Howard R. Marsee and Ana Cristina Maldonado to Speak for Dispute Resolution Conference This Week

Mediator Ana Cristina Maldonado

Mediator/Arbitrator Howard R. Marsee

The pandemic won't stop Florida's Dispute Resolution Center from holding its annual conference -- at least virtually -- from Aug. 13 to 15, 2020. Nor will it stop UWWM panelists Howard R. Marsee and Ana Cristina Maldonado from presenting their Continuing Mediator Education (CME) programs.

Although Howard and Cristina are on at the same time, 10 to 11 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 15, organizers say all sessions will be recorded and available for attendees to view after the conference ends. Topics and descriptions of the their workshops are: 

• "Recognizing and Dealing with Cognitive Biases in Mediation" (CME: Cultural Diversity) -- "Humans are not, strictly speaking, rational decision-makers. Negotiators do not necessarily make critical decisions based on logical or economic bases. Our decision-making process is burdened by a tangle of cognitive biases. These arise because we make decisions based on rules of thumb and mental shortcuts called 'heuristics.' " Howard's presentation "will identify many of these cognitive biases, how to recognize them, how they affect mediation, and how we, as mediators, might deal with them."
• "The Nuts and Bolts of ZOOM"  Cristina's training for mediators covers "ZOOM account setup, meeting creation and scheduling, technology issue troubleshooting, ZOOM tools, and meeting safety."

The conference's overall theme, "Promoting Problem Solving," is apt for the times, and it includes pre-conference training in arbitration and in elder mediation. Each of the main conference sessions is eligible for 1.2 CME hours, for a maximum of 9.6 hours including 1.2 hours of mediator ethics (E), and 1.2 hours of interpersonal violence (IPV). Additionally, The Florida Bar has approved this conference for 8.5 general hours of Continuing Legal Education, including 2.5 hours bias elimination and 3.5 hours ethics.