About the Elder Mediation Section
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History The Elder Mediation Section was established in 2009 as a special interest section of the Association for Conflict Resolution. Arlene Kardasis, Bob Rhudy and Sue Bronson were the founding tri-chairs of the section. Mission Our mission is to advance the development, provision, and use of high-quality, facilitated conflict resolution and decision-making services by older persons, their families, public and private service providers, and others. Members We have over 230 members based in the United States, Canada and Europe. Members take part in regular teleseminars and meet once a year at the ACR annual conference. Benefits to Members
For more information about the section send an email to acreldersection@yahoo.com Section Leaders Joan Braun, Co-Chair Joan Braun is a lawyer, a mediator and a social worker in private practice in Vancouver British Columbia and has worked as a mediator in private practice since 2004. She is certified as a Comprehensive Family Mediator through Family Mediation Canada, is an accredited Family Law Mediator through the Law Society of BC and is approved for listing with BC’s Civil Mediator Roster. She is the former chair of the Canadian Bar Association’s Alternate Dispute Resolution Section. Joan also has extensive experience managing social justice organizations in the legal aid sector and beyond. From 2007-2012 Joan was the executive director and senior lawyer at the BC Centre for Elder Advocacy and Support (BC CEAS), where she founded the first legal aid clinic for older adults in western Canada. She left BC CEAS in 2012 to complete a Master of Laws degree. Her thesis focused on decision-making process for older adults with cognitive deficits. . Her current mediation and consulting practice focuses on family and older adult issues DeLila Bergan, Co-Chair DeLila Bergan is an elder mediator, bioethicist and retired elder law attorney. She earned her law degree from Cleveland-Marshall College of Law and practiced as an elder law attorney for many years. The difficult questions faced by the clients she served led her to obtain a Master’s degree in bioethics and health care policy from Loyola University Chicago. The stress and conflict she saw within those same families, who were often overwhelmed by the crises inherent in aging and serious illness, drew her to the fairly new field of elder mediation. Today, she serves older, ill and disabled adults and their families through a blend of elder mediation techniques and medical ethics consultation. She supports long-term care providers and other senior care professionals through mediation and medical ethics consultations, training and policy development. Jennifer Wright, Treasurer and Equity & Diversity Liaison Jennifer Wright has practiced elder law since 1988, first for 10 years as the statewide Senior Law Program attorney for Oregon Legal Services, and for the last 18 years as a professor directing law school clinics representing low-income seniors. Ms. Wright received her J.D. from Stanford Law School and is currently admitted to practice in Minnesota and California (inactive). She directs the Elder Law Practice Group in the University of St. Thomas School of Law’s Legal Services Clinic, supervising certified law students working on cases related to long-term care rights, Medical Assistance, financial exploitation of the elderly, and guardianship defense. Ms. Wright has published many academic and practice-oriented articles, primarily in the areas of guardianship, elder law mediation, long-term care, and Medicaid. She has been an active member of the Elder Law Section of the Minnesota State Bar Association since 2003. She currently serves on the Governing Council and the Pro Bono Committee. She was awarded the 2016 Mary Alice Gooderl Award by the Elder Law Section for “outstanding contributions in the field of elder law”. Lora Barret, Communications Officer and Ethics Liaison Lora Barrett has been mediating since 1992. She has a masters in Conflict Resolution through California State University, Dominguez Hills. For several years Lora directed the Mediation Services Program at University of California, Davis. Apart from employment disputes, she has worked deeply with families in Family Court Services and Dependency Court Services, helping families create or restore parenting plans. She also managed the Civil Harassment Restraining Order Mediation Program in Sacramento Superior Court. Lora has recently specialized her family work on families with intergenerational disputes. She is an active member of the Yolo Healthy Aging Alliance and a board member of the Elder Section of the Association of Conflict Resolution. To contact members of the executive please send an email to acreldersection@yahoo.com Join us! To join the Section, you must be a member of the Association for Conflict Resolution. Visit the ACR website or call ACR at 202-464-9700 and choose option 2. |
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