Negotiation, Conflict Resolution, and Peacebuilding Networking Conference to Be Held on CSUDH Campus on April 24

The CSU Dominguez Hills Negotiation, Conflict Resolution, and Peacebuilding Affinity Association (NCRPAA) will hold its 9th Annual Networking Conference on Tuesday, April 24 in the Loker Student Union. Speakers from a variety of fields, many of whom are CSUDH alumni, will present this year’s theme, “Stakeholders in Action Reframing the Adversary to a Handshaker” to the community, including students from Golden West College and local high schools.

NCRPAA president Sarah Moreau (Class of ’00, M.A., Negotiation Conflict) describes the focus of the conference, saying that, “There are key stakeholders involved in any conflict. You need them at the mediation table in order to identify the issues that may be hindering communication, and to reach some type of resolution that they can live with, for the benefit of themselves and the people surrounding them.”

Emily Williams, senior policy advisor with the Los Angeles City Human Relations Commission and human relations training manager for the Los Angeles Fire Department, will be the keynote speaker. Dr. Rose Welch, CSUDH coordinator of the Master of Science in Nursing program and professor of nursing, will speak on “Nursing Shortage Conflict and Impact on Patient Care in United States Hospitals,” as it relates the burgeoning needs of returning military veterans and the existing communities. From the city of Compton, Councilwoman Barbara Calhoun will speak about “Preventing and Reducing Gang Violence through Community Partnerships.”

Graduates of the Negotiation, Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding Program (NCRP, formerly the Behavioral Science/Negotiation Conflict Management program) at Dominguez Hills will return to their alma mater to share professional expertise in a variety of fields. CSUDH alumna Joumana Saba (Class of ’02, M.A., Negotiation and Conflict Management) will present “The Peacebuilders Toolkit in a Religious and Violent World” with Najeeba Syeed-Miller, NCRP adjunct faculty and executive director of the Western Justice Center Foundation. Robert Whipple, (Class of '94, M.A. Behavioral Science/Negotiation and Conflict Management; '00, M.A. Education/Computer Assisted Instruction) and NCRP adjunct faculty, will present “International Ethical Dilemma: Security and Privacy Conflict on the World Wide Web,” and Gilbert Valles (Class of ’03, B.A., Negotiation and Conflict Management) will speak with Culver City High School teacher Jose Montero on “Filling the Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding Leadership Pipeline through Junior High and High School Programs.”

A panel discussion titled, “What if Any Difference Distinguishes the Attorney and Non-Attorney Mediator? How Can Non-Attorneys Build An Independent Mediation Practice?” will be conducted by the Hon. Alexander H. Williams III, Los Angeles County Superior Court judge, and private mediators Richard Millen, Deborah Thomas (Class of ’95, M.A., Behavioral Science/Negotiation and Conflict Management), Michael Diliberto and Myra Schegloff.

Thomas and Williams are also being honored as the 2007 recipients of the A.M. Turk Award, which is named for A. Marco Turk, the professor and director of the NCRP Program.

Thomas is a private mediator, consultant, trainer and NCRP adjunct faculty member. She is currently the chair of the Beverly Hills Bar Association’s Community and Peer Mediation Committee. Her experience includes eight years at the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s nonprofit Dispute Resolution Services Inc., where she held the positions of director of community and youth services, director of operations and associate executive director. She has provided counseling services throughout Los Angeles County, including assistance to families in crisis during the 1994 Northridge earthquake. She is currently working with victims of Hurricane Katrina in Mississippi, in a mediation program for residents who are still without basic services.

Williams has been a Los Angeles Superior Court judge since 1984, presiding over felony criminal trial and general jurisdiction civil trial departments. A trained mediator, he was reassigned in June 2005 to preside over daily settlement conferences in cases pending in Superior Court. He is chair of the Judicial Education Subcommittee of the Court’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee, and a member of the California Dispute Resolution Council and the Southern California Mediation Association. Williams is an adjunct faculty member at the Straus Institute of Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University School of Law, and was awarded the 2003 “Peacemaker of the Year” award by the Southern California Mediation Association. He currently enriches the NCRP program with court internships for students, in which they work with him in mediating the resolution of cases.

NCRPAA president Moreau is giving back to her fellow CSUDH students by establishing the Sarah Moreau NCRPAA Scholarship, available each year to three students in the NCRP program. Three awards of $500 each will be presented at the conference. This is the first year the scholarship is being offered.

“I established the scholarship to encourage students to volunteer in our field of study,” Moreau says. “I hope it gives them more opportunities to network and to build on their existing knowledge and abilities. It is important that they don’t worry so much about finances and can spend more time honing their active listening, critical thinking, speaking, negotiation and social perceptiveness, all skills they will need in the field of conflict negotiation and resolution.”

Moreau is currently the workers’ compensation program manager and special assistant to the network human resources officer for the VA Desert Pacific Healthcare Network. She previously served as an employee/labor relations specialist with the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, and represented the Department of Veterans Affairs before the Merit Systems Protection Board, and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Her specialties include consulting, facilitating and training managers and employees with conflicts pertaining to customer service, disciplinary actions, sexual harassment, violence in the workplace, grievances, retirement, cultural diversity and workers’ compensation.

For more information on the NCRPAA Conference, visit http://ncrpaa.org, call (310) 991-0645, or contact Nancy Erbe, professor in the Negotiation, Conflict Resolution, and Peacebuilding Program, and NCRPAA adviser, NCRPAA, at (310) 243-2805.

- Joanie Harmon-Whetmore