Rocco Scanza, a nationally known mediator who lives in Los Angeles, was appointed the first executive director of the Alliance for Education in Dispute Resolution. The alliance is a national consortium of university and professional dispute resolution programs housed at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR). Scanza simultaneously was named deputy director of the ILR School's Institute on Conflict Resolution and a member of the school's extension faculty. He assumed his new responsibilities Oct. 1, 1999.

The alliance was formed in 1999 in response to an explosion in court-ordered mediation and an accompanying demand for trained mediators, or "neutrals," versed in the ins and outs of new employment legislation and other laws. The alliance trains and educates specialized mediators, arbitrators, advocates and fact finders. Alternative dispute resolution is not only used widely by corporations to resolve complex business disputes but is seen by most of them as a more satisfactory process than litigation in the courts, both in terms of cost control and outcome, according to a 1998 survey of 530 top U.S. corporations by Cornell, Price Waterhouse and a conflict resolution group.

Scanza comes to the Cornell-based alliance and the ILR School with extensive expertise in alternative dispute resolution management. He was on the staff of the American Arbitration Association (AAA) for more than 20 years, serving most recently as national vice president for neutrals' relations. In that position, he developed the AAA's mandatory arbitrator training and education program, revamped the organization's regional and national panels of experienced arbitrators and mediators and developed new national specialty panels for the energy industry, mass tort claims and employment law. Before assuming the vice presidency of the AAA in 1996, he was named an assistant vice president for case administration in 1989 and was promoted to regional vice president of the Los Angeles office in 1992.

"At a time when more and more organizations are turning to alternative dispute resolution techniques to settle conflicts, Scanza's appointment is especially good news," said ILR Dean Edward

Lawler. "He brings to the ILR School and the alliance a depth of knowledge in conflict resolution that will benefit society as a whole as well as enhance our school's programs."

"We are delighted that such an experienced and talented individual has agreed to be the executive director of the alliance," said David Lipsky, director of the school's Institute on Conflict Resolution and former ILR dean. "He is a sterling addition to our team."

Scanza, who chaired the meeting of the alliance's affiliates in Chicago last Oct. 28, practiced law in California and served as an arbitrator and mediator in a variety of commercial, labor and employment cases before his AAA and Cornell appointments. He was also on the faculty of the Loyola Law School at Loyola Marymount University and California State University-Dominguez Hills, where he taught courses in arbitration and conflict resolution.

He received a B.A. from Queens College of the City University of New York and a J.D. from the Loyola Law School.