Margaret "Peggy" Brick (6/2014)
President
Peggy is an attorney licensed in New Hampshire and Wisconsin, engaged in solo practice in Londonderry, NH. Her primary areas of practice focus on Conflict Resolution outside of the litigation model and include local and international business, family law and family-based immigration work. She teaches Philosophy at Southern New Hampshire University, is fluent in Spanish and is both a N.H. Certified Family Mediator and member of the Collaborative Law Alliance of New Hampshire. She is a member of the NH Bar Alternative Dispute Resolution, Immigration Law and Family Law sections as well as a member of the American Immigration Law Association. Peggy is interested in local and international peace building.
Melinda Gehris (6/2013)
Past President
Melinda has been serving as a neutral since 1994. She mediates, 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, the United States District Court, the EEOC and the Human Rights Commission. 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. She teaches Alternative Dispute Resolution at the University of New Hampshire School of Law. Melinda has served as President and Treasurer of the Association for Conflict Resolution - New England Chapter. She is also Vice-Chair of the New Hampshire Bar Association 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 began mediating in the last several years while continuing her long career in healthcare. Jocelyn is a Registered Nurse, also holding a Master's Degree in Human Services from Antioch. She has also worked as a NH state medical examiner and 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.
I feel that mediation occupies a major role in the helping profession continuum, assisting clients to recognize and exercise their right to self determination at critical junctures in their lives.
Jocelyn is a Certified Marital/Family mediator, working within the court system and privately. Her company, Best Outcomes, provides services in Family/Elder mediation, Divorce and Parenting and Small Claims.
Valerie Raudonis (6/2011)
Treasurer
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.
Joseph Caulfield
After graduating from Boston Latin School in 1967, I attended Boston College. There, I majored in English and Comparative Religion, graduating in 1971. I then attended Suffolk Law School where I received the degree of Juris Doctor Cum Laude in 1974.
I began practicing law in downtown Boston, following a family tradition. I also accepted a teaching position in Suffolk Law School in 1975, where I became an Executive Director of Legal Assistance, lecturing in Family Law Practice and Trial Tactics. I taught a clinical course for 3rd year law students, running a legal assistance bureau in Charlestown, representing battered women from the inner city.
I also teach martial arts. I am the Founder and Chief Instructor of Black Sword Aikido. My approach and philosophy in mediating is heavily influenced by my aikido training. I have been practicing aikido for 36 years, and I hold a Godan, 5th Degree, black belt from Aikikai Hombu, as well as black belts and instructor ranks in other martial arts. In other words, in my mediation, I tend to use the aikido techniques of entering, blending and moving off the line to diffuse resistance, resentment, and anger, and to allow for the possibility of reconciliation. I am also a stage and magician and a member of the Order of Merlin with Shield of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, the New England Regional Vice President of the Society of American Magicians and the President of Nashua Assembly 118. I perform as a mystery performer.
I am admitted to practice law in MA, NH, and VT and have tried more than 1,000 cases in the last 36 years. I was a member of the CJA Panel for the US District Court, District of NH, 2004-2010, qualified to represent criminal defendants in general and complex crimes. I am a certified Guardian ad Litem in MA and NH and the Vice President of the NH Guardian ad Litem Association. I am a Certified Family Mediator in NH.
I have published and lectured in the areas of law, stress, comparative religion, and the martial arts and currently teach online for University of Phoenix.
Ellen Dinerstein, MBA, CMM (6/2011)
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.
Adriana Elliot
Adriana Elliot is a New Hampshire Certified Family Mediator, located in Keene, NH, who helps families with communication, relationship renewal, separation and divorce, co-parenting, and elder care decisions. Adriana serves as the Director for Cheshire Mediation, providing mediation services for private individuals, as well as for the New Hampshire Courts. She coordinates the Monadnock regional chapter of NHCRA, and works as a Guardian ad Litem in Cheshire County. She is a member of the national Association for Conflict Resolution, teaches movement, and volunteers for the Colonial Theatre and the Monadnock Waldorf School. Her office is located in the Hannah Grimes Center for Entrepreneurship, where she is an Associate in the Business Incubator Program.
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.
Roy Goodman (6/2013)
NHCRA Website Coordinator
Roy began mediating for Milford Area Mediation in 2007. Since then he has been trained in family (marital) mediation, small claims, civil writ and foreclosure mediation. Roy recently began mediating small claims cases and has applied for family mediation certification. Currently working fulltime as a mechanical drafter and document administrator, Roy would like to become more involved with Alternative Dispute Resolution practice.
Born in South Africa, Roy came to the USA in 1972. He is married with two adult children, is a writer and is active in local Arts organizations. Roy says "I feel that I can bring a different perspective to the NHCRA board based on my life experience and on my practice as a mediator - primarily as a volunteer, up to this point…. I believe in mediation because communication is the antidote to violence."
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 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 hearingS 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 Family 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.
Paul Lipnick (6/2013)
Retired from the US Postal service with 42 years service, Paul Lipnick served as a Labor Relations Advocate for the US Postal Service negotiating union contracts, grievance/arbitration proceedings, and EEO disputes as ADR representative. As a member of the Nation Association of Postmasters, he held the office of Postmaster Representative for the state association representing Postmasters as the Dispute Advocate between Postmaster and Management and held a National Office with the National Association for 2 years serving Postmasters throughout the US.
Paul has been a mediator with the Nashua Family Mediation Program for the past 6 years and a Small Claims Court Mediator for the past 2 years. Paul mediates with Gate City Mediation Services providing Family and Divorce Mediation Services.
In the Nashua area, Paul is involved in a variety of civic and community activities including Nashua Catholic Regional School Board, President and Secretary Church Council, President and Secretary of the Richard McDonough Scholarship Foundation, and President of the Nashua Country Club.
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.
Mary Sargent, CFM (6/2012)
With 20 years experience in family service work, Mary enjoys working with families. Aside from family court work related to divorcing and parenting issues, she is a passionate volunteer for Milford Area Mediation, facilitating conflict resolution between parents and children, siblings & blended families as well as work place and neighborhood disputes. Prior to becoming certified for Family work, Mary mediated consumer Protection complaints for the Attorney General's office and small claims and Civil Writ cases. Mary and husband, Steve live in Nashua and have three sons.
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.
Carol Stewart (6/2012)
Carol Stewart has been mediating since 2002 and has experience with family mediation including divorce and parenting, parent-child and adult family/elder mediation. She also has provided conflict resolution services for schools and training for adults and teens in conflict resolution and mediation. She is a NH Certified Family Mediator. A member of NHCRA's education committee, Carol has also served as treasurer and website coordinator. Carol is the former program director of NH Mediation Program, a community mediation center in Concord, NH, which closed in April 2011 and is currently an adjunct instructor at Nashua Community College. 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.
