Supreme Court of Virginia Certification #58

Merri L. Hanson is Director of Peninsula Mediation & ADR in Williamsburg and Hampton, Virginia. Peninsula Mediation & ADR provides a comprehensive range of mediation services for family, workplace, business, and commercial disputes. Ms. Hanson is a practitioner-level member of the Academy of Family Mediators, Academy-of-Family-Mediators-approved consultant, member of the workplace sector workgroup of the Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution, and the Supreme Court of Virginia's Dispute Resolution Services Advisory Council and Training/Certification Sub-Committee. She is certified by the Virginia Supreme Court to provide general, family, circuit court civil and circuit court family mediation. In addition to teaching family mediation at the Marshall Wythe School of Law at the College of William and Mary, Merri teaches a variety of Supreme-Court-of-Virginia-certified courses on mediating business and commercial disputes, family and divorce issues, workplace conflict, and has provided domestic violence training for mediators in Virginia and numerous other states.

Merri has written extensively and has provided consulting services to businesses, localities, and the federal government on mediation and conflict management issues. Ms. Hanson sits on the mediation panel for the Baltimore Region Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Norfolk, Virginia District Office for resolving Title VII related disputes. Her educational achievements include a Bachelor of Arts in Speech Communication, a Master of Arts in Communication and Conflict Management, and post-graduate work in organizational psychology.

Prior to establishing Peninsula Mediation & ADR in 1991, Ms. Hanson taught a variety of communication and conflict management courses at colleges and universities in California and Virginia in both full time and adjunct capacities. Ms. Hanson established the Isle of Wight Victim and Witness Assistance Program for the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services where she served as a victim advocate. While residing in Seattle, Washington, Ms. Hanson designed and implemented information-dissemination programs in developing countries.