Susan M. Jeghelian, Esq., Executive Director
susan.jeghelian@umb.edu 617-287-4047
Susan leads MODR’s work with government agencies, businesses, non-profit organizations, public interest groups and private citizens to foster public deliberation, civic engagement, collaborative problem-solving, resolution of public disputes and consensus agreements on complex public issues. Susan directs policy and program development; public information, education and training; administrative functions; and business and revenue development for MODR, and supervises the recruitment and qualification of neutrals who serve as MODR affiliates. For the past fourteen years, she has overseen the design and operation of state agency and court-based dispute resolution programs, has delivered numerous conflict resolution trainings for public officials and employees, and has served as a mediator and facilitator for public disputes and public involvement processes. Susan led the implementation of Executive Order #416, the Governor’s initiative to integrate dispute resolution into state government, and co-chaired the Executive Legal Counsel Professional Development Group on ADR. She also served for many years as a member of the Supreme Judicial Court Standing Committee on Dispute Resolution and in that capacity assisted with the development and implementation of the Uniform Rules on Dispute Resolution in the MA Trial Court. Susan has a B.A. from Mount Holyoke College and a J.D. from Boston College Law School. Prior to working at MODR, she practiced law with a concentration in civil litigation and mediation.

Loraine M. Della Porta, Esq., Deputy Director
loraine.dellaporta@umb.edu 617-287-4048
Loraine’s public sector career spans over twenty years and reflects extensive experience in conflict prevention, organizational development and training.  She is an experienced mediator, arbitrator, facilitator, and dispute systems designer specializing in workplace conflict assessment and management.  Loraine  directs MODR’s Agricultural Mediation Program  which provides mediation and other conflict resolution services for a variety of issues affecting MA agriculture, including agribusiness, land use, natural resource conservation, rural housing and credit issues. She also directs MODR’s Kettering Public Policy Institute which serves to provide a vehicle for communities to engage in deliberative dialogue on important public policy issues and also to train dialogue moderators and frame issues for public deliberation. Loraine is a past President of the New England Chapter of the Association for Conflict Resolution (NE-ACR), and is the Vice President of the Board of Directors of the Community Mediation Center of Rhode Island (CMCRI), where she also serves as Chair of the Ethics Committee. Loraine received a B.S. with honors from Providence College, and a J.D. from Roger Williams University Law School in Bristol, RI. She completed a portion of her graduate studies at Pepperdine University Law School’s Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution.

Madhawa (Mads) Palihapitiya, Associate Director
madhawa.palihapitiya@umb.edu 617-287-4036
Mads oversees monitoring and evaluation, and fundraising and organizational development at MODR. He is currently institutionalizing impact assessment on major MODR projects. Mads, a mediator from Sri Lanka, is the former Director of Programs at the Foundation for Co-Existence in Sri Lanka where he engaged in high-risk mediation and conflict prevention efforts involving the two warring parties of that country. Mads and Dr Kumar Rupesinghe created a Conflict Early Warning and Early Response System for the volatile Eastern Province of Sri Lanka in 2002-2003 preventing over 100 documented cases of direct violence, including riots until 2006. Mads has experience in relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction work, particularly following natural and man-made disasters. He was also overseeing development work in the poor urban neighborhoods of Sri Lanka. He is currently writing about his experiences using Conflict Early Warning and Early Response and theatre for peace-building. Mads has a B.A. from the University of Colombo and a M.A. in Coexistence and Conflict from Brandeis University, where he was a fellow at the Alan B. Slifka Program in Intercommunal Coexistence.

Mette Kreutzmann, Program Manager
mette.kreutzmann@umb.edu 617-287-4041
Mette provides project management for trainings, facilitations, and other dispute resolution projects and assists with MODR research projects. She is the program manager of MODR’s new MA Guard & Reserves Family Mediation Program that was created to resolve child access, visitation, and parenting plan disputes for families of the MA Guard and Reserves. Examples of Mette’s work has involved mediation coordination for MODR’s Housing Appeals Program and MODR’s Agricultural Mediation Program; co-facilitation of public meetings for environmental projects involving the Emerald Necklace park system and Nomans Land Island; trainings for the Department of Mental Retardation and the Office of the Attorney General, stakeholder assessments of court-connected ADR and facilitation of the Trial Court’s Standing Committee on Dispute Resolution’s Educational Subcommittee, and design and delivery of court ADR conferences. She has provided research assistance to the Trial Court Standing Committee on Dispute Resolution and the Coalition of Community Mediation Programs on data supporting strategies for public funding and assisted with an evaluation of peer mediation programs at four local high schools. Mette graduated with an M.A. in Dispute Resolution from the University of Massachusetts Boston and received the Donald Paulson Award for distinguished service to the Graduate Programs in Dispute Resolution. She interned with The Mediation Group, and worked as a research assistant to Professor David Matz. She is Danish and holds a B.A. in Computational Linguistics from University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Courtney Breese, Program Coordinator
courtney.breese@umb.edu 617-287-4046
Courtney coordinates deliberative dialogues and trainings for MODR’s Public Policy Institute and mediations for MODR's Agricultural Mediation Program. She also coordinates outreach with state and local entities, develops outreach materials and maintains the MODR website. Courtney has extensive experience as a deliberative dialogue moderator and in framing issues for public deliberation. Previously she worked for the New England Center for Civic Life, a Public Policy Institute in New Hampshire where she helped coordinate a series of thirty deliberative dialogues across the state of New Hampshire on health care and financial security for AARP's Divided We Fail Campaign. Courtney graduated with honors from Franklin Pierce College with a B.A. in Social Work and Counseling.