About Laura L. Noah

Laura L. Noah, owner of Noah Mediation Services (NMS), has a Master of Arts degree in Dispute Resolution from The University of Massachusetts Boston and has been working in the field of conflict resolution for over a decade. Laura serves on the Board of Directors for the Mediation Council of Illinois and is an Advanced Family Practitioner Level Member of the Association for Conflict Resolutionwhich requires a minimum of 60 hours of family mediation training and a minimum of 250 hours of face to face family mediation in at least 25 different mediation cases.

In January 2008, Laura began working as a Program Development Consultant with Resolution Systems Institute (RSI, formerly CAADRS). In this role, Ms. Noah works with various Illinois constituencies in developing mediation programs through RSI’s Statewide Mediation Access Project. The project’s main goal is to provide access to justice for poor and low-income disputants through the initiation of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) systems. Ms. Noah is responsible for supporting local communities in developing ADR programs by providing assistance with training, goal-setting, design and implementation, monitoring, and evaluation.

In September 2007, Laura joined the faculty of North Central College in Naperville, Illinois as an adjunct professor teaching courses in conflict resolution. She blogs about professional aspects of mediation at Pronoia Mediation.

Prior Experience

Previously, Laura worked as a full-time mediator at The Marriage and Family Counseling Service (MFCS), Office of the Chief Judge, Circuit Court of Cook County, Chicago, Illinois. At MFCS she mediated an average of 130 cases per year involving divorcing, divorced, and never-married couples regarding child custody and visitation disputes. Laura also served as an "Emergency Intervener" for cases requiring emergency intervention (accusations of abuse, denial of access, parent moving out of state/country) by interviewing all parties involved and making recommendations to the judge. In addition, Laura taught a class for post-decree, pre-decree, and never-married parents called "Focus on Children" providing conflict resolution skills and techniques for parents while educating them about the impact of conflict on children. In 2007 Laura left MFCS to establish Noah Mediation Services in Oak Park, Illinois.

Prior to joining MFCS, Laura ran a peer mediation program at a middle school in Boston. She then supervised that program along with two high school peer mediation programs in Boston. During that time, Laura L. Noah also volunteered as a mediator/member with Metropolitan Mediation Services in Brookline, Massachusetts mediating family cases involving juvenile issues of running away, truancy, curfew, etc. Laura was a mediator/member of The Conflict Intervention Team (CIT) in Boston, a school crisis organization that provided emergency intervention to Massachusetts' schools in or on the verge of crisis. She also previously volunteered at the Middlesex District Court in Cambridge, Massachusetts mediating small claims cases including landlord/tenant, employer/employee, neighbor disputes, business/vendor, domestic, etc.

Laura worked in Human Resources for 5 years prior to and during the time in which she was obtaining her Master of Arts degree.

Domestic Violence Training

Laura L. Noah has completed the Chicago Metropolitan Battered Women’s Network 40-hour domestic violence training. She has also conducted workshops on mediation for domestic violence survivors and advocates.

Noah Mediation Services
1111 Westgate Street, Oak Park, Illinois.
P (708) 434-0615
F (708) 434-0618
info@noahmediation.com
www.noahmediation.com