With the start of a new academic year, college athletes and coaches prepare for another season and often a whole new environment. They encounter new team members, the pressures of performance and a longing for home. During this program, Joshua Gordon, of the Sports Conflict Institute and Stephen Kotev will discuss what student athletes and coaches can do to optimize their performance on and off the field.

A conflict management professional for more than twenty years, Mr. Gordon is an experienced mediator, facilitator, educator, and organizational capability builder. Mr. Gordon specializes in sports related conflict management building on a history of contexts that have included business-to-business, organizational change, energy, environmental, real estate and housing, family, and gang-related conflict and disputes. He especially appreciates and enjoys complex, multi-party conflict that requires non-traditional solutions to impasse.

Mr. Gordon founded the Sports Conflict Institute (SCI) after previously directing the Competition Not Conflict (CNC) project at the University of Oregon School of Law Appropriate Dispute Resolution Center. Mr. Gordon has created a number of cutting-edge conflict management tools and curriculum, including, the Play-By-Play Model™, Outside the Box / Inside the Ring™, Stop Bully!™, Sports Conflict Observations Tools (SCOTs)™, and myriad others.

Mr. Gordon continues to teach undergraduates and graduates at the University of Oregon in Eugene, OR. He is the negotiation coach for the ABA Moot Court Negotiation Competition. In addition to his career, Mr. Gordon is a competitive runner. He competes as part of the University of Oregon Running Club, Team 2XU, and the Bowerman Athletic Club with consistent top 1% finishes.

For More Information: Joshua Gordon

Stephen Kotev is a Washington D.C. based conflict resolution consultant offering mediation, negotiation, conflict analysis, facilitation, training and somatic education to private and government clients. He holds a Master of Science degree from George Mason University’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution and a black belt in the Japanese martial art of Aikido. He is a former employee of the Association for Conflict Resolution, the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution, the Ohio Commission on Dispute Resolution and Conflict Resolution and the D.C. Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency as an ADR Specialist.