DATE: Wednesday, January 15, 2025
TIME: 6:00 - 8:00pm (Eastern Time)
LOCATION: Virtual via Zoom (link provided upon registration)
Join ACR-GNY on January 15 for our virtual 2025 Annual Meeting as we reflect on 2024, look ahead at goals, challenges, and opportunities for 2025, vote in new Directors for our Board, and break bread with colleagues in the conflict resolution community. Voting is now open!
This year's Annual Meeting theme is Tomorrow's Bread: Our Response & Responsibility. Drawing inspiration from Langston Hughes’s poem Freedom,
I do not need my freedom when I’m dead.
I cannot live on tomorrow’s bread.
this event will examine the urgent need for innovative conflict resolution strategies in our rapidly evolving world. As communities face unprecedented challenges—from climate displacement to technological disruption, from the surge in autocratic regimes to geopolitical tensions—the field of conflict resolution must respond with both immediacy and vision.
Like Hughes’ speaker who cannot sustain themselves on future promises, those in conflict require present, actionable solutions. The meeting explores our dual mandate: to address immediate disputes while strengthening democratic foundations. As our nation grapples with fundamental questions about its democratic future, conflict resolution professionals must recognize that while we maintain impartiality in specific disputes, neutrality about democracy itself is not an option. We have a broader responsibility to support and sustain democratic institutions and processes.
Speakers
Wu Ye-Min
Guest Speaker
Emily Skinner, PhD
ACR-GNY President
Nick Pozek
ACR-GNY President-elect
Craig Coldstream
ACR-GNY Treasurer
Ingrid Scholze
ACR-GNY Vice President of Membership
Melody Wang
ACR-GNY Board Member
ACR-GNY Board Candidates
Liz Bisson
Élie Khoury
Hilary Mofsowitz
Melody Wang (Candidate for President-elect)
VOTE NOW
Please note: This meeting is open to current ACR-GNY members AND those interested in becoming members, but only members will have the ability to vote in elections. You must be logged into the ACR-GNY website with your membership credentials to access the voting form.
Not a member yet? Membership lapsed? Join us or renew now!
ACR-GNY MEMBERSHIP
Wu Ye-Min
Wu Ye-Min is Regional Director at the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, where she oversees a team of mediators based in the Asia-Pacific region who work on reducing conflict, limiting human suffering and developing opportunities for peace.
She was a diplomat with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore for 15+ years. While at the Permanent Mission of Singapore to the United Nations (UN) in New York, she chaired UN negotiations as well as represented the Group of 77 and China in UN negotiations on sustainable development issues. She was also Deputy Permanent Representative for Singapore to the World Trade Organisation and World Intellectual Property Organisation in Geneva.
Ye-Min co-founded Negotiation Resolution, which trains negotiators to speak for a better world by balancing interests and global responsibility. She conducts workshops and lectures around the world on negotiation and leadership in diplomacy.
She co-authored "Negotiating at the United Nations: A Practitioner's Guide" (Routledge), which is used as teaching material in various institutions. Her work has been featured in podcasts and publications, including “The Voices of War” podcast and South China Morning Post.
Ye-Min did her undergraduate studies at Johns Hopkins University and Oxford University, and received her Master of International Public Policy from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
Liz Bisson
Liz supports a balanced and relationship-building approach to understanding differences. She holds a Master of Science in Negotiation and Dispute Resolution degree from Creighton University Law School. She is an Affiliate with the Concord Center and the Nebraska Mediation Center, specializing in small claims, truancy/education, family group conferencing, child welfare, and parenting plans (SADR, Supervisory). Liz is also an Instructor for International Programs at the University of Nebraska in Omaha, with a particular interest in cultural diversity, where she has been a liaison to Omaha’s corporate and non-profit sector, and teaches leadership, management, and conflict resolution skills to professionals from over 30 countries. Her work includes teaching as part of U.S. Department of State grant-funded exchange programs primarily in Pakistan, Kazakhstan, India, and Nigeria. She has previous experience as Vice President of Heritage Services in Omaha, and as a Development Director for the University of Nebraska Foundation, raising over $30 million in private funds, working with local non-profit, government, civic, and corporate organizations on capital building projects and endowments. Her personal interests include Mahjong, Trap Shooting, Sigma Sigma Sigma Sorority Alumni Chapter, Nebraska Mediation Association, Friendship Force International, DAR, Omaha Sister Cities Association, and NCFCA Speech and Debate.
Élie Khoury
Élie Khoury is the Senior Coordinator of the Peacemakers in Action Network at Tanenbaum. Through his work in the Peacebuilding program, Élie manages a global network of 29 peacebuilders across 22 conflict zones and oversees the Peacemakers in Action Award nomination, production of the Peacemakers in Action podcast case studies, and brings together its members for in-person Working Retreats. Élie has a Masters in International Relations from the Institute of International Relations and Strategy (IRIS’ Sup), and his work has been published by IRIS, a leading French think tank. Élie previously worked at the New York French Institute, the U.S. Embassy in Paris, and in private geopolitical consulting.
Hilary Mofsowitz
Originally from Cape Town, South Africa, Hilary’s career began with navigating the post-apartheid transformation of labor law. She served as a senior commissioner, championed diversity in ADR and mentored new Neutrals. Her achievements made her the first individual accepted into the NAA based on work outside the US and Canada.
Now based in the United States, Hilary has established a labor arbitration practice, blending her global expertise with a commitment to fair labor relations.
As Neutral-In-Residence at Cornell University, Hilary will inspire the next generation of practitioners by engaging with ILR students through lectures, mentorship, and campus visits, sharing her unparalleled global perspective and extensive expertise.
Melody Wang
Melody Wang is the CEO of Wang Mediation, which she founded upon graduation from the University of Southern California, Gould School of Law with a MA in Alternative Dispute Resolution.
Currently, Melody is a mediator working under the New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety, Division on Civil Rights. Melody is also a panel mediator for the NYC Family Court and serves on the Board of Directors at the Association for Conflict Resolution, Greater New York (ACR-GNY).
Prior to moving to New York City, Melody was an experienced family, civil and community mediator in Los Angeles, California; a regular volunteer at the Asian Pacific American Dispute Resolution Center, a member at the Center of Conflict Resolution and a panel mediator at the Central District Court of California.
Melody has lived in the U.S., Taiwan, China and Singapore growing up. She is fluent in English and Mandarin Chinese.
This program is supported by ACR-GNY's 365 Sponsors:
