Family & Community Mediation was incorporated as a non-profit organization in October of 2018. FCM was formed to meet the demand for affordable mediation services and has incorporated key personnel, programming and resources from vital and long-running mediation programs once administered by The Opportunity Alliance and Volunteers of America. The organization has grown from a small group of dedicated mediators to a statewide organization providing mediation services at low cost, and facilitation and conflict resolution training throughout the state of Maine. In 2020, we served 14 of the 16 counties in Maine and provided training to over 75 mediators. FCM mediators are volunteer community members, recruited, screened and trained to provide caring, skillful neutral third party support to help address conflict or difficult life transitions. At the present time, FCM is the only provider of community mediation in Maine and has a roster of over 50 trained mediators. We currently offer mediation to individuals, families, community groups, and housing organizations. Our goal is to expand access to affordable mediation services for the communities of Maine and beyond.

Who We Are

Maine’s only community-based nonprofit mediation service.

Vision

·      Recognition as the trusted mediation resource for Maine's families and communities.

·      Greater individual, family and community resilience, productivity and caring in the State of Maine.

·      Empowered individuals and well-functioning communities in Maine.

Mission

FCM provides mediation and training throughout Maine using research-based practices that emphasize participant empowerment and shared decision making.

Board of Directors

Joyce Wethington Knight, President

Joyce Wethington Knight is a semi-retired attorney who trained as a mediator in 2014 after relocating to Portland, Maine. Since then, she has been a volunteer mediator for and supporter of FCM and its predecessor organizations. In addition to her law degree, she has a Masters in Social Work. Her legal career includes more than 20 years in private practice as well as 15 years as General Counsel for the US operations of an international insurer. Joyce is the current president of FCM and also serves on several boards of Maine non-profits, including Maine Craft Association and Friends of the Eastern Promenade. Past non-profit board service includes N.C. Special Olympics, Charlotte Montessori School, and Mecklenburg County Mental Health Association.

Michael Boyd, Vice President

Michael Boyd is a graduate of Brown University and Boston University School of Law. He has been living and practicing law in Maine since 1980. He was trained as a mediator in 2009, and has worked as a mediator since, in addition to his law practice. He is the current vice-president of Classical Uprising, past president of Oratorio Chorale, and has served as Chair of Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program, and a member of the Board of Directors of The Choral Art Society.

Susan Tananbaum

Susan Tananbaum joined the FCM board in March 2021. She has a PhD and two MAs from Brandeis University and taught history at Bowdoin College for nearly thirty years. Since retiring, Susan has completed the 40 hour, DV, Housing, and Family Law training and volunteers in the youth sailing program at the Harraseeket Yacht Club. Susan has traveled extensively for her research and for fun and has lived England, Israel, and South Africa. She an enthusiastic sailor and skier and lives in Freeport.

Anneke Hohl

Anneke Hohl graduated from Clark University with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Peace Studies and a Master’s degree in Professional Communications that emphasized conflict management practices. Throughout her life she has been led by a passion for conflict resolution. In 2004, she trained as a mediator with the Community Mediation Center in Worcester, MA. While living in Maine from 2006 to 2008, she practiced mediation with the Court Alternative Dispute Resolution Service (CADRES) and (what was then) the Youth Alternatives Ingraham Transformative Family Mediation program. Before moving back to Maine, she lived in Vermont where she became involved with Restorative Justice and most recently served as Director of the Burlington Community Justice Center – part of the City of Burlington’s Community & Economic Development Office. Since moving back to Maine in the summer of 2017, much of her focus has been on parenting—volunteering in her children’s classrooms, serving on the local Parent Teacher Organization (PTO), and coaching youth sports.

Matthew Penney

Matt has over 20 years of progressive experience managing the financial operations in the Healthcare space. He currently serves as the chief financial officer for the Cognizant Technology Solutions Healthcare division. In his prior roles he’s worked with Aetna, UnitedHealth Group and two regional not for profit health plans where he specialized in expense optimization and process improvement; leveraging technology, financial reporting and operating metrics to drive business process optimization. Prior to Healthcare he spent time supporting financial reporting systems for Hyperion Solutions and implementing financial planning and analysis tools for a banking software company. Matt received his Masters in Business Administration from the University of Maine where he graduated summa cum laude.  Matt has been with Maine Family and Community Mediation since the spring of 2021. 

Doris Luther

Doris has a Master’s Degree in Conflict Resolution. She has been a mediator for 29 years, having started out with Youth Alternatives, now known as Opportunity Alliance, then joining the Court Alternative Dispute Resolution Services (CADRES) roster, which she served on for 27 years, 10 of those as Regional Coordinator. Other rosters on which she has served include the Department of Justice Americans with Disabilities program; Maine’s Foreclosure Diversion Program; and Maine’s Land Use Roster.  Doris has served as a board member for the Maine Association of Mediators and the Victim Offender Mediation Association, which had international membership. In 1994, she was a founding board member for the Community Mediation Center in Portland and the Victim-Offender Mediation Program. Doris is currently a lead facilitator for the Restorative Justice Institute of Maine.

Janet Hunkel

Janet Hunkel earned a MA in Conflict Resolution from UMass-Boston and mediated in Small Claims, Civil and Summary Process (Housing) Courts in the Boston area.  She received a Mediation Certification at USM and is on the FCM and CADRES roosters.  Previously, she earned a MA degree in Urban Planning and held a Fellowship at UMass-Boston’s McCormick School of Public Policy.  Professionally she was a Community Organizer for the SouthWest Corridor Project, which remains a top textbook case for successful community organizing.  After a stint in Public Policy, she started a real estate development business.  She was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine shortly after the break-up of the USSR.  Additionally she supervised numerous elections in the Balkans under US State Department secondment.  Prior non-profit boards range from guerrilla urban gardening to the Mass Horticulture Society, and in-between the LWV-Boston, President of a State park’s Advisory Committee.  She helped start-up a GreenSpace Alliance and a Park Conservancy.