David Anderson Hooker is the President of Dialawg RMS and has been active in the practice of mediation for more than twenty years. He has received training from many of the premier mediators and mediation programs in the United States. His clients include federal state and local governmental agencies, private litigants in law suits, community groups, non profit organizations, churches, families and individuals. He is lawyer in good standing with the Georgia Bar since 1994 and certified as mediator and arbitrator with the Georgia Office of Dispute Resolution. He is a former Assistant Attorney General for the State of Georgia, the former Executive Director of the Georgia Supreme Court’s Committee on Substance Abuse and the Courts and the Former Senior Program Officer for the National Institute for Dispute Resolution (NIDR). After leaving the Attorney general’s office Mr. Hooker entered private practice as a trial lawyer with the Law firm of Meadows, Ichter and Trigg. His solo practice has focused primarily on mediation, arbitration and dispute resolution training and systems design since 1999.
Hooker has served as Adjunct Faculty to both Emory and John Marshall’s Law Schools teaching Mediation and Alternative Dispute Resolution. He is currently Adjunct Faulty to the Institute for Church Administration and Management at the ITC in Atlanta, Georgia where he teaches conflict resolution and leadership communications. He is also a Senior Trainer for the National Coalition Building Institute (NCBI) Atlanta Chapter providing prejudice reduction seminars, diversity management and complex problem solving consultations. Mr. Hooker served as a National Peace Foundation Visiting Fellow at Africa University’s Institute for Peace, Leadership and Governance (IPLG) in Mutare Zimbabwe in 2003-2004. He has provided training and facilitated public policy dialogues and democracy revitalization sessions in Bosnia, Croatia, Nigeria and Zimbabwe; and he has trained representatives from Eastern Europe, Western and Southern Africa, and the Caribbean for the past eight (8) years.
MEDIATION TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE
Mediation training received:
Conflict Clinic, St. Louis, MO. - Domestic/ Family mediation 1982
Massachusetts Mediation Program, Amherst, MA - Civil Mediation 1984
Citizens Complaint Center, Washington, DC - Civil Mediation and Domestic Mediation involving violence
Harvard Program on Negotiation, Cambridge Massachusetts – Multiparty and Public Policy Disputes 1990
Resolution Resources Corp., Atlanta, GA – General Civil (1998) and Domestic Mediation (1999)
Justice Center of Atlanta, Atlanta GA – General Mediation and Employment Mediation (2000)
Many other short course and non-certification courses in dynamics of story telling, cross cultural issues, violence, trauma healing, breaking impasse, agreement writing, and mediation of mass torts, violent cases, restorative justice and many other topics over the past two decades.
Hooker has mediated over 500 cases. The range of cases mediated includes: Traditional two – party roommate and neighbor disputes; Two-party and complex business disputes (employment discrimination, civil rights, personal injury); Domestic and Family mediation; Post-riot, community, racial reconciliation; Environmental justice (clean air, clean water, solid waste and nuclear waste) and Complex, multi-party policy disputes (health care; arts and parks funding; social services distribution; mental health policy)
CREDENTIALS
Emory University – Candler School of Theology – Master of Divinity - May 2004
Emory University School of Law – Juris Doctor – May 1994
University of Massachusetts in Amherst – Master of Public Health – June 1987
Washington University in St. Louis – Master of Minority Mental Health – December 1983
Morehouse College cum laude – Bachelor of Science – May 1981
