Irvine – The nonprofit JAMS Foundation announced today that it has selected 13 fellows from almost 70 applicants for the 2011-2012 Weinstein International Fellowship program. The program, named to honor the contributions of JAMS mediator Hon. Daniel Weinstein (Ret.), provides opportunities for ADR professionals from throughout the world to learn more about dispute resolution in the United States. Under the tutelage of JAMS and seasoned JAMS neutrals, Weinstein Fellows pursue projects of their own design that advance ADR practices in their home countries. “This year’s class of Weinstein Fellows are some of the best and brightest in the ADR profession throughout the world,” said Judge Daniel Weinstein, a retired San Francisco Superior Court judge and a member of the JAMS Foundation Board of Directors. “We are excited by the talent and knowledge each of the fellows possesses as well as their potential to build and develop ADR programs when they return home.”
“Now in its third year, it’s amazing to see the growing numbers of talented and impressive candidates apply for this fellowship,” said Chris Poole, JAMS Foundation president and JAMS president and CEO. “We are so grateful to Judge Weinstein for his continued support and generosity and we’re excited to see the successes come out of this year’s class.”
“These JAMS Fellows will play a leading role in advancing the effective use of ADR worldwide,” said Jay Folberg, executive director of the JAMS Foundation. “It’s an honor for us to meet them and share our techniques, experiences and knowledge of ADR, and in turn, to have the opportunity to learn from them.”
In the coming months, those selected will arrive in the U.S. to begin their fellowships, which will last from one month to one year, and each will be based in a major city that has a JAMS Resolution Center. In addition to their affiliation with JAMS, most fellows will have other commitments, including participation in university-based dispute resolution programs. The following individuals have been selected for the 2011-2012 Weinstein International Fellowship program.
- Gabriela Asmar (Brazil) – New York/Washington D.C.: Currently Ms. Asmar serves as the executive director of the Brazilian Center of Partners for Democratic Change. During her fellowship, she will meet and observe JAMS neutrals, business managers, community mediation programs and research successful ADR efforts in the U.S. to establish a center for commercial mediation in Brazil.
- Guang Chen (China) – Los Angeles/Boston: Ms. Chen is an attorney and currently serves as an arbitrator/mediator on the Beijing Arbitration Commission in China. Her fellowship will focus on conducting advanced study in mediation and ADR in the U.S. When she returns to China, she would like to establish a Chinese Mediation Committee to organize professional ADR associations, court-annexed mediation, mediation clinics and advanced ADR training in Chinese law schools.
- Paola Cecchi Dimeglio (France) – Boston: Ms. Dimeglio has served as a researcher/lecturer at the Bynkershoek Institute/ Den Haag University in Netherlands and Montpellier University in France. Her fellowship will help further research excellence in ADR in Europe and Asia, emphasizing cross-cultural and cross-border mediation. She will also conduct postdoctoral research at the PON Center (Program on Negotiation) at Harvard Law School.
- Evgeni Georgiev (Bulgaria) – Washington D.C./Los Angeles/San Francisco: Mr. Georgiev currently sits on the Regional Court of Sofia and was the first judge to implement mediation techniques in the courtroom. His pioneering support of mediation led to the establishment of a court-connected settlement center, the first of its kind in Bulgaria. The purpose of his fellowship is to learn more about court-annexed mediation and the promotion of mediation in order to continue to strengthen his efforts to establish similar programs in Bulgaria.
- Manuela Renáta Grosu (Hungary) – New York: Ms. Grosu is a Ph.D candidate from Eötvös Loránd University of Sciences in Hungary. As a visiting scholar at the Kukin Program for Conflict Resolution at Cardozo School of Law, Ms. Grosu will continue her research on mediation and arbitration in international commercial disputes while focusing on obtaining practical experience of ADR through observation of the work of JAMS neutrals in New York. Ms. Grosu plans to return to Hungary to teach ADR methods to law students, primarily in the area of international commercial law.
- Heping Jiang (China) – San Francisco: Mr. Jiang is the Chief Judge of the Dongguan Municipal No. 2 People’s Court in the Guangdong Province, First Civil Division, which has been designated as the Court for National ADR Initiatives by the Supreme People’s Court. The purpose of his fellowship is to learn about ADR in the U.S. to assist with the design and implementation of ADR programs in China.
- Peter Kamminga (Netherlands) – Boston: Mr. Kamminga is a tenured associate professor at the VU University in Amsterdam, Netherlands and is also a registered mediator at the Netherlands Mediation Institute. During his fellowship, he plans to focus on the incorporation of ADR processes in commercial construction contracts in Europe to better allow contract partners to provide more efficient and cost-effective dispute resolution mechanisms. He will also continue his postdoctoral studies at the PON Center at Harvard Law School.
- Andrew Wei-Min Lee (Australia/China) – San Francisco: Mr. Lee currently serves as the president of the Leading Negotiation Institute and teaches negotiation at the Peking University Law School in Beijing. He started China’s first National University English Language Negotiation Competition and is co-hosting an international negotiation conference in Beijing this year. His fellowship interests lie in the development of negotiation and ADR education in China and the exchange of knowledge regarding traditional forms of Chinese dispute resolution. Upon return to China, Mr. Lee intends to establish a law school training program for neutrals and negotiators to further develop ADR pedagogy.
- Mushegh Manukyan (Armenia) – San Francisco/Los Angeles/New York: Mr. Manukyan is a law lecturer at the Russian-Armenian (Slavic) University in Yerevan, Armenia where he is currently developing a postgraduate course in ADR. His fellowship will enable him to research ADR teaching methods as well as develop his mediation skills through observation and interaction with JAMS neutrals. Upon his return to Armenia, he plans to establish an ADR Center in Yerevan, develop the first Armenian language ADR textbook for universities, and develop a series of international mediation conferences to foster the ADR movement in Armenia.
- Savath Meas (Cambodia) – Washington D.C./Boston: Mr. Meas currently serves as the president of the Cambodian Center for Mediation, in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice. As part of his fellowship project, he will study comparative ADR processes in order to develop a model approach in Cambodia to better incorporate ADR methods into the formal justice system and to institutionalize mediation in Cambodia.
- Pema Needup (Bhutan) – San Francisco: Mr. Needup currently sits as the Presiding Judge of Royal Court of Justice in the Pemagatshel District Court in Bhutan. His fellowship will focus on studying court-annexed and community-based mediation programs in the U.S. in order to help strengthen Bhutan’s existing traditional dispute resolution systems as well as establish new court-and community-based mediation programs as part of the Judiciary of Bhutan’s development of ADR.
- Laila T. Ollapally (India) – San Francisco: Ms. Ollapally is the founding mediator and senior coordinator at the Bangalore Mediation Center, the first lawyer-driven court-annexed mediation center in India. During her fellowship, she will study a variety of ADR processes in order to develop a national model for establishing dispute resolution centers throughout the country with the support of the Supreme Court of India.
- Dimitra K. Triantafyllou (Greece) – Boston/New York/Washington D.C.: Ms. Triantafyllou is a practicing attorney and also one of the first accredited mediators in Greece. Her fellowship will allow her to observe JAMS offices, mediations and practices throughout the country, enabling her to enhance her own ADR skills and continue to play an important role in the development of ADR throughout South Eastern Europe.
About the JAMS Foundation (www.jamsfoundation.org)
The nonprofit JAMS Foundation is the largest private provider of ADR-related grants in the world. The Foundation was established in 2002 by JAMS, The Resolution Experts, the nation’s premier provider of alternative dispute resolution services, and is funded by JAMS mediators, arbitrators and employee associates who contribute a percentage of their income. The JAMS Foundation has provided more than $3.3 million in grant funding since its inception. Founded in 1979, JAMS and its more than 260 full-time mediators and arbitrators are responsible for resolving thousands of the world’s most important cases. JAMS is online at www.jamsadr.com.