Mediator Spotlight

            2010 Advanced Trainer Bios

            Erricka Bridgeford is the Director of Training for Community Mediation Maryland. In this capacity, she provides training to the 18 community mediation centers in Maryland, as well as to state agencies and organizations. She has provided advanced skills training to mediators at the Maryland Human Relations Commission, for Federal EEOC mediators, the National Geo-Spacial Intelligence Agency, and at many national conferences.
             
            Prior coming to CMM, Erricka was a case manager at Community Mediation in Baltimore City, giving her a unique insight into the challenges of working with people in conflict from the beginning of a referral through the completion of the mediation. Erricka was promoted to Director of Training and Volunteer Development, where she trained, mentored, evaluated, and supervised both new and experienced mediators. 
             
            Erricka was trained to be a mediator in 2001.  She describes her excitement about conflict resolution as an opportunity for people in conflict to find peaceful resolutions. Erricka’s experience with conflict continues to include watching friends and family fight, kill and die as the only options for ending disputes. The philosophy that conflicts can be vented and creatively resolved by those involved to truly meet their needs, is one that brings Erricka hope. This hope fuels her commitment to being a part of changing the culture of conflict in our society.

            David W. McMillan, Ph.D., received his Ph.D. from George Peabody College of Vanderbilt University. He is the creator of the Sense of Community Theory, which has been referred to in community-psychology journals and hundreds of studies. It has been used to measure and investigate sense of community in cities, neighborhoods, populations of immigrants, churches, and organizations. He has appeared nationally on radio and television. Dr. McMillan is a founder of the Nashville Psychotherapy Institute and co-director of Compose, a program that treats family violence, and Compose for Youth, a program that helps adolescents and youth cope with anger. He has served as an adjunct faculty member of George Peabody College of Vanderbilt University, Vanderbilt Nursing School and Fisk University. He is currently in private practice with more than thirty years of experience as a mental health professional. He is author of Create Your Own Love Story and Emotion Rituals. He is married to the Honorable Marietta Shipley, Retired Judge of 2nd Circuit Court of Davidson County, in Nashville, Tennessee.