Dispute Resolution Certificate

Faculty

David E. Matz, JD, Harvard University
David E. Matz is the founder and Director of the Graduate Programs in Dispute Resolution at UMass Boston. He is also an active dispute intervenor. Professor Matz has focused his work on the techniques of mediation and negotiation, and on the relationship of these to the workings of organizations and courts. He has done this primarily in the United States and Israel. In the United States, he has led in the development and use of assessment tools for court mediators, trained mediators, judges, and engineers. In Israel, he was central in developing policy and practice for the Israeli Ministry of Justice and Supreme Court in integrating mediation into the judicial system. He has also applied these approaches to the peace talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians and he has worked extensively with Arab and Jewish groups, here and abroad.
Darren Kew, PhD, Tufts University
Darren Kew studies the relationship between transformative conflict resolution methods and democratic development, particularly in terms of democratic institution building in Africa and the growth of political cultures that support democracy. Much of his work focuses on the role of civil society groups in this development. Professor Kew has worked with the Council on Foreign Relations’ Center for Preventive Action to provide analysis and blueprints for preventing conflicts in numerous areas around the world, including Nigeria, Central Africa, and Kosovo. He has also been a consultant to the United Nations, USAID, the US State Department, and to a number of NGOs, including the Carter Center in a 1999 effort by former President Carter to mediate the Niger Delta conflicts. Professor Kew is recognized by policymakers in Washington and academics here and in Nigeria for his deep, firsthand knowledge of Nigerian politics and society. His work on how conflict resolution methods promote democratization of national political cultures is among the first of its kind linking these important fields.
Ivan Sascha Sheehan, PhD George Mason University
Sascha Sheehan specializes in the current conflict between global terrorism and counterterrorism and in international cultural and religious conflict resolution. His research, based on terrorism incident data, examines the impact of preemptive force on terrorist activity and the implications for U.S. foreign policy and international conflict management.
Dr. Sheehan received his Ph.D. from the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University. He is a graduate of Swarthmore College with a major in Political Science and a concentration in Peace and Conflict Studies. He studied post conflict stabilization and reconstruction in war-torn societies through the Peace Operations Policy Program at George Mason University’s School of Public Policy and the Center for International Development and Conflict Management at the University of Maryland. He was trained in mediation at the Harvard Mediation Program and has served as a court appointed mediator.
Professor Sheehan has taught courses in comparative political systems in the International Studies Department at Bentley College and has taught courses on terrorism and conflict resolution at George Mason University’s Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution. His first book, When Terrorism and Counterterrorism Clash: The War on Terror and the Transformation of Terrorist Activity, will be published in the fall of 2007.
Eben Weitzman, Ph.D., Columbia University
Eben Weitzman is a social and organizational psychologist specializing in the study of conflict. His work focuses on conflict within and between groups, with emphases on organizational conflict, cross-cultural conflict, and intergroup relations. He does conflict resolution, organizational development work, and dispute resolution systems design with a wide variety of individuals and organizations in both the public and private sectors, including organizations in health care, education, organized labor, government, law enforcement, social services, business, and the courts.
Professor Weitzman also does extensive work on research methodology, and is Reviews Editor for the journal, Field Methods.
In addition, Professor Weitzman serves as Grievance Officer for the UMass Boston Faculty Staff Union.
Roni Lipton, MS, Boston University
Roni Lipton is the Associate Director of the Graduate Programs in Dispute Resolution; she is responsible for the administration of the programs, including development, student recruitment, admissions, and advising. She also serves as a member of the clinical faculty, supervising students in district court placements as part of the Mediation Internship.
Roni is a mediator, negotiator, facilitator and trainer with experience in a variety of settings, including start-up and established corporate environments, non-profits and government agencies. As Senior Vice President of American CableSystems Corporation, she managed multi-million dollar business acquisitions and served as lead negotiator for more than 50 municipal contracts in six states.
Prior to coming to UMass Boston in 2004, she worked for the Community Dispute Settlement Center (CDSC) in Cambridge, MA, where she was responsible for initiating a program in elder mediation.
Roni mediates in the Boston Municipal Court/Boston Bar Association Civil Case Mediation Program.
Roni received a BS in Political Science from Tufts University, a Special Diploma in International Relations from the London School of Economics, and an MS from Boston University College of Communications. She has also completed advanced mediation training with The Center for Social Gerontology [Ann Arbor, MI] and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.