Stephen K. Erickson

Stephen K. Erickson, J.D. is a licensed attorney who works exclusively a mediator. Since 1977, he has mediated over 5,000 disputes in his private practice and trained thousands of new mediators in the US, Canada and England. He received the Bush Leadership Fellowship Award for the study of mediation in 1979 and is a founder and second president of the Academy of Family Mediators. He is well known as a mediation trainer and speaker, and has published numerous articles and books on the subject. In 1996, he and his partner Marilyn McKnight were awarded the Distinguished Mediator Award by the Academy for their outstanding contributions to the field of mediation. In 2007, he and his partner Marilyn McKnight were awarded a Certificate of Service from the MN State Bar Association in recognition of their distinguished service as valued contributors for the development and growth of ADR in Minnesota. Steve finished his three-year term as Board Member of the International Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR) in 2005 where he also chaired the Taskforce on Mediator Certification. He and Marilyn McKnight have co-authored five highly successful books on mediation: Family Mediation Casebook (1988), The Children's Book (1992), Mediating Divorce: A Client’s Workbook (1998), Mediating Divorce: A Trainer’s Manual (1998), and The Practitioner’s Guide to Mediation (2001). Steve has taught as an adjunct professor at the University of St. Thomas Law School in St. Paul, MN and at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, MN.

He is the current Chair of the Family Section of the ACR and also serves on the Diversity and Equity Committee. In May, 2011, he and Marilyn were given the Distinguished Mediator Award by the New York State Council on Divorce Mediation in recognition of their “their pioneering and sustained work in establishing the field of divorce mediation and their soulful dedication in helping families” over the last 35 years. He has also recently been appointed to the faculty at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, where teaches a course in the Master of Arts in Leadership Program.