Conference Designers
Rowan Meredith — Delta
Sharon Sutherland — Mediate BC, Vancouver
About the Conference Designers
Rowan Meredith is a lawyer called to the bar in California and BC. She has a JD from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and an LLM from Queen Mary, University of London. Rowan has training in conflict resolution through Mediate BC and was Assistant Director on Mediation Works: Family Matters, a video series discussing family conflict resolution. She has also volunteered as Social Media and Speaker Series assistant for CoRe Conflict Resolution Society. In 2015, Rowan worked as a Research Assistant with the Civil Resolution Tribunal. Rowan's interests lie in the intersection of conflict resolution and equity, diversity, and inclusion work.
Outside her professional life, Rowan is an enthusiastic scavenger hunt participant, and in 2019, her team won the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt (GISH).
Sharon Sutherland of True North Dispute Management, Delta, is a mediator and lawyer with expertise in conflict resolution training and program design. She is Director of Strategic Innovation for Mediate BC.
Sharon received her Master in Laws in ADR from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1997 before taking on the role of co-Program Manager for the BC Court Mediation Program (1998-2003). From 2000-14, Sharon was a full-time faculty member at UBC Faculty of Law where, in addition to a range of substantive legal courses, she taught an intensive clinical mediation program and supervised the Faculty's Judicial Externship program. From 2006-10, Sharon worked with Mediate BC to develop a province-wide Child Protection Mediation Practicum aimed at increasing the number of child protection mediators in under-serviced parts of BC. From 2014-16, she worked as a Knowledge Engineer in the development of the Civil Resolution Tribunal's Solution Explorer (Strata and Small Claims).
Sharon is Vice President of CoRe Conflict Resolution Society, President of the Vancouver Fringe Festival Society, and a member of Pig'n'Potato Games (a collaborative game design group).
In 2011, Sharon was honoured with the Susanna Jani Prize for Excellence in Mediation.
About the Special Guest Speakers
Dr. Megan Connell is a board-certified clinical psychologist whose practice encompasses a wide variety of topics and approaches. Her innovative work with girls, geeks, and games has garnered her national attention, particularly for her work in applied role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons. She co-developed applied, therapeutic role-playing games training curriculum for mental health professionals. She is the co-founder of Geeks Like Us, a community-driven entertainment group. Dr. Connell's work on the interface of gaming and psychology has been featured on multiple podcasts, Syfy WIRD, Forbes, and Geek and Sundry. She regularly speaks at major gaming conventions nationally, and she writes, directs, and produces the YouTube series Psychology at the Table, as well as the live play Dungeons & Dragons game Clinical Roll.
Elizabeth D. Kilmer, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and the Director of Education and Training for Game to Grow. She has developed therapeutic groups utilizing table-top role-playing games to promote well-being, personal safety, and interpersonal effectiveness in children and adolescents who experienced trauma, as well as to promote cognitive flexibility, frustration tolerance, and social skills in military veterans in primary care and substance abuse treatment settings.
Alice Wairimu Nderitu is a mediator of armed conflict, columnist with the EastAfrican 
newspaper, ethnic relations educator, and author. She served as Commissioner of the National Cohesion and Integration Commission of Kenya and in this role, was co-founder and first co-chair of the Uwiano Platform for Peace, Kenya's first conflict prevention agency linking early warning to early response. She also served as a Commissioner of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the dissolution of the Makueni County Government in Kenya.
Ms. Nderitu has actively contributed in defining the role of women as mediators of armed conflict. She has, notably, led several processes including as mediator of a peace agreement signed by 10 ethnic communities in Nakuru, Kenya. For 16 months, she was the only woman in a peace process of 100 elders and three mediators. Ms. Nderitu was also the lead mediator in a peace process involving 29 ethnic communities in Kaduna State, Nigeria leading to the Kafanchan Peace Declaration and lead mediator in a peace process involving 56 ethnic communities leading to the Southern Plateau Inter-Communal Peace Declaration in Nigeria.
Ms. Nderitu has taught as Summer Course faculty SIT Graduate School, Vermont, Brattleboro, Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government course on Women and Public Policy, and the Socio-Economic Rights course at Pretoria University's Centre for Human Rights.
Stella Sabiiti is a survivor of war and violence in Uganda during the 1970's and early 80's and has lived on three different continents as a refugee, raising her children and working for peace and security. She has spent more than three decades brokering and facilitating peace with armed groups, national militaries, governments, and civil society organizations in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia/Pacific regions through dialogue, negotiation, and mediation. She helped develop the Human Rights Network of Uganda and is the founder of the Center for Conflict Resolution, an NGO addressing conflicts in the Horn of Africa and Great Lakes Region.
In 2002, Sabiiti facilitated negotiations between the Uganda National Rescue Front II rebel group (the national army in the 1970s that had tortured her) and the Government of Uganda, ultimately leading to a signed peace agreement with actors in the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA)-affected areas.
In 2012, she joined the AU's Women, Gender and Development Directorate (WGDD), strengthening African women's voices to be heard in peace processes within the framework of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 and the AU's Gender Architecture (AUGA). Sabiiti supports women's peace efforts for UN Women and, as a member of the Women Waging Peace Network, links women with top decision-makers in Africa.
Aziz Abu Sarah is a peace builder, cultural educator, entrepreneur, author, and international speaker.
A Palestinian raised in Jerusalem, his journey from a radical seeking revenge to peacemaker seeking reconciliation led to an innovative method of peacemaking. Harnessing the transformative power of travel, he co-founded MEJDI Tours in 2009—originators of the Dual Narrative™ and a leader of socially responsible travel. Aziz's educational and conflict resolution work throughout the world has earned him the titles of National Geographic Explorer and Ted Fellow. He has written opinion pieces for The New York Times and The Washington Post, and his new book, Crossing Boundaries: A Traveler's Guide To World Peace selected as a Publisher's Weekly New Travel Book for 2020. Aziz has worked in 60 countries, including Afghanistan, Colombia, Syria, and the Balkans and he continues to be at the forefront of peace and reconciliation efforts in conflict zones.
He has served as Executive Director at the Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution, George Mason University and as the Chairman for the Parents Circle Family Forum representing the organization at international governmental organizations such as the European Parliament. Aziz is the recipient of numerous awards including the Goldberg Prize for Peace in the Middle East, Eliav-Sartawi Award for his Middle Eastern Journalism, and recognized by the United Nations for his work in peacebuilding. He was named one of the 500 most influential Muslims in the World by the Royal Strategic Centre in Jordan and won the Intercultural innovation award from the UN Alliance of Civilizations and the BMW Group.
Presenters
John-Paul E. Boyd, QC — John-Paul Boyd Arbitration Chambers, Calgary
Carol W. Hickman, QC — Virgin Hickman, Vancouver
Brian Hutchinson — ADR Institute of BC, Vancouver
Keri Morris — Head of Family Services, Senior Resolution Practitioner, Fairway Resolution, Wellington, New Zealand
Anne-Marie Parent — North Shore Restorative Justice Society, North Vancouver
Ashmin Ratnam — Resolution Practitioner, FairWay Resolution Limited, Auckland, New Zealand
Tonya Saheli — Associate Mediation Counsel/Attorney-Mediator, Bar Association of San Francisco, San Leandro, CA
Alice Shikina — Shikina Mediation & Arbitration, Oakland, CA
Edna Sussman — Scarsdale, New York
Anthony Syder — Principal Practitioner, Evergreen Resolution, Wales
Lorne H. Wolfson — Torkin Manes LLP, Toronto