Melinda Gehris (6/2010)
President
Melinda has been serving as a neutral since 1994. She mediates, arbitrates, facilitates and provides neutral evaluation services. Melinda mediates in both court and private settings. She is a mediator for the New Hampshire Probate and Superior Courts. Melinda is also an experienced trainer, developing and leading programs in dispute resolution from basic mediation skills to advanced, specialized dispute resolution training and negotiation. She has written and published several articles on dispute resolution topics. Melinda has been appointed to the New Hampshire Supreme Court Committee on Dispute Resolution. She served as President and Treasurer of the Association for Conflict Resolution - New England Chapter. She is also Co-Chair of the New Hampshire Bar Association ADR Section and Vice-Chair of that Association's Dispute Resolution Committee. Melinda received a J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law and also earned a Certificate in Dispute Resolution from the University of Massachusetts.
Jocelyn King (6/2012)
Secretary
Jocelyn King lives and works in the seacoast region. She has begun mediating in the last several years while continuing her long career in the healthcare industry. Jocelyn is a Registered Nurse with more than 25 years experience in acute care facilities. She has also worked as a state medical examiner and a consultant. In those settings, Jocelyn has facilitated and provided neutral evaluation as well as acting as a mediator. Formal training in mediation led Jocelyn to renew her interest in mediating both in and out of the healthcare arena. Jocelyn is completing the work to become a Certified Marital Mediator.
Mary Sargent (6/2012)
Treasurer
Early in my career as a family service worker, I was charged with "assessing" a family's problems and designing a service plan to "solve" them. The plans were designed unilaterally with little to no input from the family. Why didn't the family comply? After all, I was twenty something and knew more about the family than they knew about themselves. Now, home schooling three teens has given me a whole new appreciation of conflict resolution. When they were younger, I "assessed" my children's problems and set out to "solve" them but as the children grew, so did the problems! What I finally came to understand is that everyone needs to play a role in working through one's own difficulties. Not only is it more respectful of the parties and their interests, it allows opportunities to practice communication and it also increases the likelihood of compliance. Mediating consumer complaints at the Attorney General's office, I frequently hear consumers say, "It's not about the money". They often just want the business to hear their side of the story and appreciate their interests. As my teens are headed off to college, I expect I will have less conflict and more time. I'm looking for more opportunities within the field of conflict resolution.
Ellen Dinerstein, MBA, CMM (6/2011)
Past-President
Legislation/Courts Committee Coordinator
An ACR Advanced Practitioner with significant training in the family dynamics of substance abuse and domestic violence issues, Ellen is a NH Certified Marital Mediator and has helped more than 1000 NH families build agreements. Her background includes 17 years experience in mediation, negotiation and collective bargaining within the professional film and theater industries, an MBA from The Whittemore School with a concentration in organizational behavior and conflict management, and 5 years on the faculty of Franklin Pierce teaching conflict and diversity management. Along with a private mediation practice since 1998, Ellen has served as a mediator for the NH Court system for 8 years and has mediated more than 5,000 commercial cases for eBay. She currently serves on the NH Office of Mediation and Arbitration Steering Committee and the NH Marital Mediator Certification Board. She is a member of the NH Bar Alternative Dispute Resolution and Family Law sections.
Margaret Brick (6/2011)
Education Committee Coordinator
Peggy's formal education includes a Bachelor's Degree and a Law Degree from the University of Wisconsin, as well as significant coursework from Kent College of Law in Financial Services. She completed mediation training through Alternative: A Center for Mediation and Training in Keene and is currently completing her internship with Olivia Ruel in preparation for NH Certification in Marital Mediation. Peggy also serves as a co-mediator for Cheshire Mediation, also in Keene. After more than twenty years of work and volunteer experience in both the Law/Business and Education/Social Work realms, Peggy feels she has "come home" to Mediation, a profession that uses and further develops her analytical skills, excellent communication abilities, intuitive sense and interest in ethics.
Sam Farrington (6/2011)
From 1991 to 2004, Sam served as Clerk of the NH Superior Court in Carroll County, during which time he often assisted the Court as a mediator for parties in divorce and other family matters. In March 2004, he was certified by the State of New Hampshire as a Marital Mediator and continues to mediate as a private practitioner. While no longer active in the practice of law, Sam Farrington has in the past been admitted to practice law in New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, New Jersey and in the Federal Courts located in those States. He practiced law actively in family and other cases from 1970 to l985, when he became Clerk of the New Hampshire Superior Court in Coos County. In that position, he also presided as a marital master in numerous hearings, contested as well as uncontested, and prepared and recommended orders which were approved by the Judges of the Court.
Joan Gross, (6/2012)
Joan is a NH Certified Marital Mediator and a NH Certified Guardian ad Litem. She has worked in the legal field for over 20 years, initially working in the court system and then for 15 years as a paralegal in domestic litigation. Joan was a volunteer Strafford County Family Mediation Program for 10 years and has been working as a Guardian ad Litem since 1994 and as a Marital Mediator since 1999, when she founded Resolve Mediation Services.
Charlotte S Guyer (6/2012)
In her 30 years as an attorney Charlotte Guyer has worked as a prosecutor in Northampton, Massachusetts, as a criminal defense and divorce lawyer in her own firm in Massachusetts, as a supervising attorney in the NH Child Support office, and as a hearing officer for the NH Department of Health and Human Services and the NH Department of Safety. She first trained as a mediator at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in 1983 and followed up with Olivia Ruel's and Greg Martin's Marital Mediation training in 2001. Throughout her legal career she used this conflict resolution training to assist families dealing with legal problems. In 2008 Charlotte served as Director of Cheshire Mediation where she obtained her certification as a marital mediator and mediated dozens of cases while supervising the program's mediators and interns. She also administered Cheshire Mediation's parenting plan grant, parent-youth and peer mediation programs, and child impact seminar contract. Charlotte graduated from Cornell and Cornell Law School. She currently serves as a per diem mediator for Cheshire Mediation.
David Osman (6/2012)
I was raised in Dover, New Hampshire and attended the public school system through my junior year in high school and graduated from Berwick Academy. After high school graduation, I graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce in 1968. I was a member of the Army National Guard from 1969 to 1975. I graduated from Boston University Law School in 1972. I married Fredda Chertock in 1970 and we have one child, a son, Ari, who made us proud grandparents in November 2008. I am fortunate to be able to run around the tennis court playing singles and doubles at the age of 62 and I still take to the ski slopes on a regular basis. I have been fortunate to have wonderful loving parents and in-laws who were really a second set of parents. As a younger lawyer, I enjoyed the challenge of litigation. As an older lawyer, I enjoy the challenge of avoiding or ending litigation. Mediation is the most rewarding part of my practice.
Valerie Raudonis (6/2011)
A native of Nashua, NH, Valerie followed in the footsteps of her father as a solo lawyer in a general practice of law, with the primary focus on family law, probate law, trusts and estates, real estate, small business and civil litigation. With the untimely death of her father in 1977, flying solo was thrust upon her, and she willingly embraced it. With the foundation of her family and community, she grew as she recognized the intangible wealth of experiencing the way of the law. She savors the unique opportunity provided to a family law attorney in assisting clients in times of great personal adversity. She is trained in and provides services in Collaborative Law as well as Mediation. Her passions include love for her children, skiing, and poetry writing.
Alice Schierberl (6/2011)
Alice has been a lawyer in New Hampshire for 27 years. She also practices as a Guardian ad Litem and Parenting Coordinator. It is her hope that her experience can help create a bridge among all of the disciplines involved to further the primary goal of assisting parties to achieve a resolution to their conflict in a peaceful and respectful way, so that all parties leave the process with a sense of personal dignity and ability to go on with their lives.
Vicki Silver (6/2011)
Vicki has been a Certified Marital Mediator since September 2003 and in January 2008 was certified as a Guardian ad Litem. She has a private family mediation practice in Hampton NH and serves as a court appointed mediator for Rockingham and Strafford Counties, Concord Family Division and Hillsborough County Superior Court North. In addition to mediation, Vicki has received training in facilitation of co-parenting classes. She finds it immensely rewarding to help people through difficult times in their lives. Vicki lives with her husband and a blended crew of 5 children ranging from age 13 to 4 years old -- two from her husband's previous marriage, one from her first marriage, one child adopted through a DCYF/foster care program, and one child together.
Carol Stewart (6/2012)
Carol Stewart is program director for NH Mediation Program, a community mediation center in Concord, NH, providing family mediation, victim-offender dialogue, conflict resolution services for schools and basic mediation skills training. Carol is a NH Certified Marital Mediator. In her previous life, Carol worked for the NH Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. She holds a MS degree in Rehabilitation Counseling from Boston University and a Master of Arts in Teaching from Brown University.
