ACR-GNY upcoming events

ROUNDTABLE BREAKFAST: Mediator Certification: Does the U.S. Need a Standard? (Thursday, August 06, 2026)

Thu, 06 Aug 2026 12:00:00 GMT

ACR-GNY & CUNY Dispute Resolution Center at John Jay College present:

Mediator Certification:
Does the U.S. Need a Standard?

Maybe you are a mediator who is certified by your state court. Perhaps you are a new mediator starting out. You could even be among the fortunate few who have made a successful living as a mediator. Why should you care if there is a standard for certification in the United States?

These are the questions the U.S. National Certification Working Group has been grappling with. Come learn about our efforts to see if now is the time to revisit this question. There has been a lot of interest for certification across the U.S. and around the world. There are benefits, like reciprocity and professionalization. There have also been concerns about need and implementation. Hear what this group has been working on and see what you think.

TARA FISHLER

Tara Fishler is the founder and CEO of Customized Training Solutions, established in 2003 (www.tarafishler.com). Through her company and work with non-profits, she has taught trauma-informed/resilience-based conflict resolution and related skills to thousands of adults and students in schools and organizations. Currently, she is the Statewide Peer Mediation and Restorative Justice Program Coordinator for the NYS Unified Court System. She is also the convenor of the U.S. National Mediator Certification Working Group. Tara is a facilitator, circle-keeper, strategic planning expert, mediator, lemon law arbitrator, and passionate defender of individuals with special needs.

As an Appropriate Dispute Resolution (ADR) leader, Tara has served on the executive committees of ACR (Association for Conflict Resolution), ACR-GNY (Greater New York chapter), and NYSDRA (New York State Dispute Resolution Association), and is currently Secretary of NAMI Westchester (National Alliance for Mental Illness). She has authored articles and published her memoir, Up-Rooted: Climbing Through Family Chaos, through WoodHall Press, which details her life as the divorced mother of four children, including two daughters adopted from Ukraine, and the divorce process through both the courts and mediation as a conflict resolution professional. She is currently writing a children’s book on bullying called Spaghetti Street.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

The Roundtable Breakfasts are online meetings via Zoom. The link will change each month and will be distributed to all registrants the day before and the morning of the event. All listed times for ACR-GNY events are for Eastern Time.

8:00 am – 8:30 am | Join call to network with attendees

8:30 am – 10:00 am | Presentation and discussion

About the Roundtable Breakfasts

The Roundtable Breakfasts are organized by ACR-GNY and the CUNY Dispute Resolution Center at John Jay College. They take place the first Thursday of the month and are ongoing since 2001.

Views expressed in connection with any Roundtable event publicity or at sessions are those of the speakers and participants and not of the CUNY DRC or ACR-GNY.

This program is supported by ACR-GNY's 365 Sponsor:

ROUNDTABLE BREAKFAST: Bridging Divides: Lessons Learned from Interfaith and Community Collaborations (Thursday, September 03, 2026)

Thu, 03 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT

ACR-GNY & CUNY Dispute Resolution Center at John Jay College present:

Bridging Divides:
Lessons Learned from Interfaith and Community Collaborations

How do we build trust, unite divided communities, and drive meaningful change?

In this presentation, the Do Gooders—formerly known as UnityWorks—will discuss their far-reaching bridge-building work as a collaborative of seasoned leaders whose combined experience spans more than 100 years across government, faith, nonprofit leadership, and organizational management. Pastor Gilford Monrose, Eileen Reilly, Mohammed Razvi, and Rabbi Bob Kaplan bring diverse perspectives, deep expertise, and decades of hands-on experience in community leadership, interfaith engagement, public service, and organizational strategy.

Drawing on more than two decades of collaborative work, the presenters will share the stories, strategies, and lessons behind their efforts to build bridges, respond to crises, foster cross-sector partnerships, and create resilient, values-driven solutions.

The following timely and compelling topics will be discussed:

How leaders and organizations can navigate complexity and uncertainty
The power of cross-sector and interfaith collaboration to advance meaningful change
Leadership lessons drawn from decades of community-building and bridge-building
Strategies for aligning mission, values, and organizational action
Practical approaches to building resilience and sustaining long-term community relationships

(Left to right: Mohammad Razvi, Rabbi Bob Kaplan, Eileen Reilly, and Pastor Gilford Monrose)

MOHAMMAD RAZVI ⏺ RABBI BOB KAPLAN ⏺ EILEEN REILLY ⏺ PASTOR GILFORD MONROSE

VIEW FULL BIOS

Mohammad Razvi is the Founder and CEO of the Council of Peoples Organization (COPO) in Brooklyn, New York. A pioneering leader in Muslim and South Asian community advocacy since the aftermath of 9/11, Razvi has established a crucial connection between Muslim-American communities and government agencies throughout New York City. Under his leadership, COPO has raised over $60 million and serves over 300,000 individuals annually, supported by 500 staff and volunteers. The organization offers vital services including immigration assistance, healthcare, mental health counseling, and women's empowerment programs. Razvi is also recognized for launching NYC’s first Halal Muslim Senior Center and co-founding citywide Iftar dinners. His impactful work has garnered international recognition, reflecting his belief in the power of community.

Rabbi Bob Kaplan is Senior Advisor at the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York founding Executive Director of its Center for A Shared Society, which advances dignity, cultural humility, leadership in diversity, conflict prevention, and coalition-building across New York City. He serves as a Commissioner on the NYC Commission on Human Rights, co-chairs the Governor’s Hate and Bias Task Force, and participates on Bronx Community Board 8, the Mayor’s PATH Task Force, and the DOE Interfaith Advisory Committee. A clergy liaison to the NYPD Chief and chaplain to the MTA Police, Kaplan sits on boards including YouthBridge-NY, the Interfaith Center of New York, NYU Langone Family Health Centers, and Manhattan College’s Holocaust, Genocide and Interfaith Education Center. He has incubated numerous coalitions and fellowships locally and internationally and is a sought-after consultant on diversity, leadership, and community building.

Eileen Reilly is a strategic advisor specializing in sustainable, high‑impact programs across human services, economic development, and immigrant services. As Vice President at CAMBA, she led workforce development, small business services, and refugee resettlement serving over 50,000 people, including 12,000 refugees. She created initiatives such as the Immigrant Bridge Program and Cooper Union Retraining for Immigrant Engineers and forged workforce partnerships with NYC agencies. Her work spans organizational development, international capacity‑building, mutual‑aid training, and pioneering programs for HIV+ refugees. She is a co‑founder of We Are All Brooklyn and the We Are All New York Fellowship, a practicing Buddhist and active member of SGI-USA, a lay Buddhist organization committed to dialogue and nonviolence.

Pastor Gil Monrose (Dr. Gilford T. Monrose) served as Executive Director of the NYC Office of Faith-Based and Community Partnerships. Originally from the U.S. Virgin Islands, he is lead pastor of Mt. Zion Church of God 7th Day in Brooklyn and founding president of the 67th Precinct Clergy Council, “The God Squad.” He is the founder of Clergy for Safe Cities, a national antiviolence organization. A prominent community and civic leader, Pastor Monrose champions youth mentorship, anti‑gun violence programs, and collaborative relationships among law enforcement, communities, and government. Former faith director for the Brooklyn Borough President’s Office under Eric Adams, he holds honors including graduations from the FBI and NYPD Citizen Academies nationally.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

8:00 am – 8:30 am | Join call to network with attendees

8:30 am – 10:00 am | Presentation and discussion

About the Roundtable Breakfasts

The Roundtable Breakfasts are organized by ACR-GNY and the CUNY Dispute Resolution Center at John Jay College. They take place the first Thursday of the month and are ongoing since 2001.

Views expressed in connection with any Roundtable event publicity or at sessions are those of the speakers and participants and not of the CUNY DRC or ACR-GNY.

This program is supported by ACR-GNY's 365 Sponsor:

ROUNDTABLE BREAKFAST: Trauma Informed Mediation: Screening for Meaningful Participation Using CALM-SPJ (Thursday, October 01, 2026)

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMT

ACR-GNY & CUNY Dispute Resolution Center at John Jay College present:

Trauma Informed Mediation:
Screening for Meaningful Participation Using CALM-SPJ

This presentation will introduce the T.I.M (Trauma Informed Mediation) ecosystem and explore how the CALM Structured Professional Judgment (CALM-SPJ) framework assists mediators in assessing participation capacity and adapting the mediation process to promote psychological safety, process equity, decision clarity, and durable agreements. It will be an engaging discussion about the practical application of trauma-informed mediation and how structured observational frameworks can strengthen decision-making within mediation. The session moves beyond theory and always includes operational resources and tools to apply in real life. Tired of taking workshops that taught approaches but then left her with the question "Now what?", Trisha Wright's framework aims to fill that gap!

TRISHA WRIGHT

Trisha Wright, MBA, MA (Forensic Psychology), is an Accredited Family Mediator (AccFM), On-Site Family Mediator with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Certified Clinical Traumatologist, and a member of the clinical panel of Ontario's Office of the Children's Lawyer (OCL). She is the founder of Clearpoint Mediation and the Insight Learning Institute, where she develops trauma-informed education for professionals across the legal, healthcare, and community sectors, including training accredited for CPD by the Law Society of Ontario. She also leads the Association of Trauma-Informed Professionals, a community of practice serving the family law sector.

Drawing on a forensic psychology lens , Trisha is the developer of TIM™, the Trauma-Informed Mediation Framework — an integrated professional practice system supporting practitioners from intake to durable agreement. Within that ecosystem, she created CALM-SPJ™, a structured professional judgment screening framework assessing Capacity, Adversity, Load, and Mediation Safety to guide decisions about participation capacity and process suitability. Her practice focuses on high-conflict family matters, including cases involving trauma, mental health, neurodivergence, and intellectual and developmental disabilities. Her recent article, "Calibrated Neutrality: Advancing Process Fairness in Mediation," was published in Attorney at Law Magazine.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

8:00 am – 8:30 am | Join call to network with attendees

8:30 am – 10:00 am | Presentation and discussion

About the Roundtable Breakfasts

The Roundtable Breakfasts are organized by ACR-GNY and the CUNY Dispute Resolution Center at John Jay College. They take place the first Thursday of the month and are ongoing since 2001.

Views expressed in connection with any Roundtable event publicity or at sessions are those of the speakers and participants and not of the CUNY DRC or ACR-GNY.