An expert in alternative dispute resolution (ADR), Claire Suzanne Holland has worked in a variety of capacities, first as an attorney and now as a mediator and arbitrator, consultant, and trainer. Dedicated to expanding her abilities, she has accrued extensive continuing education in mediation, jury trial practice, and dispute resolution in the areas of domestic relations, employment law, education law, and public policy.

In addition to her ADR practice, now in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, she volunteers on an international level. Claire Suzanne Holland began to study ADR while still practicing as an attorney. She added arbitration to her services in 1991 and mediation two years later. Today, she focuses on education, employment, domestic relations, and disability law. Ms. Holland has helped resolve conflicts between management and employees, including for federal government agencies such as the Social Security Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In addition, she has mediated disputes between parents and school districts on behalf of the state of Florida Department of Education.

Claire Suzanne Holland has also served as a consultant in a variety of areas. While working as an attorney, she offered assistance to corporate entities, providing appropriate policies and procedures to protect them against discrimination claims and other employment law liability. She now offers these businesses consultations in dispute resolution techniques. In addition, Ms. Holland has traveled to countries in the Former Soviet Union, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe to deliver training to attorneys, judicial officials, and government representatives, focusing on communication and dispute resolution. This experience has honed her skills and prepared her for online volunteer work in Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan.

Through UN Volunteers’ online volunteering service, Claire Suzanne Holland has provided consultation for the Bureau for Reconstruction and Development, an Afghanistan nongovernmental organization (NGO), creating training materials with the goals of promoting civic education, human and women’s rights, and the rule of law. She also assisted in project management and the screening process for new personnel. For her work with the NGO, UN Volunteers named her as its Volunteer of the Year in 2004.