Who Gets to Be Neutral? Culture, Credibility, and the Mediator's Seat

Classical mediation asks the neutral third party to stand equidistant from both sides. But what happens when the parties themselves aren't standing on equal ground? In this conversation, we ask whether neutrality is always the right goal, or whether it can quietly preserve the very imbalances mediation claims to address. Join NECR lecturer Dr. Dianne Williams and special guest Dr. Faith Speaks for a conversation that moves past "how do I stay neutral?" toward the harder question: what is a mediator actually accountable to?

Drawing on mediation and restorative-practice frameworks alongside Dr. Speaks' background in counseling psychology and diversity-and inclusion-facilitation, this session explores how personal worldviews can shape who gets read as credible in a room, how a facilitator's own background is never a blank slate, and how cultural awareness operates beneath the surface of every dispute. Rather than a single-discipline take, this is a genuinely multidisciplinary hour—psychology and conflict resolution in direct conversation—designed to give prospective students a real sense of the analytical range the NECR program cultivates.

Speakers:

• Dr. Dianne Williams, Lecturer, Negotiation and Conflict Resolution; International Mediator and Restorative Practitioner (moderator)
• Dr. Faith Speaks, Counseling Psychologist, Personal and Organizational Development Consultant

Dr. Faith Speaks is a counselor psychologist, researcher, therapist, educator, civil and human rights organizer, and community development professional whose commitment to human dignity, justice, education, and social change began during her youth growing up in Brooklyn and Long Island, New York.

For more than four decades, her work has spanned counseling psychology, human development, education, behavioral health, corrections, re-entry, community development, organizational leadership, and human rights.

Dr. Faith's commitment to justice was shaped by her parents, who were national and international civil and human rights workers. From an early age, she witnessed their work addressing injustice from local communities to international movements, including efforts to assist individuals struggling with addiction and poverty and movements challenging the systems of Apartheid in South Africa. These experiences helped shape her enduring belief that meaningful change requires both individual transformation and systemic change.

Her professional work has included extensive collaboration with the Departments of Corrections in Georgia and North Carolina, where she focused on the holistic rehabilitation of incarcerated individuals and developed re-entry programming addressing housing, education, employment, and community support. She has directed programs serving unsheltered families in North Carolina and participated in coalitions addressing homelessness in the United States. She has also founded and supported educational programs, served at collegiate institutions, and led nonprofit organizations serving vulnerable individuals and communities.

Earlier in her career, Dr. Faith served as an invited speaker with the World Methodist Council of Churches in international educational and community development initiatives. Her work with the Council was part of her past professional and service experience and does not represent a current affiliation.

As a researcher and contributing author to professional and scholarly works, Dr. Faith has explored human development, leadership, stress, clergy well-being, organizational systems, and social justice. Her perspective is strongly informed by ecological and systems approaches that recognize that individuals are shaped by the families, communities, institutions, cultures, and historical contexts in which they live.

This perspective is central to her thinking about restorative justice. Dr. Faith asks whether true restoration is possible when the humanity of vulnerable and marginalized people has not always been fully recognized by the systems expected to deliver justice. She challenges communities to move beyond simply asking what happened or who is responsible and to also examine the systems and conditions that contributed to harm.

Her restorative justice philosophy can be summarized in five words:

See. Understand. Account. Restore. Transform.

• See the person and their humanity.
• Understand the systems and circumstances that shape people's lives.
• Account honestly for harm and responsibility.
• Restore dignity, relationships, opportunity, and community.
• Transform the systems that perpetuate harm.

At the heart of Dr. Faith's work is a question that extends beyond America and abroad: Can justice trulyprevail when the pain and vulnerability of people can itself become big business? Though systemic change may sometimes seem futile, she believes the power for meaningful change lies with the people.

Her mission is to educate, heal, uplift, and affirm individuals and communities so that justice, hope, well-being, and dignity can prevail.

Her lifelong mission is simply stated: “Helping people optimize their potential.” One of her broader objectives is to strategically address disparities in education, health, human services, and economic empowerment, particularly among women and communities of color.

Dr. Faith is currently developing a 2026 contemporary project based on Toni Cade Bambara's The Black Woman: An Anthology. She is also the proud mother of two ingenious children and has a lifelong love of music and the arts, particularly playing the piano.

For Dr. Faith, restorative justice ultimately begins with a simple proposition: If we want to restore people, we must first be willing to see them.