Cherise Hairston

Ms. Hairston is a Transformative conflict intervention practitioner with 22 years of experience providing a range of services including training, mediation, dialogue process design and facilitation, team development, conflict coaching, and volunteer management. She is a team member at the Dayton Mediation Center , a community mediation center located in Dayton, OH. She has designed and facilitated dialogue processes including the Dayton Dialogue on Race Relations, "Putting the Pieces Together,” A Small Group process for community members and police, and race relations dialogues for multiple, diverse religious/spiritual communities. For the past 4 years she has led an innovative dialogue process, Conversations for Change , that combines Transformative conflict intervention values and practices with techniques from Motivational Interviewing, to support individuals struggling with opioid addiction. Ms. Hairston served as consultant and trainer and helped establish the State of Ohio’s employee workplace mediation program from 2013-1016, and designed and provided customized trainings for Antioch University Midwest, Lexis Nexis, University of Dayton MBA Program, Wright State University Social Work program, Women’s Leadership Collaborative of Greater Dayton, the Supreme Court of Ohio Dispute Resolution Section, and the City of Dayton, OH. Ms. Hairston is a ISCT Certified Transformative Mediator™and Fellow and also serves on the Board of Directors for the National Association for Community Mediation (NAFCM). She completed doctoral level studies (All But Dissertation) in Conflict Analysis and Resolution at Nova Southeastern University, earned a MA in Conflict Resolution from Antioch University McGregor, and a BA in Political Science/Women’s Studies from Miami University, Oxford, OH. She is a “retired” adjunct professor from Wright State University, Antioch University, and Miami University, Middletown. She has numerous publications including the most recent contribution “Transformative Mediation” in Blowing Up: The Psychology of Conflict by Randi Mentor (Greenwood), 2018, “The Professional is Personal” and “Reflections on “African-Americans in Mediation Literature: A Neglected Population” in Re-Centering Culture and Knowledge in Conflict Resolution Practice, Syracuse University Press, 2008.