Program Faculty

Chris Stern Hyman, J.D. Brooklyn Law School; BA University of Chicago
Chris is a health care lawyer and a mediator. In 1998 she formed Medical Mediation Group LLC, which provides mediation services to resolve disputes in health care and conducts trainings. She is a member of the American Arbitration Association’s Panel of Mediators and a Special Master, mediating appeals pending before the NY Supreme Court Appellate Division, First Department. Chris was principal investigator of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation Pilot Project for Mediation of Medical Malpractice Lawsuits, and co-principal investigator of the MeSH Study, which mediated medical malpractice lawsuits filed against private hospitals in New York City. She has trained physicians, nurses, other health care providers, lawyers, law students, medical students and others in mediation skills.

Jenny Besch, M.A. Organizational Psychology and B.A. Columbia University
Jenny is the Director of the Westchester and Rockland Mediation Centers (WRMC) and is a Certified Mediator and State Certified Trainer with advanced training in community mediation, parent-child mediation, custody-visitation mediation, divorce mediation, child permanency mediation, employment discrimination mediation, victim-offender mediation, and restorative justice group conferencing. She has served on the Board of  the New York Dispute Resolution Association as well as EPIC, a noted parent effectiveness training and service organization. In addition to her work at WRMC, Jenny has served as an Adjunct Professor at New York University’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies teaching Family and Divorce Mediation and is presently an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University, teaching Advanced Mediation in the graduate program of Negotiation and Conflict Resolution. 

Tajaé Gaynor, B.A. John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Tajaé is the Supervisor of Training and School Based Programs for Westchester and Rockland Mediation Centers of CLUSTER, Inc. He developed a passion for Conflict Resolution over 19 years ago as a Junior High School peer mediator. Tajaé is currently working on his Master’s thesis at Columbia University’s School of Continuing Education where he will attain his graduate degree in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution. Tajaé works with hundreds of young people and adults per year teaching the ideology and skills of conflict resolution. His commitment to teaching violence prevention has earned him national recognition from the Democratic Congressional leadership in 1999. In 2004, Tajaé was honored with the James Boskey Award for outstanding youth leadership from the Association of Conflict Resolution (ACR). He currently serves on the Board of Directors for ACR and was appointed as the first Diversity and Equity Director in the Organizations History.