Our Instructors Stand out

Learn Mediation from the Experts!

At last count, we have combined experience of over 410 years mediating disputes… and have taught best practices in the mediation room to thousands of aspiring and accomplished mediators and mediation advocates around the world.

As experts in the field of mediation training, our goal is simple… Train you to be the best mediator or mediation advocate that you can be.

To be PASSIONATE about helping others.

To be RESPECTED by your peers and other professionals.

To do WELL by doing good.

We want you to get up every day excited about your career as a mediator and confident in your new‑found abilities.

What makes us unique as a mediation training resource is our team of experts, including:

Most successful full-time mediators and mediation advocates in the United States

Coveted professors at leading universities

Industry thought leaders

Experts in the area of behavioral and neuroscience

and so much more!

Meet Our Instructors

Bruce Edwards

Bruce Edwards was one of the pioneers in developing mediation as a tool for resolving commercial disputes in the United States. A professional mediator since 1985, he has mediated over 8,000 disputes throughout the United States, focusing on large, complex disputes often involving high emotions. He has played a central role in establishing the largest and most successful dispute resolution company in the country, JAMS, where he served as Chairman of the Board while supporting the career development of hundreds of commercial mediators.

In addition to his full-time mediation practice, Bruce has devoted a substantial amount of time sharing his practical knowledge with others. Since 1995, he has taught Advanced Mediation at the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University. More recently, he has trained hundreds of aspiring mediators in Europe, Asia, South America, and Africa. His international work continues, working with government leaders and institutions to find ways to implement mediation in justice systems around the world.

He has consistently received recognition for his work as a mediator, most recently being accepted into the inaugural edition of Who’s Who in ADR by ADR Times 2022; once again recognized as a Best Lawyers in the ADR category by Best Lawyers® 2022; and recognized as an industry thought leader by Who’s Who Legal, 2023.

Bruce Edwards co-founded Edwards Mediation Academy in 2014 with his wife, Susan Franson Edwards, with the goal of delivering the highest quality skill development through online learning to all corners of the globe.

John B. Bates, Jr.

Attorney John B. Bates, Jr. has been practicing law since 1974 and began mediating in the mid 1980’s as part of his litigation practice. With Bruce Edwards, John co-founded The Bates Edwards Group, one of the first commercial mediation companies in the United States. A full time mediator since 1991, John has mediated several thousand matters in 30 states. His mediations have involved: aviation, business, civil rights, class action, consumer, construction, employment, environmental, franchise, government/public agency, healthcare, insurance, intellectual property, personal injury, professional liability, real estate, patent and trademark, securities, toxic torts and wills. John has conducted workshops, trainings, and lectures on all aspects of mediation.

Niranjan J. Bhatt

Niranjan J. Bhatt is a senior lawyer and mediator in Ahmedabad, India and a widely acknowledged pioneer of mediation in India. He is the founder and Managing Trustee of the Institute for Arbitration Mediation Legal Education and Development (AMLEAD) and a Convener of the Ahmedabad Mediation Centre, the first lawyer-run Mediation Centre of India. As an advocate for expanding the practice of mediation throughout his country, he has taught more than one thousand lawyers in the mediation process. Mr. Bhatt received advanced mediation training from Harvard Law School in 2001.

Daniel Bowling

Daniel Bowling is a Mediator and was the ADR Program Staff Attorney for the US District Court for Northern California. Daniel co-founded the first mediation organization in South Carolina, the Low Country Mediation Network in 1983. As Executive Director of the Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution, he managed the merger among SPIDR, the Academy of Family Mediators, and the Conflict Resolution Education Network. He served as the first CEO of the Association of Conflict Resolution. Along with David Hoffman, Daniel co-edited and co- authored Bringing Peace into the Room:The Personal Qualities of the Mediator and their Impact on Conflict Resolution (Jossey-Bass, 2003.)

Dana Curtis

Attorney, Dana Curtis is a pioneer and leader in the California Bay Area alternative dispute resolution field. She was among the first attorneys in the US to devote her career exclusively to mediation, beginning her full-time mediation practice in 1991. Her practice spans a wide range of subject matter but emphasizes the resolution of disputes that involve both complex legal issues and challenging emotional dynamics. Dana has been a teacher of mediation, negotiation and other conflict management programs throughout the US and internationally for nearly 25 years. She has taught mediation and negotiation at Stanford Law Gould Center for Conflict Resolution and has co-taught Mediating Disputes in Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation. She is currently the Director of the Conflict Resolution Program at Santa Clara University School of Law. Dana has published numerous articles and books about mediation, including Appellate Mediation: A Guidebook for Mediators and Attorneys (with Brendon Ishikawa, ABA Publishing, forthcoming in December 2015).

Eric D. Green

Professor Eric D. Green is one of the pioneers of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) in the United States and around the world. He co-founded two prominent ADR/Mediation firms, Endispute (now part of JAMS) and Resolutions, LLC in Boston. He specializes in mediating and arbitrating complex, legally intensive multi-party cases including securities, financial, intellectual property, anti-trust, professional negligence, construction, product liability, mass tort, and all types of class actions. He has served as a private and court-appointed mediator and special master in thousands of cases, including the Enron securities class action, Visa/MasterCard anti-trust cases, U.S. v. Microsoft, and many of the RMBS cases arising out of the 2005-2009 financial crisis. Professor Green was instrumental in assisting in the establishment of the Center for Public Resources in New York, CEDR in London and the mediation program in Hong Kong. He has taught negotiation, mediation, complex ADR processes and other ADR topics at Boston University School of Law and Harvard Law School.

Lynne Hermle

Lynne Hermle, a Silicon Valley employment partner, is consistently recognized as one of the best employment lawyers in the country. She has a long track record of jury trial wins as well and has consistently defeated certification in class actions. Chambers USA has described her as “a fantastic lawyer and fabulous litigator.” She has been named as one of the two best employment defense lawyers in the Bay Area and one of California Top Women Attorneys (by The Recorder); as one of the Top 10 Leaders of the Pack in America (by Human Resource Executive); in the Top 25 of The Best of The Best USA (by Euromoney); one of America’s Top 50 Women Litigators (National Law Journal); and one of America’s Top 500 Lawyers and Top 500 Leading Litigators (Lawdragon).

Gerald Hüther

Gerald Hüther is Professor of Neurobiology at the University of Goettingen and one of the most renowned brain researchers of the German-speaking world. In his scientific publications he focuses on the influence of early experiences on the development of the brain, the effect of fear and stress on decision-making, and the significance of emotional reactions. He is well known for his ability to simplify complex neurobiological concepts while integrating the knowledge gained by modern brain science research into everyday life’s lessons. He is a sought after lecturer at the International Summer School on Business Mediation in Austria where he regularly shares his insights on the brain and neurobiology with mediators from around the world.

Michael K. Lewis

Having been in the dispute resolution field for close to 30 years, attorney Michael K. Lewis is widely recognized for his extraordinary ability to resolve the most complex disputes in virtually every area of law. He has successfully mediated and arbitrated hundreds of complex, multi-party, high profile matters including: business/commercial, public policy, employment, environment, and governmental matters. Michael has advised dozens of organizations as an ADR consultant, including the Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust, ABA’s Mental Health Disabilities Project, ABA’s BASICS Program, National Institute of Corrections, National Association of Attorneys General, several federal agencies, National Clients’ Council, Council of Better Business Bureaus, federal and local courts around the country, as well as numerous law firms and companies.

Hon. Harry Low

Hon. Harry W. Low (Retired) has over 35 years of dispute resolution experience as a sitting judge and JAMS neutral. His expertise includes employment law, business litigation, sexual harassment, insurance disputes, personal injury, real or personal property disputes, and environmental law. With over 25 years of judicial experience in civil, criminal, and government law, he has authored opinions on virtually every area of California law. He has conducted a wide variety of mediations, arbitrations, and settlement conferences and has extensive experience in handling wrongful termination, sexual harassment, breach of contract, insurance coverage issues, tort claims, and medical and legal malpractice cases.

Janet Martinez

Janet Martinez is Director of the Gould Negotiation and Mediation Program, Co-Director of the Gould Alternative Dispute Resolution Research Initiative and Senior Lecturer in Law at Stanford Law School, where she teaches advanced negotiation, dispute system design and alternative dispute resolution law & policy. She focuses her research and consulting on the lawyer’s role in negotiation, domestically and internationally; conflict resolution system design; facilitation of public disputes, particularly in the fields of international trade and the environment; negotiation and consensus-building training; and negotiation curriculum development for clients in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. In addition to her role as director of the law school’s Gould Negotiation and Mediation Program, Professor Martinez is a senior consultant at the Consensus Building Institute in Cambridge, Mass., a nonprofit institution whose mission is to improve conflict resolution, and a consultant at Lax Sebenius, a negotiation consulting firm in Concord, Mass. Prior to joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 2002, Professor Martinez did research, writing, and teaching in various aspects of negotiation at Harvard University’s graduate schools of business, law, and government and was senior counsel for the McKesson Corporation. She is the co-author of the soon-to-be released book, Dispute System Design, Preventing, Managing and Resolving Conflict (with Lisa Amsler and Stephanie Smith, release date April, 2020).

Nina Meierding

Attorney Nina Meierding has mediated over 4,000 disputes in her 30 years in the conflict resolution field and has conducted training in 45 states and throughout the world, including: Canada, Sweden, Ireland, England, Scotland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and India. She has consulted and trained court systems, corporations, medical agencies, governmental agencies, small and large business entities, and individuals in the areas of conflict resolution, cross cultural issues; communication, management and negotiation skills. She was awarded the Peacemaker Award in 1992 by the Southern California Mediation Association for her outstanding work in the conflict resolution field. In 2005, she was awarded the John Haynes Distinguished Mediator Award, an international award given annually by the Association for Conflict Resolution. Nina has been an Adjunct Professor at both Pepperdine University School of Law in Malibu, California and Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas for over 20 years.

Chuck Numbers

Attorney Chuck Numbers is a partner in the law firm of Meredith, Weinstein & Numbers, LLP. The majority of his practice is devoted to resolving complex insurance coverage disputes arising from intellectual property, trademark infringement, copyright infringement, piracy, misappropriation, construction defect, environmental and broker negligence matters. His experience includes Federal anti trust litigation involving the electrical contracts at the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, several nuclear power plants in Washington State and the Washington, D.C. Metro System. In addition to being one of California’s leading insurance coverage experts, Chuck has participated in over 1,000 mediations, most involving complex insurance issues.

Sriram Panchu

Sriram Panchu is a senior advocate and mediator, as well as an acknowledged pioneer of mediation in India. In law practice since 1976, he founded the Indian Centre for Mediation and Dispute Resolution and was instrumental in creating India’s first court-annexed mediation center, a model replicated by other Courts in the country. In 2013, he founded the Association of Indian Mediators. Mr. Panchu has trained over one thousand mediators, as well as written two books on mediation: Settle for More – The Why, How and When of Mediation and Mediation Practice and Law. He regularly speaks on issues regarding law, mediation, governance and public interest.

Mario Patera

Mario Patera is a social scientist and psychotherapist in Austria. He is the first and, currently, the only professor of mediation in German speaking countries. Through his habilitation thesis, he successfully established mediation as a scientific subject for the first time at an Austrian university. He co-founded Konfliktkultur-Kulturkonflikt in Vienna (teaching mediation competencies to businesses and corporate executives) and has been a co-mediator for family and business mediation, and a mediation coach. He works as an international trainer for mediation in Europe and in the U.S., where he has been a lecturer at Harvard Law School and a co-lecturer at Stanford University. He has led several research projects regarding business mediation, including “Business Mediation for Small and Mid-Sized Enterprises in Austria” and “Conflict Costs in Family Enterprises.” Recently, he introduced mediative competencies ® to doctors, nurses and management at Stanford Medical Center.

Peter Robinson

Attorney Peter Robinson is a professor and the former Managing Director of the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine School of Law. Known for his humor, energy and ability to provide real world lessons from his mediation experience, he is a popular lecturer and trainer. Peter has presented advanced negotiation and mediation skills courses in more than thirty states as well as Argentina, Canada, England, Holland, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Mexico, France and Rwanda. He is an honorary fellow of the International Academy of Mediators. The California Dispute Resolution Council recognized Peter as Peacemaker of the Year in 1999. The Los Angeles Magazine has recognized him as a Southern California Super Lawyer in mediation, intermittently since 2006.

Vic Schachter

Vic Schachter has served extensively as a mediator and as an advocate, representing clients in numerous mediations and arbitrations over his fifty-year career. He is the founder and president of the Foundation for Sustainable Rule of Law Initiatives, an NGO that creates sustainable mediation centers in developing countries. He has led and participated in rule of law initiatives promoting judicial reform and alternative dispute resolution in India, Brazil, Turkey, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Republic of Georgia and Malaysia, among other countries. In 2008, Mr. Schachter was recognized as a California Lawyer Attorney of the Year for his service in judicial reform, rule of law, and mediation building. His work has been reported and cited in numerous publications.

Hon. Daniel Weinstein

Hon. Daniel Weinstein is a former California Judge and a co-founder of JAMS, the World’s largest provider of mediation and arbitration services. He is recognized as one of the premier mediators of complex, multi-party, high-stake cases, both in the United States and abroad. Since 1997, he has mediated cases with aggregate values of billions of dollars annually and designed innovative processes tailored to unique, complex, and highly sensitive cases, including securities cases, class action settlements (such as KPMG tax shelter class action cases), intellectual property disputes (Apple and Microsoft, to name a few) major financial institutions, anti-trust actions, environmental cases, international matters and high-profile celebrities. Hon. Weinstein is a pioneer in the development of mediation and teaches and lectures to fellow mediators and lawyers throughout the United States. In 2008, he founded the Weinstein JAMS International Fellowship which provides opportunities for qualified individuals from outside the United States to study dispute resolution processes and practices in the U.S. In 2018 he co-founded the Weinstein International Foundation with Bruce Edwards and other highly experienced dispute resolution pioneers to promote the resolution of conflict through mediation with the global network of ADR-trained International Fellows from around the world.

Hon. Rebecca Westerfield

Hon. Rebecca Westerfield (Retired) has settled and arbitrated over 2,500 cases throughout the United States and internationally. A full-time JAMS panelist since 1992, Rebecca is widely perceived as a tenacious mediator. She is known for her ability to grasp legal and factual issues quickly, as well as reading the personalities involved. Rebecca is particularly adept at dealing with matters that involve cross-cultural dynamics and high emotional content. She has extensive mediation experience in a large variety of complex cases: accounting, financial markets, banking, business/commercial, civil rights, class action/mass tort, employment, entertainment, estates/probate/trusts, franchise, government public agency, healthcare, insurance, personal injury, professional liability, real property and securities. Rebecca has conducted mediation trainings throughout the US and overseas.

Vivien Williamson

Attorney Vivien Williamson has been a mediator since 1987 and has assisted in resolving thousands of cases, including employment, landlord-tenant, real estate, construction, insurance, breach of contract, personal injury and malpractice disputes. Vivien conducts mediator and mediation advocacy training seminars and has made numerous presentations on ADR and related issues to bar associations, universities, law firms, professional societies and other organizations across the country. She has also consulted with corporations, law firms, governmental agencies and other organizations on the design and implementation of conflict management systems. Vivien is the founding chairperson of the Bar Association of San Francisco ADR Section and has served as a mediation training designer and trainer for the Bar Association. She has taught mediation and negotiation at Hastings College of the Law and other law schools and universities.

Bruce Edwards

Bruce Edwards was one of the pioneers in developing mediation as a tool for resolving commercial disputes in the United States.

A professional mediator since 1985, he has mediated over 7,000 disputes throughout the United States, focusing on large, complex disputes often involving high emotions. He has played a central role in establishing the largest and most successful dispute resolution company in the country, JAMS, where he served as Chairman of the Board while supporting the career development of hundreds of commercial mediators.

In addition to his full-time mediation practice, Bruce has devoted a substantial amount of time sharing his practical knowledge with others. Since 1995, he has taught Advanced Mediation at the Strauss Institute for Dispute Resolution of Pepperdine University. More recently, he has trained hundreds of aspiring mediators in Europe, Asia, South America, and Africa. His international work continues, working with government leaders and institutions to find ways to implement mediation in justice systems around the world.

John B. Bates, Jr.

Attorney John B. Bates, Jr. has been practicing law since 1974 and began mediating in the mid 1980’s as part of his litigation practice.

With Bruce Edwards, John co-founded The Bates Edwards Group, one of the first commercial mediation companies in the United States. A full time mediator since 1991, John has mediated several thousand matters in 30 states. His mediations have involved: aviation, business, civil rights, class action, consumer, construction, employment, environmental, franchise, government/public agency, healthcare, insurance, intellectual property, personal injury, professional liability, real estate, patent and trademark, securities, toxic torts and wills. John has conducted workshops, trainings, and lectures on all aspects of mediation.

Niranjan J. Bhatt

Niranjan J. Bhatt is a senior lawyer and mediator in Ahmedabad, India and a widely acknowledged pioneer of mediation in India.

He is the founder and Managing Trustee of the Institute for Arbitration Mediation Legal Education and Development (AMLEAD) and a Convener of the Ahmedabad Mediation Centre, the first lawyer-run Mediation Centre of India. As an advocate for expanding the practice of mediation throughout his country, he has taught more than one thousand lawyers in the mediation process. Mr. Bhatt received advanced mediation training from Harvard Law School in 2001.

Daniel Bowling

Daniel Bowling is a Mediator and was the ADR Program Staff Attorney for the US District Court for Northern California.

Daniel co-founded the first mediation organization in South Carolina, the Low Country Mediation Network in 1983. As Executive Director of the Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution, he managed the merger among SPIDR, the Academy of Family Mediators, and the Conflict Resolution Education Network. He served as the first CEO of the Association of Conflict Resolution. Along with David Hoffman, Daniel co-edited and co- authored Bringing Peace into the Room:The Personal Qualities of the Mediator and their Impact on Conflict Resolution (Jossey-Bass, 2003)

Dana Curtis

Attorney, Dana Curtis is a pioneer and leader in the California Bay Area alternative dispute resolution field.

She was among the first attorneys in the US to devote her career exclusively to mediation, beginning her full-time mediation practice in 1991. Her practice spans a wide range of subject matter but emphasizes the resolution of disputes that involve both complex legal issues and challenging emotional dynamics. Dana has been a teacher of mediation, negotiation and other conflict management programs throughout the US and internationally for nearly 25 years. She has taught mediation and negotiation at Stanford Law Gould Center for Conflict Resolution and has co-taught Mediating Disputes in Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation. She is currently the Director of the Conflict Resolution Program at Santa Clara University School of Law. Dana has published numerous articles and books about mediation, including Appellate Mediation: A Guidebook for Mediators and Attorneys (with Brendon Ishikawa, ABA Publishing, forthcoming in December 2015).

Eric D. Green

Professor Eric D. Green is one of the pioneers of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) in the United States and around the world.

He co-founded two prominent ADR/Mediation firms, Endispute (now part of JAMS) and Resolutions, LLC in Boston. He specializes in mediating and arbitrating complex, legally intensive multi-party cases including securities, financial, intellectual property, anti-trust, professional negligence, construction, product liability, mass tort, and all types of class actions. He has served as a private and court-appointed mediator and special master in thousands of cases, including the Enron securities class action, Visa/MasterCard anti-trust cases, U.S. v. Microsoft, and many of the RMBS cases arising out of the 2005-2009 financial crisis. Professor Green was instrumental in assisting in the establishment of the Center for Public Resources in New York, CEDR in London and the mediation program in Hong Kong. He has taught negotiation, mediation, complex ADR processes and other ADR topics at Boston University School of Law and Harvard Law School.

Lynn Hermie

Lynne Hermle, a Silicon Valley employment partner, is consistently recognized as one of the best employment lawyers in the country.

She has a long track record of jury trial wins as well and has consistently defeated certification in class actions. Chambers USA has described her as “a fantastic lawyer and fabulous litigator.” She has been named as one of the two best employment defense lawyers in the Bay Area and one of California Top Women Attorneys (by The Recorder); as one of the Top 10 Leaders of the Pack in America (by Human Resource Executive); in the Top 25 of The Best of The Best USA (by Euromoney); one of America’s Top 50 Women Litigators (National Law Journal); and one of America’s Top 500 Lawyers and Top 500 Leading Litigators (Lawdragon).

Gerald Hüther

Gerald Hüther is Professor of Neurobiology at the University of Goettingen and one of the most renowned brain researchers of the German-speaking world.

Michael K. Lewis

He has successfully mediated and arbitrated hundreds of complex, multi-party, high profile matters including: business/commercial, public policy, employment, environment, and governmental matters. Michael has advised dozens of organizations as an ADR consultant, including the Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust, ABA’s Mental Health Disabilities Project, ABA’s BASICS Program, National Institute of Corrections, National Association of Attorneys General, several federal agencies, National Clients’ Council, Council of Better Business Bureaus, federal and local courts around the country, as well as numerous law firms and companies.

Hon. Harry Low

Hon. Harry W. Low (Retired) has over 35 years of dispute resolution experience as a sitting judge and JAMS neutral.

His expertise includes employment law, business litigation, sexual harassment, insurance disputes, personal injury, real or personal property disputes, and environmental law. With over 25 years of judicial experience in civil, criminal, and government law, he has authored opinions on virtually every area of California law. He has conducted a wide variety of mediations, arbitrations, and settlement conferences and has extensive experience in handling wrongful termination, sexual harassment, breach of contract, insurance coverage issues, tort claims, and medical and legal malpractice cases.

Janet Martinez

She focuses her research and consulting on the lawyer’s role in negotiation, domestically and internationally; conflict resolution system design; facilitation of public disputes, particularly in the fields of international trade and the environment; negotiation and consensus-building training; and negotiation curriculum development for clients in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. In addition to her role as director of the law school’s Gould Negotiation and Mediation Program, Professor Martinez is a senior consultant at the Consensus Building Institute in Cambridge, Mass., a nonprofit institution whose mission is to improve conflict resolution, and a consultant at Lax Sebenius, a negotiation consulting firm in Concord, Mass. Prior to joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 2002, Professor Martinez did research, writing, and teaching in various aspects of negotiation at Harvard University’s graduate schools of business, law, and government and was senior counsel for the McKesson Corporation. She is the co-author of the soon-to-be released book, Dispute System Design, Preventing, Managing and Resolving Conflict (with Lisa Amsler and Stephanie Smith, release date April, 2020).

Nina Meierding

She has consulted and trained court systems, corporations, medical agencies, governmental agencies, small and large business entities, and individuals in the areas of conflict resolution, cross cultural issues; communication, management and negotiation skills. She was awarded the Peacemaker Award in 1992 by the Southern California Mediation Association for her outstanding work in the conflict resolution field. In 2005, she was awarded the John Haynes Distinguished Mediator Award, an international award given annually by the Association for Conflict Resolution. Nina has been an Adjunct Professor at both Pepperdine University School of Law in Malibu, California and Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas for over 20 years.

Chuck Numbers

Attorney Chuck Numbers is a partner in the law firm of Meredith, Weinstein & Numbers, LLP.

The majority of his practice is devoted to resolving complex insurance coverage disputes arising from intellectual property, trademark infringement, copyright infringement, piracy, misappropriation, construction defect, environmental and broker negligence matters. His experience includes Federal anti trust litigation involving the electrical contracts at the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, several nuclear power plants in Washington State and the Washington, D.C. Metro System. In addition to being one of California’s leading insurance coverage experts, Chuck has participated in over 1,000 mediations, most involving complex insurance issues.

Sriram Panchu

Sriram Panchu is a senior advocate and mediator, as well as an acknowledged pioneer of mediation in India.

In law practice since 1976, he founded the Indian Centre for Mediation and Dispute Resolution and was instrumental in creating India’s first court-annexed mediation center, a model replicated by other Courts in the country. In 2013, he founded the Association of Indian Mediators. Mr. Panchu has trained over one thousand mediators, as well as written two books on mediation: Settle for More – The Why, How and When of Mediation and Mediation Practice and Law. He regularly speaks on issues regarding law, mediation, governance and public interest.

Mario Patera

Mario Patera is a social scientist and psychotherapist in Austria. He is the first and, currently, the only professor of mediation in German speaking countries.

Through his habilitation thesis, he successfully established mediation as a scientific subject for the first time at an Austrian university. He co-founded Konfliktkultur-Kulturkonflikt in Vienna (teaching mediation competencies to businesses and corporate executives) and has been a co-mediator for family and business mediation, and a mediation coach. He works as an international trainer for mediation in Europe and in the U.S., where he has been a lecturer at Harvard Law School and a co-lecturer at Stanford University. He has led several research projects regarding business mediation, including “Business Mediation for Small and Mid-Sized Enterprises in Austria” and “Conflict Costs in Family Enterprises.” Recently, he introduced mediative competencies® to doctors, nurses and management at Stanford Medical Center.

Peter Robinson

Attorney Peter Robinson is a professor and the former Managing Director of the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine School of Law.

Known for his humor, energy and ability to provide real world lessons from his mediation experience, he is a popular lecturer and trainer. Peter has presented advanced negotiation and mediation skills courses in more than thirty states as well as Argentina, Canada, England, Holland, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Mexico, France and Rwanda. He is an honorary fellow of the International Academy of Mediators. The California Dispute Resolution Council recognized Peter as Peacemaker of the Year in 1999. The Los Angeles Magazine has recognized him as a Southern California Super Lawyer in mediation, intermittently since 2006.

Vic Schacter

Vic Schachter has served extensively as a mediator and as an advocate, representing clients in numerous mediations and arbitrations over his fifty-year career.

He is the founder and president of the Foundation for Sustainable Rule of Law Initiatives, an NGO that creates sustainable mediation centers in developing countries. He has led and participated in rule of law initiatives promoting judicial reform and alternative dispute resolution in India, Brazil, Turkey, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Republic of Georgia and Malaysia, among other countries. In 2008, Mr. Schachter was recognized as a California Lawyer Attorney of the Year for his service in judicial reform, rule of law, and mediation building. His work has been reported and cited in numerous publications.

Hon. Daniel Weinstein

Hon. Rebecca Westerfield

Hon. Rebecca Westerfield (Retired) has settled and arbitrated over 2,500 cases throughout the United States and internationally.

A full-time JAMS panelist since 1992, Rebecca is widely perceived as a tenacious mediator. She is known for her ability to grasp legal and factual issues quickly, as well as reading the personalities involved. Rebecca is particularly adept at dealing with matters that involve cross-cultural dynamics and high emotional content. She has extensive mediation experience in a large variety of complex cases: accounting, financial markets, banking, business/commercial, civil rights, class action/mass tort, employment, entertainment, estates/probate/trusts, franchise, government public agency, healthcare, insurance, personal injury, professional liability, real property and securities. Rebecca has conducted mediation trainings throughout the US and overseas.

Vivien Williamson

Vivien conducts mediator and mediation advocacy training seminars and has made numerous presentations on ADR and related issues to bar associations, universities, law firms, professional societies and other organizations across the country. She has also consulted with corporations, law firms, governmental agencies and other organizations on the design and implementation of conflict management systems. Vivien is the founding chairperson of the Bar Association of San Francisco ADR Section and has served as a mediation training designer and trainer for the Bar Association. She has taught mediation and negotiation at Hastings College of the Law and other law schools and universities.

Meet Our Support Team

Susan Edwards

As co-founder and managing director, Susan is responsible for ensuring that Edwards Mediation Academy meets its commitment to its students of delivering the most effective, highest quality online mediation training available. In addition to running the day-to-day operations, Susan is responsible for strategic planning and manages the development and production of EMA’s courses.

Prior to EMA, Susan’s has been involved in strategic planning and project management for various organizations. She earned her MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. Previous to attending Stanford, Susan worked in the U.S. Senate as a professional staff member for the Subcommittee on Education and Labor.

Danielle Lantzy

Danielle serves as a Project Manager for Edwards Mediation Academy. She is responsible for supporting operations, marketing, and technical support teams. She is passionate about providing excellent customer service and she’s often the first contact when members have questions or need assistance.

You can reach her directly at Danielle@edwardsmediationacademy.com or via our chat feature.

Reviews

In Bruce, I found a rare combination - both the highest level of expertise in mediation AND the ability to convey that expertise to those wanting to build their own capacity as mediators or advocates. Because of this dual fluency in dispute resolution and pedagogy, I frankly have more faith in Bruce Edwards than in any other mediation instructor that I have come across.

Emily, Associate Research Scholar, Columbia Law School