The articles in this section are the views of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the New York State Dispute Resolution Association (NYSDRA). We welcome your comments and article submissions. NYSDRA reserves the right to not publish articles that it feels inappropriate. Please send your comments and articles to michael@nysdra.org.
The New York State Dispute Resolution Association is pleased to announce that Mark Collins has been selected as the 2010 recipient of the Lawrence Cooke Peace Innovator Award.
The award is given yearly to honor an individual or organization that has provided innovative leadership in the alternative dispute resolution field based on a local or New York State-based initiative. It is named for the late Chief Judge Lawrence Cooke, who was instrumental in founding the Community Dispute Resolution Centers Program and advancing related legislation.
Mark currently works as the Assistant Coordinator of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) for the NYS Unified Court System, Office of ADR and Court Improvement. He has been involved in the field since 1981 when he helped originate the UCS Dispute Resolution (DR) program. He also helped to establish NYSDRA in 1985. His efforts to promote the program in Family Court and other areas have been outstanding
Mark’s lengthy involvement championing the CDRCs and building their capacity within communities and the court system cannot be overstated. He has also put in huge amounts of time travelling to other states to assist in creating ADR laws and court rules.
The actual award will be presented at NYSDRA’s 25th Anniversary Conference in October of 2010. Several of Judge Cooke’s children typically attend and present the award. Previous recipients have included Michelle Kirchbaum, Maria Volpe, Duke Fisher and the 2009 honoree, Judy Saul.