Raymond Shonholtz J.D. (June 8, 1943 - January 7, 2012) was the founder of two community mediation organizations;

Community Boards Community Boards is a community based mediation program, established in 1976, in San Francisco, California, United States by Raymond Shonholtz. The program utilizes volunteers from the neighbourhoods of the city, who work with people involved in ...

in 1976 and Partners for Democratic Change in 1989.

Early life

Raymond Shonholtz graduated from

Los Angeles High School Los Angeles High School is the oldest public high school in the Southern California region and in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Its colors are royal blue and white and the teams are called the Romans. Los Angeles High School is a publ ...

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

, and

UC Berkeley School of Law The University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Berkeley Law) is the Law school in the United States, law school of the University of California, Berkeley. The school was commonly referred to as "Boalt Hall" for many years, although it was ...

. During the Summer of 1964, following his sophomore year at UCLA, Shonholtz took part in the

Mississippi Freedom Summer Freedom Summer, also known as Mississippi Freedom Summer (sometimes referred to as the Freedom Summer Project or the Mississippi Summer Project), was a campaign launched by American civil rights activists in June 1964 to register as many Africa ...

as an

American Field Services AFS Intercultural Programs (or AFS, originally the American Field Service) is an international youth exchange organization. It consists of over 50 independent, not-for-profit organizations, each with its own network of volunteers, professional ...

bus chaperon. While there he smuggled Aaron Henry of the

Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), also referred to simply as the Freedom Democratic Party, was an American political party that existed in the state of Mississippi from 1964 to 1968 during the Civil Rights Movement. Created as t ...

out of Clarksdale, Mississippi, so that Dr. Henry might attend the

1964 Democratic National Convention The 1964 Democratic National Convention of the Democratic Party, took place at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey, from August 24 to 27, 1964. President Lyndon B. Johnson was nominated for a full term. Senator Hubert H. Humphrey of Mi ...

Professional life

In 1976 after serving as a Public Defender in California, Shonholtz established and served as President of

one of the first community and school mediation initiatives that brought conflict resolution skills and processes into neighborhoods and schools throughout the U.S. and internationally. In 1989, Shonholtz established and served as President of Partners for Democratic Change, an international organization committed to building sustainable capacity to advance civil society and a culture of change and conflict management worldwide by establishing the first of Partners national Centers for Change and Conflict Management in Poland. Up to his retirement on September 30, 2011 Partners for Democratic Change had established 18 independent Centers for conflict resolution and change management throughout the developing world which are all part of the international network Partners for Democratic Change International. In 2008, Shonholtz served as a Public Policy Scholar at the

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (WWICS) or Wilson Center is a Washington, D.C.–based think tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topi ...

in Washington, D.C., working on foreign assistance recommendations for the incoming Obama administration. In November 2011, he delivered the keynote address to the Oregon Mediation Association 25th Annual Conference.

Legacy

The Association for Conflict Resolution’s International Section (ACRIS) presented Partners for Democratic Change with the Outstanding Leadership Award in 2007 in recognition of that organization’s work building sustainable local capacity to advance civil society and a culture of change and conflict management worldwide. Partners for Democratic Change received the JAMS Foundation’s Fourth Annual Warren Knight Award in recognition of Partners effectively managing and resolving conflict and for assisting emerging democracies throughout the world to advance a civil society.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shonholtz, Raymond Mediation UC Berkeley School of Law alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni