The Dispute Resolution Team is very excited about the new staff members who have joined our team in the last quarter. Each of these staff members bring a diverse set of skills that will enhance the quality of our programming and improve our ability to provide Orange County residents with an opportunity to resolve conflicts in a more peaceful manner.
After a long period of time, we are happy to have found just the right person to lead our Voluntary Settlement Conference Program at Lamoreaux Justice Center. Victor Pham, an experienced attorney who was actively involved as a volunteer in OCHR’s work to establish a family court mediation program in 2010, has long valued the difference that mediation can make in the adversarial court setting. Victor understands and appreciates how collaborative brainstorming that takes place through mediation can be very effective in solving complicated problems like those encountered in the family court setting. Bringing additional experience in the area of on-line conflict resolution, we look forward to the impact Victor will have throughout our program, not just in the family court.
Alicia Christie is the new mediation intake coordinator at West Justice Center. There is much work to be done at WJC in terms of establishing mediation procedures since the civil court program was just re-introduced to the justice center last April. We are excited about the combination of experience and knowledge that Alicia brings as a former volunteer in our civil and family court programs and a soon-to-be graduate of a paralegal program of study. Under her leadership, we look forward to expanding our services at WJC to include voluntary settlement conference for the family law courtroom that moved to WJC in August. We are confident Alicia will represent us well with all court personnel and litigants at WJC.
Britney Weller, a recent Communications Major from California State University, Long Beach (and one of our former interns!), will be joining us in our new Volunteer Coordinator position. Britney will build on the foundation that Irma Zamora laid for creating a dynamic volunteer program not just for the Dispute Resolution Team but for the whole agency. We are very excited about Britney’s passion for our work and her innovative spirit. We are excited to see the ideas she has for building this new program in the coming year.
We are excited that these talented new staff members who will be joining our more seasoned staff members, Peko Gomis, Lenora Forschner, and Kathy Shimizu, creates a dynamic team of very skilled conflict resolution specialists who are looking forward to accomplishing great things together.
