.com or by phone at (503) 407-6077.

Thanks for sending in your article or comment by March 1, 2015.  Your ideas are important to our best consideration of the future of mediation!

Many thanks,

Jim Melamed, Mediate.com CEO

Biography


Jim Melamed co-founded Mediate.com in 1996 and served as CEO of Mediate.com through June 2020 (25 years).  During Jim's tenure, Mediate.com received the American Bar Association's 2010 Institutional Problem Solver Award.  Before Mediate.com, Jim founded The Mediation Center in Eugene, Oregon in 1983 and served as Executive Director of the Academy of Family Mediators (AFM) from 1987 to 1993. Jim was also the first President and Executive Director of the Oregon Mediation Association (1985-86). Jim's undergraduate degree is in psychology from Stanford University and his law degree is from the University of Oregon.

Jim has received the following awards: The Oregon Mediation Association's 2003 Award for Excellence; The Oregon State Bar's 2006 Sidney Lezak Award of Excellence; The Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR) 2007 John Haynes Distinguished Mediator Award; The 2012 Academy of Professional Family Mediators (APFM) "Getting To Yes" Award; The APFM's first Outstanding Mediator Award (2018); and the Oregon Mediation Association's 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award.


Clare Fowler is Executive Vice-President and Managing Editor at Mediate.com.  Clare received her Master's of Dispute Resolution from the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at the Pepperdine University School of Law and her Doctorate in Organizational Leadership, focused on reducing workplace conflicts, from Pepperdine University School of Education. Clare also coordinated the career development program for The Straus Institute dispute resolution students. In addition to her editorial duties at Mediate.com, Clare coordinates online case management for ADR programs, agencies and courts.


Robert Benjamin, M.S.W., J.D., has been a practicing mediator since 1979, working in most dispute contexts including: business/civil, family/divorce, employment, and health care. A lawyer and social worker by training, he practiced law for over 25 years and now teaches and presents professional negotiation, mediation, and conflict management seminars and training courses nationally and internationally. He is a standing Adjunct Professor at the Straus Institute for Conflict Resolution of the Pepperdine University School of Law, at Southern Methodist University’s Program on Conflict Resolution and in several other schools and universities. He is a past President of the Academy of Family Mediators, a Practitioner Member of the Association for Conflict Resolution, and the American Bar Association’s Section on Dispute Resolution. He is the author of numerous book contributions and articles, including “The Mediator As Trickster,” “Guerilla Negotiation,” and “The Beauty of Conflict,” and is a Senior Editor and regular columnist for Mediate.com.