Board of Directors
2024-2025
President: Angie Smith is currently an Employee Relations Mediator in the Human Resources Department at the City of Overland Park, Kansas. She is licensed as an attorney in both Kansas and Missouri, and has previously worked in both private law practice and as a staff attorney for a Kansas foster care agency. For nearly 20 years, Angie worked for Domestic Court Services in Johnson County, Kansas, as a mediator, evaluator and parent educator. She is a Kansas Supreme Court Approved Mediator in the areas of Core, Domestic, and Parent/Adolescent. She is also an approved Dispute Resolution Provider for Conciliation, Parent Coordination, and Mentor Mediation. Angie has been assisting through coaching in the mediation training classes at JCCC for over 25 years and is a member of the board of directors for the Children’s Peace Alliance Foundation – a non-profit dedicated to providing affordable conflict resolution services to children and families going through separation or divorce. Angie also participates in the Eviction Mediation Program at the Johnson County District Court.
Secretary: Tina Crawford has a JD from Washburn University school of Law and a B.A. in psychology from K.U. She is a Kansas Supreme Court approved core, civil, and domestic mediator and approved mentor mediator for civil and core. Tina is a co-coordinator for and weekly volunteer with the mediator program at the Johnson County District Court, Small Claims division. Tina teaches CORE mediation for JCCC. She also serves on the board of Heartland Dispute Resolution Association. Tina’s professional experience includes private civil legal practice followed by a 22-year teaching career as Professor of Business law. Tina served as Chair of the Business Administration department where she mediated disputes between faculty members and between faculty and students; as well as serving on the college investigations committee. You can find Tina at tcrawfordmediation@gmail.com
Treasurer: Deborah Medlock is a Supreme Court approved mediator in core, civil, domestic, parent adolescent and child in need of care. She is also a parent coordinator, approved mentor mediator in core and domestic, and co-teaches both core and domestic mediation at Johnson County Community College. After over 20 years work for the courts, specializing in family mediation, Deborah has entered private practice. Through Safe Passage, Deborah offers a full range of dispute resolution services. Deborah is a past president HMA and current treasurer for HDRA. DMedlock.SafePassage@GMail.com 913-522-1125
Board of Directors
Wayne Olsen: Born in New York Wayne started his career as a Forester before switching to the Federal Government where he managed disaster planning and recovery operations for several agencies. After retiring from federal service, he became a disaster recovery manager for a large thrift bank, safeguarding several hundred billion dollars of other people’s money. He subsequently moved to Kansas and has been self employed as a Dispute Resolution Specialist for almost two decades. He is a Past President of the Heartland Mediators Association and is currently a member of the Board of Directors. He believes that ADR and Mediation are dynamic endeavors, working within a society that often needs assistance in resolving disputes and he is always looking for ways to improve the craft and his personal skill set.
Verdell Taylor is a Kansas Supreme Court Approved Mediator since 2003. He has been a “Pastoral Counselor” at Christian Psychological Services (CPS) since 1996. He is a native of Leavenworth, Kansas and a Vietnam Era Army Veteran. Mediation is one of Verdell’s areas of expertise and is embarking on a new phase of Mediation, known as Restorative Justice, through “Building Peace” in Lawrence, KS. Verdell has been ordained as a pastor since 1980. From 1995 until 2021, Verdell was the Senior Pastor for the St. Luke A.M.E. Church in Lawrence, KS. He received his BS degree in Education in 1968 and his MS degree in Counseling in 1972 from Emporia State University. From 1995 until 2021, Verdell was the Senior Pastor for the St. Luke A.M.E. Church in Lawrence. Verdell is married, has two daughters and five grandchildren.
Greta Wills has been associated with HMA-HDRA for almost 20 years. She was a mediator with the City of KCMO for many years which afforded her with voluminous mediation opportunities to actually practice the process. She worked as a civil rights investigator in community mediations, landlord/tenant dispute, public and outreach associated with the civil rights agenda. She is currently involved with Clay County MO Court Office of Dispute Resolution; Douglas County KS Domestic Court; a CASA Jackson County volunteer since 2018; Human Kind, Inc. based in the Northland; and the Missouri Bar Fee Dispute Resolution with the Missouri Bar Association program since 2019. Greta created her own business in 2017 called Civil Conciliations, LLC to consolidate her education, experience and skill set acquired during the last decade+ years in the arena of mediation and conflict resolution. Areas of expertise include family dispute, neighborhood dispute, fair housing law and employment law.
Jennifer Chappell Deckert, LMSW, PhD is a licensed masters-level social worker in the state of Kansas. She studied Interpersonal Practice, School Social Work, and Mediation at the University of Michigan School of Social Welfare. For the last 27 years, she has worked in varied settings with children and families. Jennifer practiced as a school social worker working with children and families with disabilities. She also worked as a behavior support specialist with families whose young children were having difficulties in their classrooms and at home. Jennifer is the Program Director for the Bethel College Social Work Program. Over the last 20 years she has taught BSW and MSW courses related to children & families with disabilities, social work engagement, assessment & intervention, human development & behavior, social work clinical practice, dispute resolution and conflict studies, trauma healing, research, and social justice. Jennifer worked internationally with a peace and justice organization in the area of human rights and trauma support. She has been a professional mediator since 1998, and is a Kansas Supreme Court Approved Mediator for Core, Domestic, and Parent-Child cases since 2009. She has been a mediation trainer for core and domestic mediation. She has received specialized training in Special Education Mediation, Brief Focused Assessment, Eldercare Mediation, Mentor Mediation, and Restorative Justice.
Markus Meyer, MS, MBA is the Chief Operating Officer for Collaborative Success, Inc., Wichita and has forty years of working internationally with individuals of all walks of life and organizations of all sizes. Markus is a Kansas Supreme Court approved core mediator, domestic mediator, parent-adolescent mediator, domestic conciliator and parenting coordinator working across the State of Kansas in person and via Zoom. Markus was raised in Switzerland and worked and travelled internationally. He holds a BBA in business administration, accounting and international relations and a MS in marketing management from the Kaufmaenische Handelsschule in Basel, Switzerland. He also holds an MBA in international business management, organizational development & training from the Cameron School of Business at the University of St. Thomas, Houston, Texas. Markus completed a year of clinical pastoral education (CPE) with Rocky Mountain Pastoral Care and Training Associates while working as chaplain at the Banner Medical Center in Greeley, Colorado and has extensive training for The Way of Council at the Ojai Foundation in Ojai, California and Open Space Technology by Harrison Owen. Markus is passionate about helping individuals, couples, co-parents and businesses form and develop relationships capable of achieving extraordinary results. markus.m@collaborativesuccess.com 316-559-3934
Past President: Tonya Ricklefs, PhD MSW, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Work at Washburn University. She teaches at the Graduate level and Undergraduate level and is a state-approved mediator who has a Masters Degree in Social Work and a Ph.D. in Family Studies from Kansas State University. Tonya has a certificate in conflict resolution from Kansas State University. She has experience with video (Skype, Zoom) mediation, military families, as well as receiving training in high-conflict mediation and Elder mediation and conciliation cases. Her experience is in multiple mediation/dispute resolution training in workplace, high conflict, culture and conflict, and family mediation. Ph.D. in Family Studies. Areas of research are Adult Sibling Relationships and experiential learning.
Deborah Medlock / HDRA Executive Director
W: 913.522.1125
HeartlandDisputeResolution@gmail.com