VIEW BIOS OF TUESDAY SPEAKERS

ALL SESSIONS ONLINE - STUDENT PRESENTATIONS ALL DAY      9:00 am - 4:55 pm EST

BLOCK #1: COMMUNICATION & POLARIZATION      9:15 - 10:30 am EST

Reimagining Public Speaking as a Tool for Conflict Transformation 

Jimmy McCue 

9:15 - 9:30 am EST

This session explores public speaking not as performance, but as a transformative, relational practice that fosters clarity, connection, and civic agency, especially in conflict-prone or polarized environments. Drawing on my recent work in coaching graduate students through public speaking at Teachers College and my role at MD-ICCCR under the mentorship of Dr. Peter Coleman, I introduce a framework that helps speakers balance four core dimensions: Precision, Connection, Impact, and Composure. These “Four Speaking Voices” are grounded in transformative learning theory (Mezirow), dialogic pedagogy (Freire), and communicative action (Habermas), and have been applied in coaching sessions to help learners navigate anxiety, reclaim voice, and engage in generative dialogue across difference.

Aligned with the conference theme Ex/change, this presentation bridges established theory with emerging practice. It offers a replicable model for conflict resolution professionals to scaffold psychological safety, foster empathic openness, and support dialogic readiness in high-stakes communication. Participants will leave with practical tools, including the Empathize-Translate-Connect feedback protocol, the Four Voices Framework, and the Dialogic Readiness Matrix, for cultivating voice as a site of identity negotiation, mutual recognition, and democratic engagement.

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We Need to Talk: Crafting a Platform for Dialogue on a Campus Polarized by the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict 

Ariel Stein

9:35 - 9:50 am EST

This presentation will deconstruct Ariel's experience founding The Brown Jewish Journal, a platform for dialogue within Brown University’s Jewish community. Ariel founded the journal in November 2023 in response to on-campus polarization and siloing regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In the presentation, Ariel will discuss what structural decisions prevented the journal from becoming an echo chamber, what strategic decisions allowed the journal to grow to a staff of twelve and a readership of thousands within a few months, and what core principles and messaging allowed us to obtain submissions and support from across Brown’s Jewish political spectrum. Ariel will discuss how these takeaways have informed her later work building and mediating dialogue around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as broader applications. The presentation is particularly timely in its focus on successful strategies for building dialogue on college campuses polarized by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, allowing the presentation to support the conference’s orientation toward conflict resolution in a rapidly changing world.

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Impact of Social Media Use on Communication and Community Well-Being 

Lyssette L. Cardona, Dr. Alexia Georgakopoulos, Raven Bedford

9:55 - 10:10 am EST

Mediation is a form of alternative dispute resolution that has many benefits. However, its use it not widely reported. Drawing from international and national studies, I’ve identified four main barriers to mediation: 1) Lack of awareness, 2) Lack of resources, 3) Structural barriers, and 4) Mindset barriers. I also interviewed stakeholders in Southeastern Pennsylvania, including a custody judge and mediation center directors, to get a close-up view of a local community and why mediation isn’t used more widely. Solutions are proposed to address the problem, which include strong community partnerships and increasing community awareness, education, and trust.

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Facilitated Discussion / Q&A - 10:15 - 10:30 am EST

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Break - 10:30 - 10:45 am EST

BLOCK #2: MEDIATION SYSTEMS & ACCESS      10:45 am - 12:00 pm EST

Barriers to Mediation

Ashlee Stoltzfus

10:45 - 11:00 am EST

Mediation is a form of alternative dispute resolution that has many benefits. However, its use it not widely reported. Drawing from international and national studies, I’ve identified four main barriers to mediation: 1) Lack of awareness, 2) Lack of resources, 3) Structural barriers, and 4) Mindset barriers. I also interviewed stakeholders in Southeastern Pennsylvania, including a custody judge and mediation center directors, to get a close-up view of a local community and why mediation isn’t used more widely. Solutions are proposed to address the problem, which include strong community partnerships and increasing community awareness, education, and trust.

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The Effect of Mediation Training on Emotional Intelligence Concepts on Undergraduate Students 

Niranjanaa Ramesh, Farrah Zerola, Ryan Lee, Skylar Silverman, Sophia Spraggs

11:05 - 11:20 am EST

This study proposes to examine the qualitative effects of mediation training on students who have participated in Cornell’s campus mediation practicum. Through 15-30 minute interviews with practicum participants, the research aims to explore how engagement in structured mediation training shapes interpersonal skills, self-awareness, and approaches to conflict in both academic and everyday contexts.

Despite growing institutional interest in campus conflict resolution programs, relatively little research has focused on the lived experiences of student mediators themselves. This study seeks to address that gap by centering student voices and capturing the nuanced, personal transformations that quantitative measures alone may not reveal.

Using a qualitative methodology, the study will analyze interview and survey data to identify patterns in how participants describe changes in communication, empathy, confidence, and conflict behavior following their training. Findings are expected to contribute to the broader literature on peer mediation, restorative practices in higher education, and the developmental benefits of experiential conflict resolution training for college students.

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The Training of Labor Relations Mediators and Arbitrators: A Comparative Between the United States and South Africa

Sean Sung

11:25 - 11:40 am EST

When workplace conflict arises, employees, unions, and employers can navigate a range of dispute resolution forums. The United States and South Africa offer sharply contrasting models. Both rely on mediators and arbitrators, among others, but the systems that shape those neutrals and processes differ in structure, oversight, and professional development. In the United States, dispute resolution is fragmented and largely privatized, spanning grievance procedures, labor arbitration, and employment arbitration, with entry into the field governed more by reputation and networks than by formalized pathways. In contrast, South Africa centers most disputes within a public institution, the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration (CCMA), where training, accreditation, and professional entry are more structured and standardized. This presentation examines the different approaches to training labor neutrals and how these approaches to training shape the consistency and outcomes of dispute resolution procedures. Situating established practices alongside emerging ideas, this presentation asks questions about educating effective neutrals and considers what lessons the United States might draw from South Africa’s model.

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Facilitated Discussion / Q&A - 11:45 - 12:00 pm EST

LUNCH BREAK      12:00 pm - 12:30 pm EST

BLOCK #3: ETHICS, POWER, & TRANSFORMATIVE PRACTICE       12:30 - 2:00 pm EST

From Neutrality to Reflexivity: How Power and Race Challenge Traditional Conflict Resolution Ethics

Frank White, Jr

12:30 - 12:45 pm EST

This student presentation examines how structural power and racialized dynamics complicate traditional assumptions of neutrality in conflict resolution practice. Drawing from conflict analysis and resolution theory, organizational conflict practice, and emerging scholarship on metaracism, the presentation explores how conflict can be shaped by systemic forces that extend beyond individual bias or interpersonal behavior.

Using a concise theoretical framing and a brief applied example, the presentation highlights the concept of reflexivity as an emerging ethical orientation—one that encourages conflict resolvers to remain fair and impartial while critically examining how power, identity, and structure shape conflict processes and outcomes. The presentation contributes to ongoing dialogue between established ADR practice and emerging ideas by inviting reflection on how the field can adapt ethically to today’s complex conflict environments.

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From Insight to Transformation: Why Conflict Resolution Education Often Fails to Transform Practice

Ronda Ress Rascon

12:50 - 1:05 pm EST

Conflict resolution education programs have become increasingly sophisticated in their ability to teach theory, ethics, and structured process models. Through lectures, discussion, and low-impact experiential methods such as role plays and simulations, participants develop shared language, conceptual clarity, and an understanding of best practices. These approaches are effective at building insight and awareness; however, many practitioners report that this learning does not consistently translate into sustained behavioral change once they return to real conflict environments characterized by power and emotional intensity. As a result, the impact of training is often strongest in the classroom and weakest under stress.

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Transformative Facilitated Processes: Bridging Established Conflict Resolution Practice and Emerging Relational Approaches

Thuy Linh Nguyen

1:10 - 1:25 pm EST

Ms. Link Nguyen will present Transformative Facilitated Processes as a unifying conceptual framework that bridges established conflict resolution approaches with emerging, practice-based facilitation methods. Drawing on relational theory and social constructivism, the presentation reframes facilitation not as a set of techniques but as a structured relational space in which meaning, identity, and possibility are co-constructed through meaningful, transformative human interactions. The session will bring together well-established practices in the field, such as problem-solving workshops and interactive conflict resolution, with widely used but under-theorized facilitative approaches, including circle-based dialogue, Nonviolent Communication, and participatory hosting practices.

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Facilitated Discussion / Q&A - 1:30 - 1:45 pm EST

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Break - 1:45 - 2:00 pm EST

BLOCK #4: YOUTH, TECHNOLOGY & THE FUTURE OF THE FIELD      2:00 - 3:15 pm EST

Ex/changing Expertise: Bridging Youth and Experience in Technology and Dispute Resolution

Ata Türkfiliz

2:00 - 2:15 pm EST

This session examines information exchange between younger practitioners and experienced professionals in both technology-driven dispute resolution and dispute resolution arising in technology-related sectors. While emerging areas such as AI, online dispute resolution, esports, and digital platform disputes are often more intuitively understood by younger practitioners who have grown up alongside these technologies, dispute resolution itself remains a practice grounded in decades of professional experience and institutional knowledge. The session explores how meaningful exchange between these two groups can strengthen the field.

Drawing on initiatives such as SVAMC and SVAMC-YP, as well as the ATalks program spotlighting leaders in arbitration and technology, the presentation illustrates practical models for intergenerational knowledge transfer across procedural innovation and sector-specific disputes. It also critically engages with current debates around AI in arbitration and mediation, highlighting how these discussions often center senior voices while disproportionately affecting younger practitioners who will operate within these systems over the long term. At the same time, the session draws on collaborative initiatives such as the SVAMC-YP Webinar Series with the Columbia University Association of Negotiation and Conflict Resolution (ANCoRs), where younger practitioners actively contribute to shaping these conversations. The session reflects the conference theme by framing exchange as a reciprocal process that sustains the conflict resolution community while responding to technological and sectoral change.

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Working for Peace: Bridging Peace Practices with Youth

Jessica Laus

2:40 - 2:55 pm EST

New Jersey remains one of the most highly segregated education systems for Black and Hispanic youth in the country. To reimagine a more just and equitable education system for all of our students, in 2021, I developed a paid leadership program for students ages 15 - 24 called ""Leadership for Educational Liberation (LEL)"" in collaboration with multiple stakeholder organizations, including The Inclusion Project at Rutgers University-Newark. The LEL program created an opportunity for high school and university students to learn from and engage with one another through restorative circle dialogues and interactive workshops, while more experienced facilitators and program stakeholders shared their knowledge of restorative and transformative justice, Kingian Nonviolence, political advocacy and organization, and communication and storytelling, among other topics, through group discussion and activities. As such, the LEL program prioritized relationships and a sense of community among participants and facilitators alike.

Many of the participants commented on their appreciation for the range of participant ages, which allowed students similar in age but at wildly different life stages to connect and learn from one another. In addition, the program facilitators and program stakeholders--and in some cases, self-described elders--were appreciative of the opportunity to share their knowledge, expertise, and lived experience with young leaders. During this presentation, I will explore the development of the LEL program, and specifically the significance of paying youth to develop their peacebuilding skills and leverging intergenerational dialogue and skills-sharing to support new generations of peacemakers.

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Facilitated Discussion / Q&A - 3:00 - 3:15 pm EST

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Break - 10:30 - 10:45 am EST

BLOCK #5: STRUCTURAL CONFLICT & GLOBAL REALITIES      3:20 - 4:55 pm EST

Private Companies: A Key Piece in the Conflict Dynamics Puzzle

Isabella Cuevas Celis

3:20 - 3:35 pm EST

This research examines the involvement of multinational private companies as war-profiting entities and active drivers of conflicts across nations. In particular, it seeks to understand how natural resource commodity markets and private military and security industries contribute to the instigation and perpetuation of wars—whether through their origins or through the mechanisms that sustain them. In our interconnected world, it is necessary for peacebuilders to prioritize the identification of these forms of corruption--a corruption that arises from the instigation and fueling of conflict and wars for private gain--and collaborate across organizations and disciplines to address it.

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Colonial Wounds to Modern Crises: What Conflict Resolution Professionals can Learn from the Haiti Conflict

Rodney M. Moore, Erika Rey-Castro, Patrik Petrosyan, Wa Payeye Kizito, Dr. Alexia Georgakopoulos (Faculty Advisor & Facilitator)

3:40 - 3:55 pm EST

Unraveling the complexity and intricate layers of the Haiti Conflict requires both academic rigor and creative insight. In this panel, our team brings together diverse perspectives (colonial history, political instability, foreign intervention, gender-based violence and human rights/migration) to explore how these interconnected factors shape the lives of the Haitian people. We consider not just the facts, but the human stories and strategic decisions that have defined Haiti’s path of adversity. Our collaborative effort reflects not just a study, but a thoughtful navigation through complexity, resilience, and hope.

By bringing together team members with different analytical focuses, we demonstrate how practitioners and scholars can learn from interdisciplinary dialogue. This exchange highlights how conflict resolvers must adapt established methods to address conflict rooted in systematic injustice, and how Haiti’s multifaceted crisis offers practical lessons for practitioners working in other complex, interconnected contexts.

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Sojourning the Fracture: What Migrant Lived Experiences Reveal About Conflict, Culture, and Peace

Pauline Melvin, Josue Loyer

4:00 - 4:15 pm EST

This presentation is about how embodied sojourning interrogates core assumptions in conflict resolution and expands our understanding of culture, power, and peace practice. Drawing on our research on migration as lived conflict and adaptive peace practice, this presentation reframes migration not as a demographic category, but as a method of conflict analysis and peace-building insight. Through concrete examples, we will show how migrants’ everyday negotiation of identity, structural barriers, and cultural norms yields conflict-sensitive strategies that are often absent from conventional ADR models.

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Mapping Peace: Participatory Arts as Relational Infrastructure

Polly García

4:20 - 4:35 pm EST

Human beings have always navigated by what they trust — clay and bark, hide and stone, knotted cord and tattooed skin, silk and satellite. Every era leaves its map on whatever it holds most durable. But something shifts when the map stops belonging to the community that made it and starts belonging to the system that reads it.

This presentation traces that shift — from ancient communal technologies of navigation to the digital platforms shaping how peacebuilding practice is represented today — and asks whether participatory arts can offer a different way of knowing where we are and what we owe each other.

Drawing on relational peacebuilding theory, ensemble practice, disability justice scholarship, and ethical GIS and AI governance, it explores one possible approach to making practice-based knowledge legible — raising questions about visibility, accountability, and what emerging spatial tools can and cannot do for the field.

Participants are invited to explore conceptual language and an open framework for thinking about participation, access, and inclusion as structural conditions of peace.

Connecting to the conference theme of Established Practice and Emerging Ideas, this session bridges ancient participatory traditions with contemporary questions about knowledge, legibility, and power.

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Extended Facilitated Discussion / Q&A - 4:35 - 4:55 pm EST

END OF DAY 1      4:55 pm EST