Successful Negotiation Skills and Strategies

Anne Lightsey, when she was 23, Anne arrived in Brazil for a 2 year YMCA work assignment with no job description, no easily identifiable skills, and not able to speak a word of Portuguese. Yet the local CEO sensed potential, so he was willing to give her a shot. Soon enough she was fluently training others in vital life skills and guiding them forward to a future path of foreign travel, a program the YMCA continues to use to this day.

It was through this adventure that she discovered that creating and delivering customized trainings are both a passion and a gift, one for which she has received national awards and recognition. Her expertise includes training individuals and organizations in Mediation, Win-Win Communication Skills, Tools for Mastering Difficult Conversations, Strengthening Personal Resiliency, and Ethics -- to name a few. Today, Anne's talents enrich and change the lives of individuals in critical life stages and seeking personal development.

Ms. JoEllen Ransom A 1988 UNM School of Law graduate, JoEllen Ransom has practiced in the areas of business, family and government with a focus on alternative dispute resolution (ADR).

As an assistant city attorney from 1992-2004, she worked in the trial division and served as Albuquerque's first ADR coordinator for almost 12 years. She collaborated with many individuals, organizations and governmental departments to design and implement programs for employee mediation, community mediation. She also facilitated dialogue among citizens with diverse interests in local land use development and other topics of public interest. These programs reduced the social, financial and personal costs of conflict in local government. As ADR Coordinator, Ransom established an international reputation for ADR innovation and professionalism.

Her professional focus has been on enabling people to improve quality of life by actively and responsibly engaging in constructive conflict management. As mediation trainer, Ransom developed and maintained a mediator pool for the city, identifying, recruiting, and training hundreds of city employees in mediation skills and engaging them as mediators for the new city programs. Many city mediators also mediated for the Metropolitan Court Mediation Program and elsewhere.

Ransom provided skills training for community members interested in facilitating public dialogue. Additionally, in 1996, she wrote a mediation training manual and designed a successful training approach. She has served as adjunct ADR faculty at the UNM School of Law, providing mediation training and coaching to law students for more than a decade.

Ransom was president of the New Mexico Mediation Association (NMMA) from 1994-2004, successfully communicating policy goals and building collaboration for legislative action and professional development in the field of ADR. The NMMA grew tenfold in membership under her leadership.

In 1994, she was the first recipient of the New Mexico State Bar ADR Award. In 2001, she received the New Mexico Mediation Center/KKOB NM Community Peacemaker Award. In 2004, the New Mexico Mediation Association honored her with a unique Lifetime Service award, as well as the Stephen Sprague Award for honoring diversity in her professional practice. Ransom served on the Board of Directors of Protection and Advocacy System from 2000–2002 and the New Mexico Relay Network from 2004–2007.

She has presented on the topic of constructive conflict management to university classes, professional groups, governmental agencies and neighborhoods. She is currently serving as a youth advocate in her community and parenting her teen-aged twins. Additionally, Ransom is working as an independent contractor providing mediation and consultation services.