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<xTITLE>Mediate.com Announces Task Force Executive Committee and Advisory Board to Support Online Mediation Training</xTITLE>

Mediate.com Announces Task Force Executive Committee and Advisory Board to Support Online Mediation Training

by Forrest (Woody) Mosten, Jim Melamed
 October 2020

Online Mediation Training Forums

Mediate.com Announces Task Force to Support Online Mediation Training

Jim Melamed, Board Chair of Mediate.com, has announced the establishment of a blue-ribbon Online Mediation Training Task Force, to be headed by Forrest R. (Woody) Mosten, to make recommendations on best practices and possibilities for both generally training mediators online and training to perform online mediation. This Online Mediation Training Task Force will work with leading mediation organizations, professional mediators, academics and researchers in formulating findings and recommendations.  Mediate.com is convening the Online Mediation Training Task Force and is providing technical support, information distribution and publicity.

Forrest (Woody) Mosten (MostenMediation.com) has agreed to serve as Task Force Chair.  In addition to his own long-standing mediation practice and trainings, Woody has previously served as Chair of the Academy of Family Mediators (AFM) Consultation Institute and as Convenor for the 1999 Symposium on Training Mediators for the 21st Century (as well as as Editor of the related Family Court Review Special Issue - January 2000).  The International Academy of Collaborative Professionals (IACP) has also recently embarked on a joint venture with Woody to provide ongoing training to Collaborative Professional trainers in 2021. We are thrilled that Woody is taking on a leadership role with the Task Force!

In order to formulate the Task Force’s Agenda, the following online mediation experts have agreed to serve on the Task Force Executive Committee:

In consultation with the Task Force Executive Committee, an Online Mediation Training Advisory Board has been formed.  Confirmed Advisory Board Members include:

Among the issues that the Task Force may consider are:

  • Training new online technical capacities
  • New facilitative issues of the online environment
  • Assuring diversity and inclusion in our online future
  • Online role play exercises
  • Sufficiency of recorded trainings
  • Synergy between online and in-person trainings
  • Use of recorded trainee video for feedback
  • Online mediation ethics
  • Online co-mediation
  • Use of interdisciplinary consultants and evaluators
  • Online case consultation
  • Online practice building and career mentoring
  • Online innovation and staying current
  • Online mediation research
  • Training for online trainers
  • Other issues as determined by the Task Force

Mediate.com will post regular updates on Task Force events and progress.

Biography


Forrest (Woody) Mosten

Forrest (Woody) Mosten has been in private practice as a mediator since 1979 and currently is practicing mediation and collaborative law 100% online serving clients throughout the world. Woody is a founding partner of the Mosten-Guthrie Online Training Academy for Mediators and Collaborative Professionals. He is Adjunct Professor at UCLA School of Law where he teaches Mediation, Family Law Practice, and Lawyer as Peacemaker. He and has been in private practice as a mediator since 1979.

Woody is the author of six books and numerous articles on mediation, collaborative law, legal access, and building a peacemaking career. Woody served as convener for the 1999 international symposium, Training Mediators for the 21st Century. He has been Guest Editor for the Family Court Review’s special issues 4 times, most recently for the July 2015 issue on Peacemaking for Divorcing Families.

Woody trains mediators, collaborative professionals, and lawyers in conflict resolution courses ranging from basic to master classes and trainings for mediation trainers and presents keynotes at conferences throughout the world.  In 2019, Woody received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Professional Family Mediators and, in 2020, the Southern California Mediation Association established the Forrest Mosten Star Award for Excellence and Innovation in Mediation. Woody can be reached at www.MostenMediation.com.


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.