Nina Meierding

Nina Meierding, a full-time professional in the conflict resolution field for almost 40 years, has mediated over 4,000 disputes.  She has conducted training in Canada, Sweden, Ireland, England, Scotland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and India and has consulted and trained many groups in almost all 50 states - including court systems, school districts, corporations, medical groups, county, state, and federal governmental agencies, insurance companies, businesses and non-profits in the areas of conflict resolution, cross cultural issues, and management, leadership and negotiation skills.

Nina has been committed to special needs children for almost 50 years. She received her  M.S in Education in 1977 and taught special education students in inner city Los Angeles, Ventura and Oxnard, California. She went to law school at night and in 1984 began representing children and parents. Quickly realizing the promise of mediation, she started her own private practice in 1986. In addition, she became  a special education mediator in the 1990s for the California State Department of Education. 

From 2006 – 2017 she was the mediation partner and trainer for the Wisconsin Special Education System (WSEMS).  For over 30 years she has trained school district administrators, teachers, and parents in multiple states in conflict resolution and communication skills and has taught and consulted with numerous special education mediator panels. She is passionately committed to working with under- served communities and broadening the understanding and impact of cross-cultural issues.

Nina  taught at the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University School of Law for over 30 years and Southern Methodist University for over 18 years. She has been an instructor at the National Judicial College and the California Judicial College and is a guest lecturer at many universities and law schools.  She was a founding member and President of the Board of Directors of the Ventura Center for Dispute Settlement, the first non-profit community mediation center in Ventura County, California.

She has served on many state and national conflict resolution boards as well as on the Council for Distinguished Advisors at Pepperdine University and the Advisory Board at Southern Methodist University. She received the Peacemaker Award in 1992 from the Southern California Mediation Association, the Distinguished Mediator Award from the Association of Conflict Resolution in 2005, the  Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017 from the American College of Civil Trial Mediators, the Distinguish Neutral Award from the National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals in 2021, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Professional Family Mediators in 2022. An honorary fellow of the International Academy of Mediators, she has been profiled in the American Bar Association Dispute Resolution Magazine.