Who We Are
A Thirty Year Proven History
Mediators Without Borders was established in 1994 by founders Shauna Ries and Genna Murphy as a stress management and conflict resolution training company. By 2000, the founders coauthored a book, Quality of Life, that offered strategies for managing stress through healthy relationships and authentic communication skills. In 2000, Shauna received training in Divorce Mediation and observed many overlaps with stress management and healthy communication skills. However, she noted that a five day training in mediation did not offer the depth of knowledge she needed to add this service to her practice as a Family Clinician.
Mediators Without Borders
The need for a more rigorous mediation education prompted Ries and Murphy to create the first online graduate certificate program in Conflict Resolution which was offered for graduate credit through Arcadia University. The program was soon offered in over 600 University Continuing Education Catalogues. In 2003, Ries and Murphy added a two-way mirror project to complement their live training program. Mediators Without Borders became the umbrella organization for Arbitrators Without Borders and Restorative Justice Without Borders. Today, the company offers six distinct conflict resolution specializations and has trained over 2000 graduates in 20 diverse countries.
The INACCORD Conflict Analysis Model
Ries and Murphy fervently believe that conflict resolution is a psychological process and must be approached as such. Ries created a more psychologically focused proprietary model of conflict resolution, INACCORD®, and set about conducting research on its efficacy in the United States and Romania. The Romanian research is published in a white paper conducted within a partnership with a New York University and tested by a researcher and graduate of Harvard University. The model is presented in the text In Justice, INACCORD, coauthored by Ries and the internationally renowned Developmental Theorist, Dr. Susan Harter.
In Justice, INACCORD is the foundational text for the six certificate programs offered by Mediators Without Borders. Ries and Murphy coauthored a companion text, Touchstone Skills, to offer students the necessary communication skills to become an effective professional in the field of conflict resolution.
INACCORD for the Workplace
Mediators Without Borders continues to graduate comprehensively trained INACCORD mediators, arbitrators and restorative justice practitioners both online and in hybrid online and live training settings. The INACCORD model has been commercialized into an online platform for use in corporate and governmental organizations. The model offers a predictable, efficient system for workforces that desire a mechanism to mitigate misunderstandings and conflict at every level.
Conflict, Trauma and Healing Modalities
In 2025, Mediators Without Borders will establish a Healing Center in Colorado for trauma and conflict resolution using various modalities to uncover and help reconcile individual and group traumas that prevent successful conflict resolution. The Center will offer individual and group retreats with modalities such as mindfulness training, INACCORD Equine Assisted Conflict Resolution™, yoga and meditation and group team building. The Center will also offer psychedelic journeys using the newly legalized psylocibin in Colorado.
INACCORD
A unique Empowerment based method of training
Each of our training programs and certificates offer students a system of practice that focuses on the ongoing empowerment of all parties in a dispute. This system begins with a careful intake interview with surveys that measure empowerment levels and expectations. Surveys are also employed to measure the parties’ understanding and satisfaction at each stage of the mediation, arbitration or restorative justice process.
InAccord Founder’s Story
Learn About Our Roots
I want to begin by telling a life changing genesis story about the early roots of INACCORD.
The year is 1986 in a small northern Ohio town.
Years earlier a couple met in kindergarten, fell in love in high school, had a son and two daughters together and then started their own food service company. After years of hard work and diligence, they created a company that was cash flowing $100,000 per day… per day!
One fateful day, an employee approached the 27-year-old son of the founder with a sexual harassment complaint against her manager. This young man, with limited people skills and no company grievance process, decided to just let the two of them work it out together.
Within days, she hired a lawyer and initiated a 3.2-million-dollar harassment suit against the company.
The venue was changed to a neighboring town (the town the company had not chosen years before as headquarters) and the jury awarded her the full amount requested. Immediately, the local bank contacted the company founder and called their Line of Credit. This was done in spite of the fact the case went immediately to appeals.
The bank forced the company to hire a consultant to help with a reorganization that would be necessary if the case was lost on appeal. The consultants were paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to help. They really only helped themselves. The consultants leaked their work and company’s situation to Inc. magazine which published an article promoting the consultants attempts to save the company.
The owners had always hoped to one day be on a cover of a business magazine but not like this. They made the cover with the title, “Can this company be saved?”
Competitors sent copies of the cover to all the company’s current customers and started slowly peeling them all away. In the meantime, the settlement was overturned on appeal and only lawyers’ fees were to be covered.
The company was ultimately sold for pennies on the dollar.
The Winners: Attorneys and the Consulting Company
Losers: Employee who filed the claim and only received 15K
- 800 employees who also lost their jobs
- The city who lost one of their biggest employers
- A family whose years of hard work vanished in mere months.
Shauna Ries was one of the founder’s two daughters and was the vice president of marketing at the time. It changed her perspective dramatically and eventually led her to a study of psychology and mediation. She wanted to create a model that helps workforces and owners approach conflict in a more constructive and people focused manner. That model became INACCORD.
Our Proprietary INACCORD Approach to Conflict Resolution
INACCORD® from conflict to resolution
Just. Like. That.
INACCORD is our groundbreaking model for facilitated conflict resolution. Perfected over the course of thirty years, INACCORD is entirely unique to Mediators Without Borders. The model emphasizes transparency, communication, and empathy to ensure clients experience an impartial and transformative resolution process.
The model guides disputants through distinct phases and stages, allowing them an active role in their own resolution, while maximizing satisfaction and understanding.
Become a Mediator, Arbitrator or Restorative Justice Practioner
Fill out the following form or call 877-268-5337 now for more information on the course offerings and Professional Certificates.