As Dispute Resolution programs increase their presence on
college campuses, there are opportunities to apply processes, practices, and
skills in a wide range of contexts. Some of these are well known such as
mediating conflict situations and conducting training for faculty, staff and
students. There are other contexts that can benefit immensely from the work of
dispute resolution programs. This workshop will focus on how monthly town
meetings on the John Jay College of Criminal Justice campus have drawn on
general mediation principles for over a decade. The presenters will also
provide insights about the process, promises and challenges of these large
scale public forums.
Maria R Volpe, Ph.D. is a Professor of Sociology
and Director of the Dispute Resolution Program at John Jay College of Criminal
Justice at the City University of New York, and serves as the Convener of the
CUNY Dispute Resolution Consortium, a University-wide project funded by the
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. An internationally know scholar, Dr.
Volpe has lectured and written extensively about dispute resolution processes,
particularly mediation, and has been widely recognized for her distinguished
career in the field of dispute resolution. She teaches dispute resolution
courses at the undergraduate and graduate level, mediates conflicts in
educational setting; conducts dispute resolution skills training and
facilitates for a wide range of groups, and administers grant-funded
projects. She is and Editorial Board Member of Conflict Resolution Quarterly,
Negotiation Journal, and Practical Dispute Resolution; Past-President of the
Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution (SPIDR); Member of Dispute
Resolution Advisory Committee of the NYS Unified Court System, Former Board
Member of the National Conference on Peacemaking and Conflict Resolution (NCPCR);
Ex-President of the New York City Chapter of SPIDR; Board Member of the
Association for Conflict Resolution of Greater New York. Her current research
focuses on police use of mediation, dispute resolution in educational
settings, and ADR Responses to 9/11. Dr. Volpe received her Ph.D. from New
York University where she was and NIMH Fellows.
Roger Witherspoon completed his undergraduate
studies at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. He is a
graduate of Adelphi University’s Graduate School of Social Work in Garden City
Massachusetts. His doctorate degree is from the University of Massachusetts,
Amherst. Dr. Witherspoon was previously the Associate Dean of Student Affairs
at Lehman College of the City University of New York. He is currently the Vice
President of Student Development at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, also
City University of New York. Prior to his appointment as Vice President, he
taught both graduate and undergraduate courses in education and social work.
Dr. Witherspoon has lectured at Columbia University, St. John’s University,
San Francisco State, Smith College, Fordham University and others. His
publications on urban education have appeared in local and national journals.
Dr. Witherspoon’s recent publications on urban education have appeared in
local and national journals. Dr. Witherspoon’s recent publications include:
“Black Perspectives of Education” in The Negro Almanac: A Reference Work on
the Afro-American, 5th Edition and “Mediation and Diversity on College
Campuses” in Mediation Quarterly. He has also served on many boards that
include child care, teen pregnancy, community mental health and was a member
of the Board of Children’s Psychiatric Center. Dr. Witherspoon has been
involved in national and local consultant work in urban education and social
work, with a major focus on urban minorities.
