From GFOI Hal Abramson:

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

This past weekend the Board of Governors selected International Academy of Mediators (IAM)’s new Scholars in Residence (SIR) in light of the fact that our current wonderful scholar, Hal Abramson, is at the end of his tenure with us.  Thanks to Hal we have established a durable foundation for this program as we move forward to enhance its meaning and impact.  The SIR committee, composed of Jan Schau, Cliff Hendler, Hal and myself, vetted a field of highly qualified and respected scholars and placed before the Board two names to be considered. Thanks to the committee for its hard work

The Board was so impressed with the two choices that it voted unanimously to offer the position to both individuals as co-Scholars in Residence. Both graciously accepted this position.  They are Professors Lela Love of Benjamin Cardozo School of Law and Dwight Golann of Suffolk Law School.  It is my pleasure to welcome them on behalf of the Academy, along with our expression of gratitude and appreciation of their high degree of accomplishment and contribution to our field.  They had a lot of other choices as highly sought-after academicians and we are honored that they chose us. Our new SIR’s will be introduced at the Memphis conference…..even more reason to come to Memphis.

Lela and Dwight bring diverse styles and agendas to this position and I am confident that working solo and in collaboration, they will expand and deepen our professional and collegial dialogue and understanding.  They have already proposed ideas that I know will be intellectually challenging and that will take us off the usual and oftentimes repetitious track.  We are excited to have them on board and look forward to learning from them, as I suspect they look forward to learning from us.

Jerry Weiss

Chairman, SIR committee