Raymond Shonholtz: Community Mediation Visionary

Earlier today, I learned that Raymond Shonholtz died.  He was a founder and president of the San Francisco Community Boards.  It would be hard to overstate the role these community boards played in the evolution of mediation in the United States, not just the small claims versions thereof, but also many of the facilitative and inclusive variations on the theme of mediation in a wide range of contexts.  The mediation world owes a great debt of thanks to Raymond and his colleagues’ work, even if their work is not always acknowledged in our foundational literature.  (Web article here.)

MM

One thought on “Raymond Shonholtz: Community Mediation Visionary”

  1. Community mediation within the U.S. has grown to 400 programs, 1,300 full-time staff, and over 25,000 volunteers since Ray helped found the field nearly forty years ago. Collectively, we continue to build upon his vision of conflict management as a core, accessible human service. Thank you, Michael, for the kind note, for sharing this with your circles, and for your tip of the hat to our professional community mediation administrators and dedicated volunteers.

    Justin R. Corbett
    Executive Director
    National Association for Community Mediation (NAFCM)

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