Boston Public Schools Mediation Program

Mediator and Trainer
617-895-4028

Diana Chiang Cooke is a mediator and trainer with MWI. She is an adjunct faculty member teaching negotiation at Suffolk University Law School and also taught at the University of New Hampshire as an adjunct faculty member of the Justice Studies Program. She has mediated various cases in the Massachusetts District, Municipal, and Probate & Family Courts on topics including harassment prevention orders, workplace & employment, and housing/eviction cases. Diana is also an MWI training faculty member and leads corporate and academic ADR training programs. Diana has a certification in Applied Positive Psychology and is an accredited ACTP Coach through The Flourishing Center. She earned a B.A. in Sociology & Justice Studies from the University of New Hampshire and a J.D. from Suffolk University Law School.

Mediator and Trainer
617-895-4028

Dispute Resolution Experience

Ben Stich is a mediator and guest lecturer at MWI. He mediates conflicts of all kinds. His path to mediation and conflict resolution started when he directed a residential therapeutic school for eight years, followed by five years as a High School Adjustment Counselor. Ben has been a mediator for over 15 years and is also a certified trainer in the Think:Kids Collaborative Problem Solving® model (CPS). In addition to Ben’s work in schools and organizations he mediates all types of family disputes, such as divorce, marital issues, co-parenting matters, conflict between family members, and parents and their teenage children.

Ben is a licensed independent clinical social worker and on Board of Directors for the Massachusetts Council on Family Mediation, a faculty member for the Massachusetts Collaborative Law Council, and an active member of the Massachusetts Chapter of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts.

eramos@mwi.org

Elise Ramos is a mediator and ombuds with MWI. She primarily mediates remotely and conducts mediations for the East Boston, Dorchester, and West Roxbury Municipal Courts. Elise also develops training material and conductins organizational climate surveys and reports for clients. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Law from Utrecht University in the Netherlands and a Master’s in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution from Columbia University. In 2020, Elise earned certifications in mediation and cross-cultural negotiation from ESSEC Business School in Paris. In 2022, she completed MWI’s advanced mediation training, became a member of the International Ombuds Association, and completed IOA’s ombuds training, Foundations of the Organizational Ombuds course. In the past, Elise worked designing participatory action research workshops to guide social transformation in conflict-prone settings. She is fluent and comfortable working in English, Spanish, and Dutch.

Mediator
617-895-4028

Jay Fielding is a mediator with MWI who brings 13 years of experience in mediation and alternative dispute resolution, focusing on fostering respectful, constructive dialogue and finding collaborative solutions. He began his career in public service in 2008 as an Investigator for the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families before joining the Norfolk Division of the Probate and Family Court in 2013 as a Probation Officer. In this role, Jay provided mediation services for highly sensitive and emotionally charged matters, including contested custody and other family-related disputes, helping parties reach mutually acceptable agreements outside a court trial.

In addition to his direct mediation work, Jay has significant experience in organizational conflict resolution. As a long-standing executive board member for the Massachusetts Probation Officer Union (Local 229), he worked on employee labor relations, conflict resolution between members and management, contract negotiations, grievances, and arbitration.

Since 2021, Jay has served as the Assistant Register of Probate for the Norfolk Division, where he plays a key role in court operations, employee relations, and HR decision-making. Known for his compassionate, strength-based approach, Jay draws on his extensive mediation background to navigate complex workplace dynamics, foster understanding, and support positive outcomes for all involved.

Organizational Ombuds
alnoor-ombuds@mwi.org

Alnoor Maherali is a highly skilled diplomat, ombuds, facilitator, and CEDR and SIMI-accredited mediator. He offers 20 years of experience working in conflict zones, in the not-for-profit sector, and as a practitioner in the fields of diplomacy, mediation, human rights, and crisis management. His personal and professional travels have taken him to over 50 different countries, making him especially adept at navigating cultural, ethnic, and racial conflict and differences. Alnoor resides in New York City and mediates for MWI, Venn Mediation, the Office of the United Nations Ombudsman and Mediation Services (UNOMS), and the New York Peace Institute (NYPI). He coaches and mentors the next generation of mediators at Harvard, Yale, and The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Alnoor also provides training and coaching on negotiation, collaboration, and difficult conversations through MWI and Vantage Partners. His professional accomplishments include the negotiation of resolutions at the United Nations in Geneva and New York, sharing of best practices in disaster response and civil-military coordination with the Government of Brazil, and important roles in the resolution of two high-profile kidnapping cases in Afghanistan. Additionally, he has demonstrated a strong commitment to the community, volunteering with Hospice Care Ottawa for 12 years and serving on their Board of Directors for four. Alnoor has a Bachelor of Science (Honors) in Mathematics from Queen’s University in Canada and a Master’s in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School in the US. He was trained by the International Ombuds Association in the Foundations of Organizational Ombuds Practice course.

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Organizational Ombuds
nnena-ombuds@mwi.org

Nnena Odim is a mediator, ombuds, attorney, trainer, and consultant. She has been mediating since 1997, and has mediated disputes involving issues such as employment, housing, business, consumer, academic/higher education, and the full range of family/domestic relations (divorce, unmarried parents, elder care, adoption, etc.). Nnena has also designed and/or led conflict management trainings for several local and national businesses and agencies, including the Boston Public Schools, Massachusetts Housing Authority, Neighborhood Works, Coca-Cola, and Netflix. In addition to her mediation and conflict resolution training background, Nnena is trained by the International Ombuds Association and has served as an ombuds for CVS, the American Planning Association, and several local construction companies. After 25 years, Nnena has recently retired from Harvard Law School, where she was the Director and Senior Clinical Instructor of the Family/Domestic Violence Law Clinic at Harvard’s Legal Services Center. In addition to being an active practicing attorney in Massachusetts Family and Probate Courts, she provided experiential training to law students and taught them how to become effective and ethical attorneys.

Nnena has worked with the Harvard Mediation Program (HMP) and Harvard Program on Negotiation to provide trainings for students and community members, and to supervise Harvard Law School students in their mediation and negotiation studies. She served as a faculty and coach of mediation skills for trainings at Suffolk and Boston College Law Schools, MIT, and New England School of Law. Nnena has also served on numerous panels and speaking rosters for a variety of topics, including those on self-care and mental health for students and faculty, establishing boundaries in a professional setting, race and gender, and LGBTQ+ rights.

Nnena is a member of the HMP Advisory Board. In 2019, Nnena was honored by the Harvard Women’s Law Association International Committee. In 2015, she received the Harvard Law School Dean’s Award for Excellence, and in 2013, Nnena was a Top Women in the Law award recipient from Mass. Lawyers Weekly.

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Mediator
617-895-4028

Daniele Ozeri has been a mediator with MWI since 2017, specializing in workplace, divorce, consumer, and youth mediation. She has mediated cases in the labor courts of Tel Aviv and facilitated identity-based conflict resolution in Jerusalem.

After relocating to Massachusetts, Daniele brought her expertise to Somerville and Cambridge public schools, where she has also designed and led mediation trainings for both youth and adults, partnering with schools such as Chelsea High School, CCSC, and the Acera School.

Currently, she mediates divorce cases in her private practice, directs mediation programs at the Cambridge and Waltham Juvenile Courts, and serves as a mediator with MWI.

Daniele is the editor of Re-Envisioning Conflict Resolution: Vision, Action and Evaluation in Creative Conflict Engagement (Routledge, 2017) and holds a Master’s degree in Conflict Management and Resolution from Bar-Ilan University in Israel.