[ Silence ]
>> Well, I graduated from Boston
College with a Bachelor of Arts degree
and I was an English major there and actually
the year I graduated, I wasn't sure what I want
to do so I took a year off and I worked
part time as a substitute teacher
for a school district and I took
long term substitute assignments
and I realized I didn't want to be a teacher.
So -- I thought, almost on a whim, applied to
law school and thought, "Well, if I get in,
I'll decide whether or not I'll go."
and I did get in.
I went to Temple University School
of Law and after law school I worked,
first for the United States government and then
I went into private practice, in New Jersey
and started doing civil litigation.
And it was through civil litigation and
getting familiar with people at the courts.
First, I started serving as a superior court
arbitrator and then a private arbitrator,
and in the year 2000 the court started
a brand new program, it was a --
they called it presumptive mediation,
which meant the court would go through
and select cases that they thought
were cases that should be resolved
through mediation and not through trial.
And these cases were put into a mediation
program and I took the very first course
to become certified as a
court appointed mediator.
After doing that for several years and seeing
people and working with people on these cases
that were court ordered into
mediation, people --
I assumed, liked the way I worked as
a mediator and started contacted me
to sit privately as a mediator for them.