Dave Joseph, Chair
Smithfield, RI, USA
djoseph@publicconversations.org
Dave Joseph, MSW, is currently a Senior Associate at Essential Partners, after serving as Director of Programs from 2005-2017. He has provided dialogue training and consultation in the US, Canada, Greece, Thailand, Nigeria, Liberia, and Burundi, over the past 10+ years. He has designed and facilitated training and dialogues about polarized issues such as immigration, class, gender, marriage equality, domestic violence, political differences, and many other issues in the United States. His international work has focused on promoting interfaith coexistence and collaboration; restoring and enhancing community resilience in post-conflict situations; and immigration.
Dave is also is a founding member of Mediators Beyond Borders and currently serves as its Board Chair. He is an experienced mediator, facilitator, and consultant, who has designed meetings, conferences and strategic initiatives within human service organizations and educational institutions. Previously, he co-founded and served as the Executive Director of the Community Mediation Center of Rhode Island. His background also includes having directed mental health and addictions treatment programs at community mental health centers in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
- Smith College, Northhampton, Massachusetts, USA, MSW
- Binghamton University, Binghamton, New York, USA B.A.
Judith Gilmore, Vice Chair
Chevy Chase, MD, USA
judithwgilmore@gmail.com
Judith Gilmore is currently a mediator for the Washington, D.C. Superior Court, the Maryland District Court, the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office, Office of Human Rights, and the Conflict Resolution Center as well as the U.S. government. She mediates small claims, misdemeanors, parenting plans, community conflicts, and employment discrimination and workplace issues. She is also the Chair of the Finance Committee on the Board of Managing Trustees of the International Association of Women Judges.
Previously, Ms. Gilmore had a career in international development at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), where she was a senior manager. Ms. Gilmore led the USAID regional offices of East Asia and West Africa and managed the technical offices in both Africa and the Latin America and Caribbean Bureaus. Earlier in her career, she was chief of evaluation for NGO and food aid programs and designed the first grant programs at USAID for NGOs. Prior to joining USAID, Ms. Gilmore worked at Oxfam-America, the International Labor Organization, and the Organization of American States.
A graduate of Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Ms. Gilmore also earned certificates in French and Spanish translation from Georgetown University’s Institute of Language and Linguistics. She received her BA in French literature from Wellesley College.
Charlie Pillsbury, Treasurer
New Haven, CT, USA
chapillsburymbb@gmail.com
Charlie Pillsbury served as MBB’s first Executive Director from November 1, 2009, through January 31, 2014. Charlie is also an MBB Founding Member and a member of MBB’s Colombia project team.
From 1989 – 2009, Charlie was the Executive Director of Community Mediation, Inc., a nonprofit community mediation center in New Haven, Connecticut. He was a founding Board member of the National Association for Community Mediation (NAFCM) in 1993 and was Co-Chair of NAFCM’s Board of Directors from 1999 – 2001. He currently is also the Co-Director, Center on Dispute Resolution, and a Distinguished Practitioner in Residence, Dispute Resolution, at Quinnipiac University School of Law.
Rose-Anne Moore, Secretary
Stamford, CT, USA
rmoore@polestarpartners.com
She has a lifelong passion for understanding how people’s beliefs, attitudes, and underlying values each inform the others and influence their decisions and actions. That interest has led her to work with consulting firms, advertising agencies, and client-side companies, in a range of industries from automotive to financial-services to health-care and pharmaceuticals, and in areas from advertising to website usability.
She holds an undergraduate degree from Williams College, an MBA in marketing and management policy from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University, and an MA in ethics from Yale Divinity School, and is a trained mediator.
Courtney Bourns, Chair, Resource Development Committee
West Hartford, CT, USA
beachfive@comcast.net
Courtney, a graduate of Tufts University and Duke University Law School, was a founding partner of the Hartford, CT law firm of Berman, Bourns, Aaron & Dembo, LLC, now Berman, Mickelson, Dembo & Jacobs. He retired in 2015 after 50 years in a general litigation and family practice, including 30 years as a divorce mediator.
Following in the path of his father who was deeply engaged in civic activities and served a term as District Governor of Rotary in Ohio, Courtney has served on the boards of non-profit organizations in the Hartford area since 1970. His experience has extended from starting a small non-profit restaurant in downtown Hartford to being a board member of a $50 million/800 staff integrated health care organization. He enjoys fundraising — putting the “fun” back in it!
Courtney loves connecting/engaging with people, along with tennis, traveling, and photography. He currently serves as MBBI’s Chair of the Resource Development Committee (RDC).
Prabha Sankaranarayan, President and CEO
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
prabha@mediatorsbeyondborders.
She is committed to partnership, as evidenced by the organization’s collaboration with over 120 organizations globally. She leads MBBI’s recent partnership with Rotary International, a global network of 1.2 million members, as well as with NAFCM, a North American network of over 300 mediation centers.
She is a conflict transformation practitioner who has mediated, facilitated and trained in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the USA. Her public and private sector work includes conflict analysis for public/private partnerships, consultation & assessment for industrial development zones, design and implementation of trainings for multinational corporations; interfaith dialogues as well as facilitation of multi-stakeholder mediations.
Prabha is actively involved in regional, national and international civic activities focused on civil liberties, sexual violence prevention, conflict mitigation & mediation and the recovery & rehabilitation of trauma survivors. She is an Adjunct Professor at Washington and Jefferson College. She designs programs and interventions, trains and delivers presentations globally, on the impact of family and community violence, the intersection of trauma and peacebuilding, restorative justice, conflict resolution, mediation, and transitional justice.
She speaks English, Tamil, and Hindi. She practices yoga and also enjoys hiking, rafting, and climbing.
Lynn H. Cole
Tampa, FL, USA
lynncole.com
lhc@lynncole.com
After over 26 years as a full time, “av-rated” attorney specializing in business, complex commercial and labor and employment cases, Lynn Cole is now a full-time dispute resolution professional. In the U.S., she has a domestic practice in mediation and arbitration and has served as a Special Master, a Special Magistrate, and an SEC Receiver.
She was appointed to the DRC (formerly Mediation Qualifications Board) by the Florida Supreme Court as a founding member, has served as the Chair of the Civil Justice Reform Act Commission for the federal court, and chaired the Thirteenth Judicial Nominations Commission responsible for selecting Judges in the State of Florida. She is Florida-certified and Harvard-trained in mediation and is listed as a neutral by several prestigious ADR international organizations such as: the American Arbitration Association; the International Chamber of Commerce; the United States Council for International Business; the International Institute for Conflict Resolution and Prevention; the World International Property Organization in The Hague; and several others. In 2008, she was an invited attendee of the ABA ADR Section’s first International Conference held in The Hague. She has lectured internationally in Commercial Mediation; Ethics; and Basic and Advanced Mediation. She has taught mediation courses domestically for students in several Universities and Law Schools and internationally for judges and mediators from Jordan, Oman, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Croatia.
Kenneth Cloke, Emeritus
Santa Monica, CA, USA
kennthcloke.com
kenclokembb@gmail.com
Kenneth Cloke is Director of the Center for Dispute Resolution and a mediator, arbitrator, consultant, and trainer specializing in communication, negotiation, and resolving complex multi-party conflicts, including community, grievance and workplace disputes, collective bargaining negotiations, organizational and school conflicts, sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuits, and public policy disputes, and in designing preventative conflict resolution systems for organizations.
He has mediated conflicts and taught dispute resolution in over 20 countries and is a nationally recognized speaker and published author of many journal articles and several books. He is currently an Adjunct Professor at Pepperdine University School of Law, Harvard University’s School of Law and Amsterdam University’s Institute on Dispute Resolution. Kenneth Cloke is the key founder and leader of Mediators Beyond Borders. He has assembled a team of dedicated conflict resolution professionals to implement the mission of MBB. He is currently involved with MBB’s developing Rwanda project as the Board Liaison.
- B.A. University of California, Berkeley 1963
- J.D. U.C. Berkeley, Boalt Law School 1966
- Ph.D. U.C.L.A. 1980
- LLM U.C.L.A. Law School 1980
- Post-doctoral work at Yale University School of Law 1980
- Graduate, National Judicial College, Reno. Nevada 1981
Victoria Gray
St George, Utah, USA
victoria@vlgray.com
Victoria is a federal mediator of complex railroad and airline labor disputes, a certified conflict coach, EEOC mediator for settlement conferences, who teaches conflict resolution skills, communication, ethics, facilitated bargaining and grievance mediation. She brings to this position 40 years of experience in the airline industry as a labor advocate, having served as President of a Union, member of the Board of Directors of an Airline, Vice-Chair of the Creditor’s Committee for an airline bankruptcy.
Dana Moldovan
Los Angeles, CA, USA
danamol@gmail.com
Dana Moldovan was a partner in a high tech company that was acquired by a public company. After completing her contract with the buyer, Dana started her own 501©3 nonprofit organization, Children Skills for Life, and now works full time on humanitarian projects. Children Skills for Life organization’s mission is to help children build their future through education. Dana joined Rotary International in 2002 and is an active member of Newbury Park Club, District 5240. She is Past President and currently serves as Inter-Country Committee National Coordinator USA. She has participated in polio immunization campaigns in Nigeria and India and in many humanitarian projects in Romania, Honduras, El Salvador, and India.
Dana has a passion for “peace and conflict resolution” and women’s rights. She participated in several missions of Reconciliation working with minorities of Syria and also was involved in Peace Building Projects in Israel. Dana also is involved with other nonprofit organizations like Big Brothers Big Sisters, Thousand Oaks Philharmonic, PACE Universal, Blue Heron, PACIS Project of Pepperdine University School of Law and Advisory Board of the Pepperdine School of Psychology and Education for the Social Entrepreneurship and Change Master Program. Dana joined MBB in 2013 and is an active member of MBB – Los Angles Regional Group.
Dana participated at the 2013 MBB Congress in Istanbul, Turkey where she was a presenter and she was the 2015 MBB Congress Chair that took place in Bucharest, Romania. Dana is a trained mediator and mediated hundreds of cases in the Los Angeles Courts.
Dana has an Engineering degree in Electronics and Telecommunications from Romania, a Certification in Business Management from the University of California, Los Angeles, a Certification in Dispute Resolution and a Master’s Degree in Dispute Resolution from Pepperdine University.
Todd Lopez
Santa Fe, NM, USA
toddlopez@seednm.org
Todd has been active for over 15 years in private practice as a natural resource, water law and environmental attorney and more than 20 years in non-profit and social justice work. Todd is currently engaged in international transboundary wildlife and waterfowl conservation efforts and also serves as Executive Director of SEED: Source for Educational Empowerment and Community Development, a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering individuals towards greater self-fulfillment, protection of the natural environment and service to the community at large. SEED is primarily engaged in the administration of the Inspire Santa Fe youth mentorship program (www.inspiresantafe.org). Todd has served on the Board of Directors of several New Mexico non-profit organizations on issues involving youth, education, health, and the environment, and currently serves on the Board of Creativity for Peace, Rio Grande Return and the New Mexico Interfaith Community Housing Development Corporation.
Wimal Wijenayake
New York, USA
wwijenayake@trumid.com
Wimal Wijenayake has 15 years of fixed income experience across various parts of Fixed Income Trading Spectrum and is currently a member of the Trumid Client Team. Prior to joining Trumid, an electronic exchange for corporate bonds, Wimal helped lead the launch of both Tradeweb’s and Electronifie’s electronic credit trading platforms. Prior to that, he spent 8 years trading at Morgan Stanley across the capital structure on both the buy and sell side. Away from FinTech, Wimal is also involved with several charities in the NYC area such as New York Cares, the Association of Community Employment(ACE), and Kids Enjoy Exercise Now(KEEN). Wimal holds a B.A. in Finance from Western Kentucky University where he was a member of the men’s tennis team and Vice President of the Finance Club.
Vinod Verma
India
vinodverma2016@gmail.com
Mr. Vinod Verma retired in 2013 from a long and successful banking career of nearly four decades. His rich and varied experience includes important and strategic assignments in Private, Public and MNC sectors in India. Currently, he is mentoring young entrepreneurs in diverse fields such as finance, education, and industry etc.
Mr. Verma was with Societe Generale for 18 years, as Regional Head and Managing Director Corporate and Investment Banking managing over 300 clients covering MNCs and large Indian corporate clients, first in Bangalore and then in New Delhi. He has also been associated with European Business Group in India (EBG) since its inception 15 years ago and helped the European Business Community in India build an effective policy advocacy platform and publish its annual Position Paper. He was Chairman of the Working Group of European Banks in India and then a Member and Treasurer of the Country Council of European Business Group. He was elected and called upon to take on the mantle of its Chairmanship and became the first point of interaction and consultations with EBG by Government of India and for visiting Commissioners from EU, Brussels.
Prior to joining Socgen, Mr. Verma worked extensively in strategic positions in Indian Public Sector banks for over 2 decades. He held Senior Management Positions in Syndicate Bank and Canara Bank. He started his commercial career as a Management Trainee with DCM, a leading business house in Private Sector in India, during those years.
He is an alumnus of the prestigious St. Stephen’s College in New Delhi and a Chartered Associate of Indian Institute of Bankers. He underwent a Business Administration program in Canada where he was adjudged as the “Best Participant”. His publications have been well accepted and recognized by reputed journals of International Business and Finance.
Joyce Aluoch
Kenya
joyce.aluoch09@gmail.com
Lady Justice Joyce Aluoch, EBS, CBS, (Retired) is a former Judge and First Vice-President of the International Criminal Court at The Hague, The Netherlands. Prior to that, she was a Judge of the High Court and Court of Appeal in Kenya, having been appointed the second woman judge in the country.
She holds an LLB Degree from the University of Nairobi, and a Diploma from the Kenya School of Law. She has a Master’s Degree in International Affairs (GMAP), from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University in Boston, which granted her the Distinguished Achievement Award in April 2015, and in September 2018, the same University awarded her its top Award, “The Class of 1947 Award” (honoris causa ), making her the first black person to receive such an honor”
Judge Aluoch has successfully moved her legal profession to other forms of Alternative Dispute Resolution Mechanisms, namely, Arbitration and Mediation. She is a Court Annexed Mediator and also conducts mediation for FIDA-Kenya, as well as private mediations. She is also an Accredited Trainer for Foundation Mediation Skills. She is a recipient of several international and national awards. At home in Kenya, the President of the Republic has bestowed upon her the honor of the Elder of the Burning Spear (EBS), First Class Chief of the Order of the Burning Spear (CBS), and The Trail Blazer Award, for services rendered to the nation.
Adama Diarra
Mr. Adama N DIARRA holds a public law Master’s Degree from the National School of Administration of Mali. His rich and varied experience includes important and strategic positions in public, private, and community, at national and international levels in Mali. He is currently CEO of a Public Relations Company, SESAME. He is also, since 2009, an elected mayor of a local constituency of 18,000 habitants. Earlier in his career, Mr. Diarra was appointed Minister of Youth of the Republic of Mali.
Deeply engaged in civic activities he served as founding Member and Vice President of Malian National Consumers Association ASCOMA, Founding member and Secretary-General of Junior Chamber International Mali, Member of Lion’s Club, among others. Mr. Diarra has a lifelong passion for social activities. He served 15 years as Director of Agency for Social development, then National Solidarity Fund, dealing with poverty alleviation projects achievements directed towards the satisfaction of social and human needs. In collaboration with UNESCO,(Management of Social Transformation Program) MOST, he served as Permanent Secretary of the Forum of Minsters in Charge of Social Development of West African Countries.
Mr. DIARRA also chaired Mali Red Cross National Society for 12 years, then was elected for Africa Member of the Standing Commission of International Red Cross and Red Crescent, the highest deliberative body of the Movement. He is currently Mali Red Cross Honorary Chair. In 2012, he conducted the first humanitarian mission in the occupied city of Timbuctu amid Mali security crisis in the north of the country.
Gwendolyn Myers
Liberia
gwen.youthadvocate.myers@gmail.com
Gwendolyn S. Myers has over ten years of experience working in Peace and non- violence education among in and out of school youth. Recently featured as Time Magazine-2019 -Top Eight Young Reformers Across the Globe Shaping the World and 2019-Top Seven-African Women Breaking Barriers in Peacebuilding in Africa #FrontlineWomen. She’s the Founder& Executive Director (2008-Present) of a non-profit, youth-led peacebuilding organization; Messengers of Peace- Liberia Inc (MOP-Liberia Inc), managing over one thousand five hundred Young Volunteer Peace Messengers. Her non-profit; Messengers of Peace-Liberia Inc. (MOP) became the first recipient of H. E. President George Manneh Weah National Peace Prize Award 2018 in celebration of the 15 years of unbroken peace in Liberia since the Accra Peace Accord 18th August.
She became a Certified Folke Bernadotte Academy (FBA), Swedish Agency for Peace, Security and Development Young Mediator after successfully completing a Special Training Programme in Dialogue and Mediation in Sweden, Cambodia & Nepal from November 2016-April 2018. She’s presently the Youth Representative at the level of the Technical Working Group on National Reconciliation in Liberia with strong insights on the UN Peacebuilding Architecture as well the Peacebuilding and Statebuilding Goals (PSGs). Through her global peace missions to several countries and regions, she has been able to develop strong networks with major stakeholders working on peacebuilding programs, especially within the region of West & Central Africa.
John Keenan
New York, USA
jkeenan71@verizon.net
John is an international corporate, commercial lawyer, arbitrator and mediator specializing in complex dispute resolution including international commercial arbitration and mediation. He is trained in the law in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. He is admitted to practice in New York, California and Ontario, Canada. John is certified in advanced commercial mediation.
While he spent much of his career as a trial lawyer litigating commercial disputes before courts, John recognized the advantages of alternative dispute resolution, particularly mediation. Experience showed him that alternative dispute resolution helped to facilitate settlement of disputes, while allowing maximum participation of the parties at a lower cost and often more quickly. John has acted frequently as a mentor training new mediators. John has also acted in an advisor role to governments such as drafting new ethical rules for judges in the State of New York, and lobbying multiple levels of government in Canada.
- A., Queen’s University at Kingston, Ontario
- B., University of New Brunswick Faculty of Law
- D., Syracuse University College of Law
- M., Osgoode Hall Law School, York University
- M., Queen Mary University of London