Board & Staff

SEEDS Board of Directors

Lita Dotson

J.D., John F. Kennedy School of Law, B.A., San Diego State University - Psychology, is a civil litigator within the areas of personal injury, real estate property and contractual issues. Lita is currently refocusing her legal practice to issues focusing on children and families. She is an appointed Commissioner on the Human Relations Board of Alameda County which provides guidance to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors on issues of discrimination. In addition, Lita is a volunteer mediator with Community Boards-San Francisco, Office of Citizen Complaints-San Francisco, an arbitrator with the Better Business Bureau and a board member with Saint Lawrence O'Toole School - Oakland.

Gillian Edgelow, Secretary

B.A., Ecology and Modernization (UC Berkeley), is currently a nonprofit program administrator and permaculture designer. Gillian has been a volunteer mediator and board member with SEEDS for five years, and was born and raised in Alameda County.

Diana L. Gray

Diana has been at Oracle since March 2005, where she oversees the planning and defining of the long term product roadmap for Fusion Expenses. She has more than 15 years experience within the technology industry, with a strong focus on product strategy and management. Prior to Oracle, Diana was a Senior Strategy Manager of enterprise expense management applications for PeopleSoft, Inc., where she was responsible for all product management activities and driving increased revenues for three products.

Diana holds a Bachelor of Art degree in History from the University of California at Santa Barbara and has been a Board Member at SEEDS Community Resolution Cetner since 2009.

Greg Leventis

Masters candidate at UC Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy. Before moving to the Bay Area, he was the Chief of Staff at Tanenbaum, A New York City-based non-profit that addresses inter-faith conflict. There he worked with peace activists from around the world, assisting in the production of international conferences and coordinating responses to violent conflicts around the world. He also spearheaded major outreach and fundraising campaigns. In addition to his work with SEEDS, Greg Chairs the City of Berkeley's Community Environmental Advisory Commission. Greg joined SEEDS' Board in 2009 and has been a volunteer mediator for SEEDS since 2008.

Mary Mona

Mary has worked as a public iinterest lawyer for more than a decade, and has been practicing law for almost twenty years. Currently, she is the Senior Training Attorney at the California Appellate Project in San Francisco, where she organizes and conducts various trainings for capital post-conviction lawyers. From 1999 to 2004, she worked as a state capital habeas attorney at the Habeas Corpus Resource Center in San Francisco. Previously, she practiced white collar criminal defense and civil litigation at Keker & Van Nest in San Francisco (1996-1998), and at Kramer, Levin, Naftalis & Frankel in New York (1992-1995) she clerked for the Hon. Raymond J. Dearie, Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Mary received her J.D. from the Yale Law School, and an A.B. in Comparative Literature from Princeton University.

Howard McKoy, Treasurer

An accomplished dynamic information technology (IT) professional, Howard is adept at implementing large-scale infrastructure projects and business process improvements for on-shore and offshore initiatives. Prior to joining TPI, he held senior leadership positions in eVoice, Safeway and Washington Mutual Card Services focusing on vendor management, strategy, strategic sourcing and IT Infrastructure. Howard brings over 20+ years of experience building successful organizations providing IT service delivery solutions at ta reduce cost with increased operational efficiencies.

Howard holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Seton Hall University and a Masters in Business Administration in Marketing from Golden Gate University in San Francisco. He is also certified in Mediation with advanced training in Negotiations, Situational Leadership and Critical Thinking.

Elizabeth Riles

J.D., Boalt Hall School of Law (UC Berkeley), is the managing partner at Bohbot & Riles, a woman-owned firm in Oakland, California. Ms. Riles has been practicing law for the last 11 years. She specializes in human resource consulting and mediation. Additionally, she has successfully represented employees against a wide variety of businesses and government entities, in matters of discrimination, cases of sexual and racial harassment, retaliation, whistle-blowing, and wrongful termination. Ms. Riles is a mediator for the SEEDS small claims court program.

Nina Senn, President

J.D., Santa Clara University School of Law, B.A., PEIS (UC Berkeley), is a Senior Corporate Counsel at Blackhawk Network, Inc. (a subsidiary of Safeway Inc.) where she handles a variety of legal matters and contract negotiation for the U.S., Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. Prior to joining Blackhawk, she was the head of the legal affairs for a multi-billion dollar global business unit of DHL and spent five years working in DHL's international headquarters in Brussels. Since 2005, Nina has been volunteering as a Board member, mediator and case manager at SEEDS. She also volunteers at her children's public school and coaches a U6 soccer team, where she has introduced the use of a "talking piece."

Sharon Sims-Leedie, Vice President

MBA, John F. Kennedy University, B.A., San Francisco State University, is a Senior Learning Consultant at Kaiser Permanente where she provides leadership, facilitation and consultation to labor and management project teams, engaged in performance improvement. Prior to joining Kaiser Permanente, she worked for a multi-billion dollar insurance company for twenty years as a Senior Internal Auditor and a Leadership Training Consultant. Sharon has been volunteering as a Board member, and Facilitator Skills Trainer for SEEDS for the past three years. She also serves on numerous committees in her church.

SEEDS Staff

Shar Etebar, Executive Director

Shar Etebar, Executive Director, has been associated with all three of SEEDS’ root programs in various capacities over the past 19 years. While in college, Shar discovered his passion and calling in conflict resolution at Berkeley Dispute Resolution Services (BDRS), where he volunteered as mediator, trainer, and six-year Board member. In 1993, Shar joined the staff of Conciliation Forums of Oakland (CFO), serving as mediation case manager and training coordinator, before transitioning to BDRS as program director in 1998. Shar also had the privilege of serving on occasion as an administrative hearing officer for Mediation Services in Hayward and Fremont. In 2004, Shar became executive director after shepherding the collaborative merger of the Berkeley and Oakland programs--and the subsequent integration of Mediation Services—into what has now become SEEDS Community Resolution Center.

Shar has a B.A. in Peace and Conflicts Studies from UC Berkeley, and a J.D. from Golden Gate University Law School. He is an active member of the Association for Dispute Resolution of Northern California (ADRNC) and is recent Past President of the Board of that organization. Shar is bicultural, with strong ties to both his Persian and “Southern” heritage.His personal interests include travel, camping, movies, theater and playing any and all types of games!

Karen Haney-Owens, Courts Mediation Program Manager

Karen Haney-Owens, Courts Mediation Program Manager, worked for many years as a city planner before being trained as a mediator. She started at SEEDS in early 2006 as a volunteer case manager, and became involved in the Courts Mediation Program when the agency was asked to provide mediators for both Small Claims and Civil Harassment Court in Hayward and Oakland. She works with a group of dedicated volunteer mediators who enjoy the challenge of empowering individuals to solve their own disputes within the legal context. Karen also implements a rent dispute resolution ordinance for the City of Fremont, bringing landlords and tenants together to work out their issues.

Karen has an M.A. in City Planning from U.C. Berkeley. She has two sons and a multicultural family, and has been an advocate for children with special needs on behalf of her youngest son. She enjoys running, playing with her Arabian mare and traveling.

Barbara Lipson, Training & Facilitation Program Manager
barbara@seedscrc.org

Barbara Lipson is a certified mediator and has been practicing since 2006. She has trained in the SF Superior Court to mediate in small claims and also offers facilitation, training and coaching as part of her practice. She has experience working with schools, spiritual communities, courts, businesses, and public agencies.

Adriana Solis Lopez, Fund Development & Communications Manager
adriana@seedscrc.org

Adriana Solis Lopez, Fund Development & Communications Manager, has been part of the SEEDS family since 2008 when she relocated to the Bay Area. Previously, she worked in the for-profit industry in administration and project management. Ms. Lopez became highly interested in alternative dispute resolution practices soon after joining the SEEDS team and became a trained community mediator in 2009. Initially, her role at SEEDS was primarily centered on re-structuring the organization’s reporting system and taking on a variety of fund development related projects, along with volunteering as a mediator. In 2010, Ms. Lopez assumed the role she is in today.

Ms. Lopez is originally from Southeast Los Angeles. She attended East Los Angeles College and transferred to the University of California, Berkeley, where she graduated with a B.A. in history in 2010. Outside of the office, Ms. Lopez spends her time enjoying the outdoors, keeping up with sports, reading, writing creatively and shooting digital photography.

Adrienne Murphy, Office Manager

Adrienne Murphy, Office Manager, has been with SEEDS for 13 years. Adrienne is from New York, where she studied at the Pratt Institute and Katharine Gibbs Business School. Her background is in Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Administrative Management. Adrienne is currently working toward her B.S. degree in Computer Science, with a minor in Business Administration. She has served on the Advisory Board at her daughter Dominique’s school. Adrienne’s personal interests include Modern & Hip-Hop dance and Arts & Crafts. She is also a basketball fan and enjoys spending time with her dog, Pebbles.

David Yusem, Community Mediation & Restorative Justice Programs Manager

David Yusem, Community Mediation Program Manager, was certified as a community mediator in 2000 by Conciliation Forums of Oakland (CFO). He volunteered hundreds of hours as a mediator for CFO and Berkeley Dispute Resolution Services (BDRS). David was trained as a Guardianship mediator by Conflict Resolution Programs (CRP) in Contra Costa County, and subsequently mediated many Guardianship cases at the Family Law Center in Martinez. In 2003, David became a member of CFO’s Board and helped consolidate CFO and BDRS. He then served as Secretary of the Board of East Bay Community Mediation (later SEEDS), later becoming Vice-President. In December of 2004, David joined Mediation Services as the Staff Case Manager. Within six months he was the Mediation Program Director, supervising all the case managers, volunteers, and hearing officers. In July 2006, David stepped down from the SEEDS Board to become SEEDS’ Community Mediation Program Manager. He manages a fabulous group of volunteer case managers, making sure the cases travel smoothly from initial intake through to mediation and follow-up. Recently David has been developing and implementing a pilot program in Restorative Justice, and hopes to facilitate the use of restorative practices in the courts, schools, and communities of Alameda County.

David graduated from George Washington University with a B.A in Philosophy. He loves to play basketball and music, though not at the same time, and shoots lots of black and white film. He enjoys living in Oakland with his wife, Kate, and two daughters, Naomi and Anya.