14th Annual NALIP Conference

May 22 - 24, 2008

Presenter:
Richard Blackburn

Richard Blackburn serves as Executive Director of the Lombard Mennonite Peace Center (LMPC), located in the western suburbs of Chicago. He is also an ordained minister in the Mennonite Church. Prior to his calling to the peace center ministry, Richard taught Art History at Trinity College, Goshen College, and Northern Illinois University. More recently he has taught conflict transformation and mediation skills at Southern Methodist University-in-Legacy, Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, and Goshen College, as a component of his work with LMPC.

Richard has led hundreds of workshops on conflict transformation and mediations skills; he has also had broad experience as a mediator and consultant, working primarily with conflicted churches, both at the congregational and judicatory level. The congregational intervention model he developed represents a transformational model of mediation placed within the context of Bowen family systems theory.

For several years, Richard participated in Edwin Friedman's "Post Graduate Clergy Seminar in Family Emotional Process" in Bethesda, MD. He also participated for four years in the Georgetown Family Center's "Post Graduate Program in Family Systems Theory and Its Applications" in Washington, DC.

In conjunction with his responsibilities with the peace center, Richard serves as an adjunct faculty member of the Center for Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management at Southern Methodist University. He is also a member of the Association for Conflict Resolution and a variety of other professional organizations in the field of alternative dispute resolution.