Our Consultants
CMP consultants are seasoned higher education professionals with a commitment to conflict management systems in the college and university environment. At present, our consultants include:
Richard T. (Rick) Olshak (Bloomington, IL)
The founder of the Campus Mediation Project, Rick serves as Associate Dean of Students at Illinois State University. Previously, Rick directed student conduct and mediation programs at Illinois State University and at the State University of New York College at Cortland. Rick also served as a disciplinary officer at Georgetown University. In 2001, Rick served as president of the Association for Student Judicial Affairs (ASJA), an organization within which Rick has actively advocated for professionals in higher education mediation and dispute resolution. Rick has been involved in the development of several campus-based mediation program and offered consulting services to many developing and established campus-based mediation programs.
Rick served as a community and court mediator in Cortland County, New York and has also served as a higher education mediator. He is the author of “Mastering Mediation: A Guide for Training Mediators in a College or University Setting”, published by LRP Publications. He earned a B.A. in Public Communication from The College of Saint Rose (NY) and a M.S. in College Student Personnel from Western Illinois University. He is currently completing his Ed.D. in Educational Administration and Foundations at Illinois State.
William M. (Bill) Fischer, J.D. (Providence, RI)
Information coming soon
Susan P. Trageser (Berkeley, CA)
Information coming soon
Daniel S. (Dan) Kast (Denver, CO)
Originally from Chicago, Illinois, Dan serves as the Director of Citizenship and Community Standards at the University of Denver. Prior to this, Dan worked at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, at Indiana State University, and at Illinois State University, where he spent five years as Assistant Director of Student Dispute Resolution Services.
Dan has served as Parliamentarian for the Association for Student Judicial Affairs (ASJA), and been on the faculty of the Gehring Institute since 2005. He is also certified in mediation and can sing all six verses of "Rule, Britannia". He lives in Castle Rock with his cat, his wife, and her dog.
Jennifer Meyer Schrage, J.D. (Ann Arbor, MI)
Information coming soon
Michele Goldfarb, J.D. (Philadelphia, PA)
As of July 1, 2008, Michele will be serving as Associate University Ombudsman at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Currently, Michele Goldfarb is completing her tenure as Director of the Penn Women’s Center at Penn. She also continues to serve, as she has for over a decade, as an adjunct clinical faculty member at Penn’s Law School, co-teaching and co-supervising in the Mediation Clinic. Until recently, she was the director of the Office of Student Conduct at the University of Pennsylvania, a position she held for eleven years. Michele has continuously maintained her connection with Penn Law’s Clinical Programs because of her expertise and abiding passion for conflict resolution in general and mediation practice in particular. In addition to training law students in mediation skills through classroom work and supervision in mediation fieldwork, Michele has also trained faculty, college administrators and students in mediation workshops in order to prepare them for University-based mediation roles.
Michele has also served on many University Committees charged with the creation and implementation of policy in a broad range of areas including academic integrity, substance abuse, confidentiality of student records, hazing and sexual assault. She has led numerous workshops and trainings on academic integrity, ethical issues, conflict resolution and mediation. Before entering higher education teaching and administration, Michele served as an Assistant District Attorney in Philadelphia and Assistant U.S. Attorney in Washington, D.C. where she prosecuted a wide variety of criminal offenses. As a full time supervisor and faculty member at the law school’s litigation clinic in the early 1990’s, Michele gained extensive experience as an advocate for families, women, children and victims of abuse and other violence. She held clerkships with the Hon. Stanley S. Harris, District of Columbia Court of Appeals and the Hon. Phyllis W. Beck, Superior Court of Pennsylvania (the first female appellate judge in the Commonwealth).
Michele earned a J.D. from Washington College of Law (American University) and a B.A. from Oberlin College. She has taught courses in Mediation (and other Alternatives to Litigation) and Civil Practice Clinic. Her research interests include Conflict Resolution and Restorative Justice, Academic Integrity and Ethics in the Academy and across Professional Life.
Candace Wannamaker, Ph.D., B.C.E.T.S. (Philadelphia, PA)
Candace is the Director of Support Services for the Department of Public Safety at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She completed her Ph.D. at Drexel University. Her research focused on assessing the need for emotional intelligence in university judicial officers. Candace is also a Board Certified Expert in Traumatic Stress achieving the Diplomate Credential from the National Center for Crisis Management. Her responsibilities include providing victim support services and awareness education programs to the campus community. Candace also participates in the departmental web design and development, as well as coordinating campus wide Public Safety initiatives.
Candace is a certified mediation trainer and has been a mediation faculty member at the Gehring Institute, as well as a presenter during mediation pre-conference programs for ASJA. She has presented on topics pertaining to alcohol abuse on campus, anger management, creating judicial databases, compassionate conduct/mediation and entering the digital millennium and breaking down the barriers between public safety and judicial affairs at the ASJA International conferences. Candace has also presented on topics such as stalking and sexual assault on colleges campuses, as well as training campus security officers as first responders.
Kimberly S. (Kim) Novak (Tempe, AZ)
Information coming soon
Shawn McGuirk (Fitchburg, MA)
Shawn is a motivated professional with over 14 years experience in higher education. He has been an active member of ASJA for the past several years, including a recent term on the Board of Directors, and a faculty member of the mediation program for the 2007 Gehring Academy. Shawn also trained mediators at Fitchburg State, and is in the process of recruiting and eventually training professional staff as mediators. Shawn has also done consulting work related to assessing disciplinary programs, provided programs and webinars on numerous issues, including Facebook/Myspace, and he is a co-founder of the Circuit One RD Judicial Institute.
Shawn's areas of expertise include: student conduct, mediation and conflict resolution, student leaders development, identifying areas of need and implementing appropriate plans of action, budget management and staff/student supervision and motivation.
Jeff Stefancic (College Station, TX)
Jeffery Stefancic currently serves as a Program Coordinator within the Offices of the Dean of Student Life at Texas A&M University. He currently supervises the Student Conflict Resolution Services Office and the Alcohol and Drug Education Programs Office. He is also a member of the on-call team for Texas A& M University’s Critical Incident Response Team. Prior to this, he held positions in University Housing and Residence Education at the University of Michigan and at Texas Tech University. Jeff received his BS degree in Elementary Education from Bowling Green State University and a M.Ed. degree in Higher Education Administration from Texas Tech University. He is currently enrolled in the Ph.D. program in Higher Education Administration at Texas A&M University. Jeff is also active with the Association for Student Judicial Affairs and currently serves that organization as its Treasurer. Jeff has also been a faculty member for the Donald D Gehring Campus Judicial Training Institute, serving as a trainer on mediation issues for the higher education community. In his spare time Jeff enjoys spending time with his wife Stefanie and their two basset hounds (Copper and Flash), traveling to Minute Maid Park in Houston to watch the Astros, running, and reading the latest espionage novels that he can get his hands on.
Patty Farris (Orlando, FL)
Patty Farris joined University of Central Florida’s Dispute Resolution Services (DRS) office as the Coordinator in July of 2004. She was born in Houston, Texas; however, her hometown has been Tupelo, MS since 1974. She is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Mississippi State University with a BA in Psychology with a Women’s Studies concentration. Her M.Ed is in Student Personnel in Higher Education from The University of Georgia. She is a Florida Supreme Court Certified Mediator. She has nine years experience working in residence life prior to working with DRS at UCF. She served housing residents at Mississippi State University, University of Georgia, University of San Francisco, and Florida International University. She is a current member of the Association for Conflict Resolution. Patty has taught courses, trained, and mediated throughout her 12 years working in higher education.
Colleen Ryan (Boston, MA)
Colleen is an Assistant Director in the Office of Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. She completed her M.Ed. in Higher Education at Loyola University Chicago. During graduate school, Colleen held a graduate assistantship in judicial affairs which helped to spark her interest in the field. Prior to her experience in higher education, Colleen spent four years as a marketing professional working in the technology sector.
Colleen received 40 hours of mediation training in 2007 and quickly became enamored with the process. She mediates small claims cases at least three times a month in the Dorchester District Court in order to continually develop her skills. She is currently working on developing a peer mediation program at Northeastern University.