John Reiman, Ph

MEDIATOR SELECTION INFORMATION

2013-2015

(Continued)

Name / Background
Julie Gentili Armbrust / Julie Gentili Armbrust is the President of Mediation Northwest. She is
a private mediator and facilitator as well as a national trainer of
special education mediation and IEP facilitation. In addition to
privately training over 1500 individuals in the art of mediation and
facilitation, Julie has been a special lecturer on mediation skills
at both the University of OregonSchool of Law and WillametteLawSchool.
Julie focuses her mediation and facilitation practices on finding
solutions to the conflict.
Mediation Northwest provides education-related mediation and
facilitation services, including special education due process
mediation, special education complaint mediation, "504" mediation &
facilitation, individualized education program (IEP) meeting
facilitation, inter-district mediation, education workplace
mediation, and organizational conflict resolution training.
Julie is the treasurer for the Oregon State Bar's Alternate Dispute
Resolution section, is a former Director on the Oregon Mediation
Association's Board of Directors, is the past chair of the Lane
County Bar Association's ADR section, and is the past co-chair of the
Oregon Mediation Association's Family Mediation Interest Group.
Scott Bellows / Scott Bellows, J.D. first began practicing mediation in 1985, as a law student helping start and run a community mediation center. After fifteen years working both as a mediator and as a litigator/trial attorney, he founded Dispute Solutions in 2002 to focus exclusively on his work as a “neutral,” helping parties find fair, constructive, creative, self-determined solutions to their disagreements. In nearly three decades of mediation practice, Scott has successfully mediated or facilitated hundreds of conflicts of all sorts, including dozens of special education disputes ranging from early childhood special education to postsecondary transition services (and everything in between).
Scott is especially committed to mediating cases involving children and the people who care for them, including families, educators, and child wellness and welfare professionals. The son of a high school English teacher and the father of two girls still in public schools, he has served on public school site council, Diversity Committee, and in the classroom; has advocated for special education, TAG, and other program needs; and currently serves as the mediation community's representative to the Oregon Department of Education's Special Education Dispute Resolution Committee.
Scott also has served on the Executive Committee of the Oregon State Bar’s Alternative Dispute Resolution practice group; is a member of (and has presented original research to) the Oregon Mediation Association; has been named to the approved mediator rosters maintained by the Oregon Department of Justice, the Oregon Consensus Program, and the World Intellectual Property Association; and mediates for the Oregon Court of Appeals, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Postal Service, the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon, several state trial courts, and numerous other agencies, businesses, employee assistance programs, law firms, and individuals.
Scott’s professional and mediation education include undergraduate and law degrees from the University of California, Davis; facilitative mediation training from the Willamette University; transformative mediation training from the Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation; and specific training in special education law from the University of Washington’s Pacific Northwest Institute on Special Education and the Law, the Oregon Department of Education, and elsewhere. He also has served as on various nonprofit and church boards, as pro bono local counsel for Habitat for Humanity, and as a volunteer with the Girl Scouts and with Portland Mountain Rescue.
More information about Scott's background, and his approach to conflict management, can be found at
Chip Coker / Chip Coker, JD, is the Executive Director of the Center for Dialogue and Resolution (CDR), formerly Community Mediation Services. CDR has been providing conflict resolution services, including mediation, facilitation and training, for over 30 years. As the Director, Chip oversees a roster of 90 mediators who provide conflict resolution and restorative justice services for over 500 cases per year.
Chip’s undergraduate liberal arts degree was in Communication Theory as Applied to Mediation. While in law school, he focused on alternative dispute resolution subjects, including mediation, arbitration and negotiation. Instead of working at law firms during the summer breaks like most other law students, Chip served as a volunteer mediator for the Orange County Human Relations Commission. Since then, Chip has mediated hundreds of cases. He has been admitted to the Oregon bar, California bar and Mississippi bar, as well as the bar of the US Supreme Court.
While studying for the Mississippi bar exam, Chip worked as a substitute teacher in a rural public school district, and was regularly exposed to the challenges that are faced by the families of special ed students and the schools that are providing an education for those students. There seemed to be a never-ending struggle with trying to meet the various needs of the affected parties with limited available resources, which often led to conflict. When these inevitable conflicts arise, mediation can be a wonderful tool that can be used to help families and their schools to think more creatively when problem-solving, all the while reducing anxiety and frustration, and building stronger relationships. Chip would like to help you turn your conflicts into satisfying and rewarding experiences.
Karen Hannan / Karen is a dispute resolution specialist in private practice, providing coaching, mediation, facilitation, and training. A former school speech-language pathologist specializing in early intervention, she has worked in the field of dispute resolution for over fifteen years. She has experience providing training to parents with children with special needs and to school district personnel (sometimes in joint efforts). Karen has consulted on multiple dispute resolution grants designed to improve relationships between educators and parents of children with special needs. In addition, she provides IEP facilitation for IEP teams who are experiencing tension and difficulty with decision-making.
For six years, Karen was a Board Member of the Oregon Mediation Association (OMA), including serving as the President of the Association. She remains active in OMA, is a member of the national Association for Conflict Resolution, and serves on the board of Resolutions Northwest.
Karen understands that conflict is emotionally stressful for all individuals who are involved and strives to create safe environments where people can explore their different perspectives in a healthy manner. In disputes involving education, Karen is committed to helping others find lasting agreements that work for them so that attention can be focused on the child and his or her needs. Her experience has taught her that creative solutions can be discovered and healthy relationships re-established as a result of the mediation process and she is passionate about helping others attain these goals.
Mary Anne Linden / Mary Anne Linden, JD, PhD, is an attorney, professor, and mediator. Her career represents a synthesis of her interests in law and policy, education, and appropriate dispute resolution.
Mary Anne’s involvement in special education spans 26 years. She has been both a teacher and a special education administrator. As a professor, she taught pre-service and inservice teachers and administrators, and she has taught countless courses on special education practice, law, collaboration, and dispute resolution. She has published scholarly and popular materials on special education law, including (with her colleague, Barbara Bateman) the best-selling book on Individualized Educational Programs, Better IEPs, which is now in its 5th edition.
In 2001, Mary Anne joined the team of Oregon Department of Education contract complaint investigators. In this role, she investigated complaints alleging violations of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and drafted numerous complaint orders for ODE. This work illuminated and reinforced her perception that many disputes in special education arise and grow out of the parties’ inadequate communication or misunderstanding of one another’s concerns. Mary Anne believes that school districts and parents are most knowledgeable about issues related to the appropriate education of students with disabilities and that, under normal circumstances, they can successfully address disagreements without resort to hearings or court proceedings.
When the parties are unable, for whatever reason, to negotiate their differences, mediation affords a high level of autonomy and flexibility to fashion a resolution that respects their competing needs, addresses their concerns, and strengthens their skills for continuing collaboration. As a mediator, Mary Anne does not attempt to substitute her own preferences for those of the parties but instead facilitates the parties’ efforts to resolve their disagreements through: (a) establishing ground rules, fostering positive communication, and supporting the parties’ discussion; (b) providing all parties the opportunity to present their perspectives on the disputed issue(s); (c) identifying ambiguities and helping to focus discussion on specific issues to be resolved; (d) when necessary, explaining relevant IDEA requirements; (d) moderating the exploration of options; and (e) writing a succinct settlement agreement that clearly states each element of the agreement, specifies applicable time frames, and assigns the rights and responsibilities of each party in executing the settlement.
Margaret Nightingale / Since 1975, Meg has had extensive experience with Special Education in a variety of roles: attorney, law professor, trainer, mediator, facilitator, and policy analyst. Her formal training includes a B.A in anthropology from NorthwesternUniversity in 1973, a law degree from HarvardLawSchool in 1976, extensive continuing legal education, and varied trainings as a mediator since 1983. She stopped practicing law in 1996 so that she could serve as a neutral outside resource to a wide range of individuals and groups. Her private practice now includes mediation, facilitation, training, policy analysis and design of conflict resolution systems. Her trainings include conflict resolution, making conflict resolution accessible to participants with disabilities, and disability laws. In addition to special education, she mediates disputes involving child welfare and open adoptions, vocational rehabilitation services, disability-related accommodations in education and employment, and elder services planning. She is an Adjunct Professor of Law at Lewis and ClarkLawSchool, and is active in the Oregon Mediation Association.
Meg is committed to helping parents and districts have the difficult conversations they want and need to have. She strives to provide a safe atmosphere and guide productive discussions that thoroughly work through the issues, yet are gentle on the people involved. She uses a variety of techniques to help mediation participants manage intense emotions while completing their work.
Mary Rowe / Mary has been a special education mediator since 2000 and a mediator since 1992. Through the Oregon Dept. of Education she has mediated situations ranging from appropriate placement and services for preschool age through high school age children.
Mary has had training in special education requirements including IEP by actively participating in training offered by the ODE including their annual mediator training. She also has advanced training in a variety of aspects of mediation including transformative mediation, case development, uses of caucuses and writing agreements. Through her 18 years experience working in human resources she has knowledge and experience with the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act, EEO law, and other related federal and state laws. Mary teaches courses in communications and conflict resolution skills.
She is an approved mediator on a number of other panels also including: Shared Neutrals, an employment related mediation consortium, the US Postal Service, State of Oregon, Federal Transportation Services agency and New York Stock Exchange. Her related membership affiliations include: Oregon Mediation Association, NW EEO Association, past member of Clackamas County Disability Awareness Commission, and for a number of years a frequent parent volunteer in school classrooms and on school site councils.
Jim Wilson / Jim has been a litigation attorney in Oregon, Hawaii and California since 1981, with a specific interest in special education law since 2001. Beginning in 2001, he worked with the Oregon Department of Education as one of a handful of complaint investigators assigned to investigate allegations of IDEA violations. He has been involved as the sole investigator in dozens of orders issued by the Oregon Department of Education.
Jim’s involvement in mediation stems from the hundreds of court supervised settlement conferences that resolved his clients’ cases before trial. In many situations, there is a better way to resolve disputes other than through trial.
By carefully listening to all parties involved in the mediation session and drawing out each party’s issues and concerns, he respects the mediation process by facilitating the parties’ opportunity to create a mutually agreeable solution to resolve the conflict. He typically writes the agreement at the mediation session, so all parties understand their rights, responsibilities and obligations before they leave.
Jim also gives full day seminars to interested parents, educators and school district personnel on special education law and IDEA 2004. He stays up to date in special education law, mediation and conflict resolution.
Besides his special education interests, Jim has also served as a municipal court judge and a mediator for the Lane County Circuit Court. He has a private civil law practice and is a father of four. He is admitted to the Oregon, California and Hawaii State Bar Associations, as well as the United States District Court (Oregon, Hawaii and Northern California), the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court.
If the parties truly want to resolve the problem by mediation, Jim offers the tools to assist the parties toward a positive outcome for all involved.