Richard Salem

Richard Salem of Evanston, Illinois, has been active as a mediator, trainer and consultant in conflict management since 1968, when he was appointed Midwest Director of the U.S. Community Relations Service (CRS). He mediated many high profile disputes during that time, including the Skokie-Nazi conflict in Illinois, the Wounded Knee standoff, and numerous police-community, prison, school desegregation, and civil rights conflicts. Between 1979 and 1995, Salem made 15 extended trips to South Africa where he pioneered the training of negotiation and mediation in community conflicts. He served on the initial training committee of South Africa's National Peace Accord,and provided training for the Accord's regional and local peace committees. Salem subsequently trained and consulted in six countries in East and West Africa, Northern Ireland, and El Salvador, and from the USA served as a consultant to Fundacion Libra. His work in Rwanda led him to edit, co-author and co-publish, in 2000, "Witness to Genocide - The Children of Rwanda." Salem works under the auspices of Conflict Management Initiatives, a not-for-profit organization that he founded in 1990 to support the use of collaborative problem solving processes to address community conflicts.