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Acknowledgements

This guide is the second edition of a project initiated by the Divided Community Project, Moritz College of Law, and the Mershon Center for International Security Studies, both at The Ohio State University. This project was supported in part by federal award number 15JCOPS-23-GK-03990-PPSE awarded to OSU by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office). Additional support was provided by OSU’s Mershon Center for International Security Studies, and the JAMS (formerly Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services) Foundation.

This guide is the second edition of a project initiated by the Divided Community Project, Moritz College of Law, and the Mershon Center for International Security Studies, both at The Ohio State University. DCP is grateful to all who have contributed to these prior projects (a complete list is available on pages 52 and 53 of the first edition). Moreover, DCP is grateful for Ben Wilson’s work as the lead writer of this guide.  DCP is indebted to Dean Kent Barnett and sustained institutional support from the College of Law. In addition, DCP is grateful for work of the following law student research assistants at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law supported this project Nour El Ghorayeb (MSL, 2024), Amina Mohamed (JD, 2024), Nico Orengo (JD, 2025), Rachel Peterson (JD, 2025), Sarvani Vemuri (JD, 2025), and Temple Wallen (JD class of 2026).

DCP Steering Committee

  • Chair | Andrew Thomas, Mediator in community conflicts and former Community Relations and former Neighborhood Engagement Director, City of Sanford, Florida
  • Executive Director | Carl Smallwood, Distinguished Practitioner in Residence, at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, Columbus, Ohio; Retired Partner, Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP; Past president, Columbus Bar Association and National Conference of Bar Presidents
  • Director | William Froehlich, Lecturer and Langdon Fellow in Dispute Resolution at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, Columbus, Ohio
  • Fellow [former] | Benjamin Wilson, Staff Attorney and Fellow at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, Columbus, Ohio. Ben is the lead writer of this document.
  • Members
    • Thomas Battles, former Southeast Regional Director, U.S. Department of Justice Community Relations Service;
    • RaShall Brackney, Distinguished Full Visiting Professor of Practice at George Mason University, and Fellow at Harvard University’s Advanced Leadership Initiative, former Chief of Police for Charlottesville, Virginia and former Chief of Police, George Washington University;
    • Chris Carlson, public policy mediator and former Chief Advisor, Policy Consensus Initiative;
    • Susan Carpenter, complex public dispute policy mediator, trainer and co-author of Mediating Public Disputes;
    • Sarah Cole, Professor of Law and Moritz Chair in Alternative Dispute Resolution at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law;
    • Daphne Felten-Green, Founder, DSFG Solutions LLC, former Chief of Staff and Senior Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice Community Relations Service;
    • Valerie Lemmie, Senior Advisor for State and Local Government, Charles F. Kettering Foundation;
    • Michael Lewis, mediator and arbitrator with JAMS, Washington, D.C. Resolution Center;
    • Justin Lock, former Acting Director of the U.S. Department of Justice Community Relations Service;
    • Grande Lum, Director of the Martin Daniel Gould Center for Conflict Resolution at Stanford Law School and former Director of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Community Relations Service;
    • Craig McEwen, Professor Emeritus, Bowdoin College, and social scientist evaluating mediation and dispute resolution;
    • Becky Monroe, Civil Rights Attorney with American Pride Rises, former Counsel and Interim Director of the U.S. Department of Justice Community Relations Service;
    • Lori Pampilo-Harris, Public Policy and Systems Change Strategist, Wayfinders Consulting;
    • Nancy Rogers, Professor Emeritus, The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, and former Ohio Attorney General;
    • Sarah Rubin, Outreach and Engagement Coordinator at the California Department of Conservation;
    • Amy Schmitz, John Deaver Drinko-Baker & Hostetler Chair in Law; Co-Director, Translational Data Analytics Institute Responsible Data Science CoP;
    • Kyle Strickland, Director of Strategic Engagement at Ohio Progressive Collaborative, former Senior Legal Analyst at the Ohio State University Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity;
    • Josh Stulberg, Professor Emeritus, The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, and mediator in community conflicts;
    • Ron Wakabayashi, former Western Regional Director, U.S. Department of Justice Community Relations Service, former Executive Director of Japanese American Citizens League.

In addition to the Project’s Steering Committee and the Mershon Center, the following thought leaders supported the development of this second edition:

  • E. Franklin Dukes, Former Director, University of Virginia Institute for Engagement & Negotiation; founder, Transforming Community Spaces;
  • Gregg Kaufman, Retired Pastor and Professor;
  • Erin K. McSherry, City Attorney, City of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

 

 

 

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