Rikk Larsen is a founding partner of Elder Decisions where he is a mediator, trainer and conflict coach. Rikk is a principal of Agreement Resources where his mediation and conflict coaching practice includes divorce, post-divorce and marital mediation. He has created and presented conflict skills trainings to eldercare professionals from around New England. Rikk served on a Subcommittee for the Massachusetts Trial Court’s Standing Committee on Dispute Resolution. He has co-presented “Using Mediation in Elder Law” at the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys and presented a workshop “When Families Struggle with Dementia: Facilitating Solutions through Mediation” at the Dartmouth Alzheimer’s Conference. This year he was featured on NPR’s Morning Edition show, “Mediators Help Families with Tough Choices of Aging.”

Rikk is a former case coordinator for Family and Probate Court and a case liaison for Small Claims Court for the Harvard Mediation Program. He attended Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation. He is a member of the Association for Conflict Resolution and the Massachusetts Council on Family Mediation. He received his BA from Williams College and his MBA from Harvard Business School.

Blair earned her MBA in marketing and finance from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and a BA in psychology from Connecticut College. She received mediation training from The Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, The Dispute Resolution Center at Northwestern University in Chicago, and the Center for Social Gerontology at Ann Arbor. Blair also earned a Certificate in Family Business Advising from the Family Firm Institute.

Blair is a founding partner of Agreement Resources, LLC and Elder Decisions whose focus is general mediation, adult family communication and mediation training. She is a mediator, trainer, family business consultant focusing on succession planning and governance within family businesses and in managing family conflict related to adult family communication, eldercare and estate issues. She brings valuable experience as an in-law in a 4th generation family busines.

In addition to her mediation and consulting work, Blair has developed and presented numerous workshops and training programs in Negotiations, Conflict Resolution Skills, and Peer Mediation for professionals and teens. Blair recently presented to the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, the American Bar Association (ABA) midyear meeting, the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) and at the Map Through the Maze conference of the Alzheimer’s Association. She also served on the faculty of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center’s conference on Alzheimer’s disease. She was featured in a SHRM (Society for Human Resources Management) article entitled “Conflict Management Contributes to Communication.” Blair was interviewed by CBS Evening News with Katie Couric and appeared on a segment on elder mediation which aired nationwide in February, 2007.

She is also a Trustee of the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park in Lincoln.

Arline Kardasis is a mediator, trainer, conflict coach and founding partner of Agreement Resources, LLC. and Elder Decisions. Her family mediation and conflict coaching practice includes divorce, post-divorce and marital mediation as well as elder mediation.

In the workplace environment, Arline consults, coaches and provides conflict resolution trainings to employees and managers in addition to acting as a third party neutral mediator for workplace and commercial disputes.

Arline is a mentor and coach for mediators in the Massachusetts courts through Mediation Works Incorporated and she has coached executives and law students in conflict resolution and mediation skills. She mediates civil disputes for the Boston Bar Association Boston Municipal Court Program and is on several divorce mediation panels. She has written about family mediation for Mediate.com and, with Rikk Larsen, she co-wrote “When Aging Issues Lead to Family Conflict” for Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly.

Arline is on the Board of Directors of the New England Chapter of the Association for Conflict Resolution and is the former Newsletter Editor. She is a member of the Massachusetts Council on Family Mediation and serves on the Public Awareness Subcommittee for the Massachusetts Trial Court’s Standing Committee on Dispute Resolution. Arline was trained at Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation and by the Center for Social Gerontology and she has received extensive advanced trainings in elder, divorce, and employment mediation. She received her BA in Political Science and Urban Studies from Boston University and her MAT with honors from Simmons College.

Crystal Thorpe is a mediator, trainer and principal of Agreement Resources, LLC, specializing in workplace conflict resolution and divorce mediation, and a founding partner of Elder Decisions – which provides conflict resolution services for eldercare professionals, seniors and their families. She has over ten years of experience in the corporate and non-profit sectors in the areas of training, human resources, quality assurance and consulting. She has developed and conducted conflict resolution skills trainings for professionals and teens, and coaches executives and law students in conflict resolution and mediation skills. In addition to her private mediation practice, Crystal mediates on several panels including the Massachusetts Trial Court’s Juvenile Court Department where she mediates Parent/Child cases through MWI, and the Middlesex Multi-Door Courthouse - Superior Court Department where she mediates Prisoner cases. She is a member of the Association for Conflict Resolution and the Massachusetts Council on Family Mediation.

Crystal served as the Boston Dispute Settlement Board Administrator for DeMars & Associates in its contract with Ford Motor Company for resolving consumer/company disputes. She recently served on the Public Awareness Working Group and the Court Systems Working Group for the Massachusetts Trial Court’s Standing Committee on Dispute Resolution. Crystal received mediation training from The Center for Mediation in Law, The Center for Social Gerontology, Harvard Negotiation Program’s Insight Initiative, and the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC), and has received extensive advanced trainings in elder, divorce, and family mediation. She holds an MSW and an MBA from Boston College and an undergraduate degree in Cognitive Science/Psycholinguistics, magna cum laude, from Brown University.