Staff

Matt Strassberg, Director

Matt Strassberg is the Executive Director of the Environmental Mediation Center and the Agricultural Mediation Programs. He is an attorney and mediator with over twenty five years of experience in environmental law and mediation. He is the founding director of Green Mountain Environmental Resolutions, a dispute resolution firm focused on developing collaborative solutions to environmental and land use disputes. He is also a senior consultant with the Consensus Building Institute in Cambridge, MA. He has served on the Steering Committee of the Coalition of Agricultural Mediation Programs, currently serves on it’s legislative committee, co-chairs the Vermont Environmental Court’s Advisory Committee on Mediation, and is listed on the roster of the US Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution.

Julie Hoyt, Associate Director

Julie Hoyt is the Associate Director of the Environmental Mediation Center. Julie has worked with EMC since 2007 and currently assists in the administration of both the New Hampshire and the Vermont Agricultural Mediation Programs. Julie is an attorney admitted to practice in both Vermont and Massachusetts. Julie’s mediation experience includes a variety of producer-creditor disputes, adverse decision letters arising from FSA loans, NRCS programs, Rural Development loans and many others.  Julie has experience working in the agricultural community working on issues affecting dairy and goat farms and fruit and vegetable growers. Julie is approved to provide foreclosure and family court mediations for the State of Vermont and has a background in collaborative law.

Cara Cargill, Outreach Coordinator and Mediator

Cara is the Outreach Coordinator for New Hampshire. She has a BA from Mount Holyoke College in Political Science & Environmental Studies and a MS from the Woodbury Institute at Champlain College in Mediation and Applied Conflict Studies.  After 16 years of managing large horse farms and teaching horse-back riding she has shifted her focus to facilitating group dialogues around environmental and civic issues and mediating parties that need to work out a problem.  She has a particular affinity for working with individuals and groups around environmental and agricultural issues.  Understanding the importance of communication through multiple media, Cara looks forward to increasing NH’s diverse agricultural communities awareness of NHAMP.

Grace Garvey, Consultant

Grace is a consultant with the Environmental Mediation Center and is on the roster for NHAMP. Grace is a certified mediator and neutral facilitator focusing her work on problem solving, conflict resolution, consensus building, strategic planning initiatives, project & process development, fair dialogue, & guiding difficult conversations. She specializes in environmental, agricultural, energy, land use, natural resources, planning, and policy issues. She also leads conversations with groups interested in developing communication & conflict resolution skills. Her strong ability to facilitate conversations and foster collaborative decision making comes from 9 years of mediation and facilitation work and training. Grace also has a deep understanding of environmental & technical issues from 17 years working as an environmental professional.

Peter Adler, HIAMP Government Liaison and Special Projects Coordinator

Peter S. Adler, Ph.D. is the Government Liaison and Special Projects Coordinator of the Hawaii Agricultural Mediation Program. Formerly he was President of The Keystone Center, which applies consensus-building and scientific information to energy, environmental, and health related policy problems.  Peter’s specialty is multi-party negotiation and problem solving. He has worked extensively on water management, resource planning, agricultural issues, land planning issues, and marine and coastal affairs. Prior to Keystone, Peter held executive positions with the Hawaii Justice Foundation, the Hawaii Supreme Court’s Center for Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR), and the Neighborhood Justice Center. He has served as President of the Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution. Peter has written extensively in the field of mediation and conflict resolution. He is the author of Eye of the Storm Leadership (2008); co-author of Managing Scientific & Technical Information in Environmental Cases (1999); Building Trust: 20 Things You Can Do to Help Environmental Stakeholder Groups Talk More Effectively About Science, Culture, Professional Knowledge, and Community Wisdom (National Policy Consensus Center, 2002); the author of Beyond Paradise and Oxtail Soup (Ox Bow Press, 1993 and 2000) and numerous other articles and monographs.

Stephen G. Bess, HIAMP Outreach Coordinator

Steve is HIAMP’s Outreach Coordinator for the Big Island. His mediation experience spans 18 years and currently serves as a Director and Mediator for the West Hawaii Mediation Center Steve’s agricultural experience includes working with the Hawaii Department of Agriculture, USDA and NRCS. Steve is a trustee of a working cattle ranch.  He received his professional mediator training at Harvard University and ombudsman training from the International Association of Ombudsman. His expertise includes the mediation of foreclosure disputes and serving as Commissioner for land sale foreclosures, Third Circuit Court.  Steve is experienced in matters relating to land use (agriculture and urban), water, eminent domain and public policy.  He has served as Hawaii County’s Corporation Counsel and is currently engaged in the private practice of law.

Joy Gold, HIAMP Outreach Coordinator 

Joy Gold is the Oahu and Kauai HIAMP Outreach Coordinator. She is the former Interim Executive Director of the Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation, and has an active consultant practice for more than 15 years in Hawaii.  Joy has worked with agricultural commodity groups such as pineapple, papaya, coffee, seed corn, and dairy.  Her strengths include building credible presence with government policy leaders and agencies, meeting facilitation, and administrative oversight.  She is a published poet, Po Ho, Waste Time, and Sansei.

Teya Penniman, Esq., HIAMP Outreach Coordinator

Teya is the Outreach Coordinator for Maui, Molokai and Lana. She is a Mediator, Facilitator, Arbitrator, Attorney, MBA with emphasis on natural resource economics. Worked with agricultural commodity boards in Oregon. Hawaii: facilitated Maui County’s public process for water use plan; manage county-wide invasive species program; facilitating ad-hoc working group on axis deer. Deputy Chair for statewide Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species.

“Grow it Local, Buy it Local, Solve it Local: Mediated Solutions Help Hawaii’s Farmers Control their Future.”

Mary Campbell, CALAMP Program Coordinator and Mediator

Mary Madison Campbell is an attorney and mediator in the high desert region of Southern California. With over a decade of experience in conflict resolution, Mary’s focus is supporting families in transition, estate planning and agricultural/environmental dispute resolution. In addition to her mediation and law practice, Mary is a teacher for University of California Extension’s Conflict Resolution Certificate Program. Mary teaches Introduction to Mediation, Facilitation and Community Engagement, and she previously taught Managing Community Conflict and a Theory-to-Practice seminar. Mary has not only mediated, but has also worked with organizations and community groups to address larger-scale issues such as addressing regional environmental impacts, climate change and commercial fishing. She has worked with five community-based mediation centers in Maryland and California, mediating everything from family disputes to criminal charges. She also spent six years working with and writing about environmental and commercial fishing issues affecting the Chesapeake Bay. Mary also spent a year after law school as a farmer and Buddhist monk. Mary earned her Bachelor of Arts from DePauw University and her Juris Doctor from the Martin Luther King School of Law at the University of California at Davis, where she also completed a certificate in Public Interest Law.

Julia Rose Golomb, CALAMP Program Coordinator and Mediator

Julia Rose Golomb is a mediator and facilitator with expertise in water, agriculture and food systems. Julia’s mediation practice focuses on environmental planning, resource management, and environmental justice. She is an Associate with the Consensus Building Institute and holds a Masters of Environmental Management from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Julia served as a Teaching Fellow for the following Yale graduate-level and undergraduate courses: Environmental Mediation, Negotiation and Facilitation; Financial Concepts for Environmental Professionals; The Psychology, Biology, and Politics of Food; Women, Food and Culture; and The History of Food. Julia previously worked on agricultural policy with PepsiCo and the Union of Concerned Scientists, mediated in the Boston court system, and has farmed in Boston, Greece and South India.