“I made a conscious decision to come back, full circle, to mediation because I truly believe in the power of mediation to solve conflicts.”

CAREER PATH:

Teletha McJunkin is a Rule 31 Mediator with 20+ years of professional experience at a local and global level. She has worked remotely and internationally for the past five years with people from many different contexts, cultures, and countries. However, she began her career in the 1990s as a social worker working in local group homes, and at the Hamilton County Juvenile Court, where she developed an early interest in mediation. She stated, “it made so much sense to me as a way to resolve a conflict that I took my first 40-hour course on General/Civil mediation and considered starting a juvenile victim-offender program.” However, her career path led her through a variety of roles in small to large nonprofits, community-based organizations, community colleges, and international NGOs where she had the opportunity to work on her mediation skills through small and large group facilitation.

TELETHA’S PHILOSOPHY ON MEDIATION:

Teletha has a very diverse background in the field of mediation. Her training centers on the facilitative style of mediation; however, the more she learns about mediation, the more she is turning towards transformative mediation. Her mission in life is “helping people learn how to solve their future conflicts as I am in helping them solve their present conflict.” Therefore, with this in mind, after her professional training, she searched for an organization with a focus on mediation and came across MBBI. She was thrilled this type of organization existed. Her work experience in Asia for the past three years and work with a global interdisciplinary team for the past two years around mediation issues motivated her to plug into an international mediation network, like MBBI, right away. She stated, “I wanted to find volunteer opportunities that tapped my existing professional experience in the context of mediation so I volunteered with the International Peacebuilding Institute and volunteered to co-lead the Children & Youth ADR Working Group.”

CURRENT PROJECTS:

Teletha is currently working with the Children & Youth ADR Working Group. They recently conducted a survey of their members and will use the results to plan future activities. She also works with a group of volunteers helping the International Peacebuilding Institute transition their in-person workshops towards a virtual space so they can continue to offer workshops during these uncertain times. Furthermore, on a local level, she is hoping to start a Juvenile Victim-Offender program in Tennessee and in partnership with the Nashville Conflict Resolution Center.

MEDIATION AND THE PANDEMIC:

Teletha recognizes the impact COVID-19 had has on the world, especially in communities she has been able to work with in the past. However, not much has changed for her considering she has been working remotely for the past couple of years. However, due to so many more people working from home now, she states, “I have had unforeseen opportunities to help mediators and organizations transition to the virtual world. That has been very rewarding because I love to help people.”

Article by Elizabeth Gamarra, MBBI Writer

Julie Richard is a practicing lawyer, in her home country of Canada, where she runs a practice with another lawyer, about 6 hours north of Toronto. During her undergraduate degree, she switched early on to a major in international relations and political science and found that it really spoke to her. This interest in global politics has stuck with her since and guides a lot of how she views the nature of conflict and dispute resolution.

A Foray into International Law

As part of Julie’s undergraduate degree, she spent a year in Wales, and additionally, she had the opportunity to teach kindergarten in Hong Kong for a year. This experience sparked a passion for working with children which has lasted her whole career; and developed her belief that ‘kids are such a huge resource that we don’t invest in, and they provide the biggest return.’ She, coincidentally, worked for the provincial legislative assembly around the same time and conducted research on what kind of returns they would get if they invested in education for young children, wherein she realized for herself that investing in better schooling and care for young people allows for a healthier, more productive society overall.

After university, Julie went to law school, where she specialized in administrative law and wrote her thesis on the UN and the concept of international law. This was a part of a longstanding interest in international affairs and belief in the importance of international bodies and norms; Julie understands deeply the imperfections in workings of international law, supranational organizations, and other such institutions. But, like her belief in the practice of mediation and dispute resolution, she knows that one does not always have to aim for perfection and a perfect agreement – she believes that ‘what matters is that there’s a forum’, and a method in place to communicate more effectively. Early in her career, Julie went on to work in the Attorney General’s Office in New Brunswick. She was in the Constitutional Law unit, and as she put it, ‘it was a dream come true.’ There, she had the chance to specialize in her work in aboriginal law.

An Emphasis on Child Protection Law

For the last 10 years, Julie has been running her own practice in the small town of Kirkland Lake, Ontario. Her firm takes on standard legal cases, but as part of the practice, she works for the Office of the Children’s Lawyer, a position in which she is contracted to represent children in child protection matters and in custody battles. During this practice, she started working more and more in mediation and alternative dispute resolution – not as a mediator but as an advocate for the kids she is representing. As part of her specialty in child protection and aboriginal practices and law, she began to engage in dispute resolution practices more generally, including engaging in talking circles in indigenous communities. In this work, she always strives to recognize and be sensitive to the aboriginal process, from which forms of restorative practices we use in mainstream culture originate.

Although she works in law, her aim is to promote communication in family and child protection cases, with the goal of reducing instances of harm and separation.  

Within a custody battle, Julie notes that there is always a disclosure meeting during the court process, which she conducts with the parents. Although this is not a formal mediation, Julie notes that the value of it is similar to mediation practices, in that there is a goal to communicate openly, tell them what their children want them to understand, and try to find a resolution that will allow them to move on as a separated family in a peaceful manner. As a child advocate, it is much like mediation practices in that the goal can be set to work together to solve a problem that both parents face – rather than a win-lose scenario.

Advice for Future Mediators

Julie has an understanding of conflict and dispute resolution that is both complex and extremely straightforward, and the idea can be applied all the way up to global conflict “it doesn’t matter if it’s with your neighbor or between states when there’s no communication and there’s no awareness of a process that’s available, that’s when the issues flare up, and it doesn’t matter the size of the conflict; the goal in any dispute resolution process ‘shouldn’t necessarily be an agreement, but one that fosters tolerance.” Julie also applies her dispute resolution skills in civil litigation cases, but the part of her practice she holds nearest to her heart is ensuring children are heard. When prompted to give advice for any young people who want to work in mediation, peacebuilding, or strive to make the world around them a better place, Julie says that one just has to realize that we’re all interconnected as people, and it does not matter how small your process is; ‘no matter where you are, you can do well, and you can help’.

Article by Lizzy Nestor, MBBI Writer