IDRS has assembled a team of experienced Indian and non-Indian practitioners who specialize in processes that bring people together and build partnerships that solve critical local problems. Today, IDRS offers Indian leaders and organizations an extensive interactive training program and a full complement of technical services.
Steven Haberfeld, (916) 802-0243, email
Sonia Tamez, (510) 502-1425, email
Mark Thompson, (916) 803-7550, email
Stephanie Lucero, (916) 505-0177, email
Steven Haberfeld, Ph.D. serves as the Executive Director and the Senior Mediator/Facilitator on the staff of Indian Dispute Resolution Service, Inc. Along with a consortium of five Indian organizations, he is one of the founders of IDRS in 1989 and the principle designer of its training and service delivery program.
Dr. Haberfeld has forty years experience as a community organizer, mediator, facilitator and trainer in multi-cultural and multi-ethnic settings. He has worked in Mexican farm-worker, African American, low-income White, and American Indian communities. Dr. Haberfeld has been working with Indian tribes since 1976, assisting leaders to resolve internal differences and to effectively negotiate their interests in complex transactions with governmental, political and private sector interests.
Dr. Haberfeld has also been involved as an intermediary facilitating dialogues and increasing collaboration between tribes and local, state and federal agencies, political jurisdictions, and public institutions (public school districts) and their constituents. In January 2000, he was recognized by the Sacramento Bee in a front page article for having been the “driving force” in securing the historic agreement between the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe in California and the National Park Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Reclamation, and the Bureau of Land Management in the Department of Interior. The negotiated agreement called for the creation of a 10,000 acre land base, specific ground water allocations, and environmental resource management and economic development opportunities for the Tribe in its ancestral homeland, inside and outside the Death Valley National Park in California and Nevada.
Dr. Haberfeld has also served as IDRS’ leader trainer and has participated during this time in over 200 three-day training workshops for Indian organizations and public agencies. Since 1980, Dr. Haberfeld has maintained a private mediation practice specializing in resolving workplace conflicts. He has extensive experience training and resolving disputes between labor and management in over fifteen different public and private hospitals. Dr. Haberfeld’s private practice has included work in Cuba as a member of a small team that trained the Cuban foreign diplomatic corps in negotiation skills and processes, and in Guatemala where he provided negotiation training to representatives of the military, government and guerrilla forces as part of the country’s national reconciliation effort.
Prior to working with IDRS, Dr. Haberfeld served (1978-1982) was a senior planner at the National Economic Development & Law Center (NED &LC) assisting tribes and local development corporations design and implement economic, employment and community development strategies in their communities . He also served as the editor and contributor to the Center’s quarterly Economic Development Report. From 1982-1984, he served as the Director of the Center for Indian Economic Development.
Dr. Haberfeld has a BA in Economics and Labor Relations from Reed College in Portland Oregon. He has a MA in International Relations, a Ph.D. in Public Law & Government and a Certificate in African Studies from Columbia University in New York.
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Sonia Tamez, MA, serves as IDRS’ Associate Director, and Director of IDRS’ Eco-System Services Program. She directs a team of four staff members who assist tribes combine environmental protection, economic development and community sustainability. The program’s focus is on supporting tribes to play a stewardship role on their ancestral lands which include tribal forests and forests managed by the Forest Service (FS) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The program also emphasizes helping tribes develop new enterprises that provide forest restoration services (e.g. planting), forest based energy (e.g., transforming woody biomass into electrical and thermal energy) and value added forest products (e.g., producing wood chips, pellets, small diameter posts and poles).
Ms. Tamez responsibilities include working with tribes to: develop strategic alliances with the FS and BLM, secure agreements, grants and contracts with these agencies under the Tribal Forest Protection Act (TFPA) and other authorities, assess financial and market feasibility, develop business and marketing plans, provide managerial and technical training, broker financial resources, and develop legal structures to house new tribal businesses.
Ms. Tamez has over 30 years’ experience working with Tribes and agencies, particularly the FS in California. She was instrumental in developing the tribal relations program regionally and nationally within the FS. Her responsibilities included working with tribal governments, Indian communities, organizations and state and local governments regarding natural and cultural resource management, and environmental decision-making. She managed a technical and financial assistance program for urban and community forests as well.
Some of her previous accomplishments include: launching the TFPA in the West by organizing a major interagency and intertribal TFPA workshop, assisting five Tribes and five Forests successfully negotiate a TFPA agreement; serving on the FS national committee to develop direction for implementation of the TFPA, leading a task force to develop the agency’s first consultation direction and working with over 30 Tribes and 11 Forests in the Sierra Nevada to protect and perpetuate culturally important plants, reintroduce traditional knowledge and management practices, and coordinate with tribal governments regarding fire protection. Ms Tamez also convened a series of Sierra Nevada Tribal Summits that have helped support successful implementation.
While with the FS, Ms Tamez spent time elsewhere in the West and Washington DC. She served as Acting Deputy Director and Acting Director of the Office of Tribal Relations in DC. She also worked on the personal staff of Senator Bingaman (NM) while on a Legis Fellowship and developed a number of bills that addressed environmental and tribal priorities.
Ms. Tamez earned her Masters degree in Anthropology from San Francisco State University, CA in 1993 and graduated with departmental honors and a BA in Anthropology at Sonoma State University, CA in 1983
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Mark Thompson, JD, serves IDRS in several capacities. He is the IDRS Business Manager, a small business development expert, and has also served as an arbitrator.Mr. Thompson’s has an exceptionally strong background in business and business law. He has specific skills and background in fiscal accounting and controls, personnel management, information systems, accounting software, costs and income projections and analysis, bidding government contracts, marketing services, etc.
Mr. Thompson provides training and technical assistance to tribes in business planning, development and operations, conducting feasibility studies, developing business plans, working with tribal staff in setting up the books and internal accounting procedures, establishing systems for accounts receivable and payable, and other systems of internal management, control and reporting. He has built, owned and operated several small businesses himself, is a licensed real estate broker and operates a real estate business of his own. He teaches business economics and accounting at the Community College level, and in near completing an MA in Economics and a Masters of Business Administration. Mr. Thompson completed the Juris Doctorate degree from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento in 2009.
Mark Thompson has serve IDRS clients as an arbitrator and financial expert when the successful resolution of the conflict requires the assistance of a person who has mastered mathematics and accounting to help unravel the issues.
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Stephanie Lucero (Mescalero Apache), J.D., LLM is the Sierra Nevada Coordinator of Indian Development Resources & Services. She heads IDRS efforts in the Sierra Nevada, providing services to tribes in the areas of environmental protection, natural resource management, and community economic development. Stephanie assists Sierra Nevada tribes secure agreements with the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management under the Tribal Forest Protection Act; identifies and develops sustainable forest related enterprises; assesses financial and marketing feasibility; develops business and market plans, develops managerial and technical skills training; engages in fund raising, and develops legal structures for tribal businesses and environmental protection efforts.
The National Forest System is in a state of neglect. Today, there is an incredible opportunity for mobilized tribes to engage in forest management planning and secure a significant and lasting role in the management of their ancestral homelands. Since starting at IDRS, Stephanie has launched the Land Resource Management Plan Revision Project in the Sierra Nevada, coordinating tribal engagement in national forest management plan revisions. This project will train tribal leaders in cross cultural communication, negotiation, and forest management processes at an agency level. Her efforts include outreach to Sierra Nevada tribes, Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, private stakeholders, and environmental groups. The objective is to develop a collaborative approach to the LRMP process that ensures active participation by tribes at all levels of the revision process, and keeps tribal interests at the forefront of discussions and plan development, as well as protects tribal rights in the finalized plans. Stephanie’s and the IDRS team’s work in the Sierra Nevada will serve as a model for tribal participation in forest management planning at a national level.
Stephanie has an extensive academic background in indigenous economic development, natural resources, and environmental law. She has a certification in Environmental Law at Boalt Hall School of Law. She contributed as a research assistant to the Felix Cohen Handbook of Federal Indian Law and is completing an SJD at the University of Arizona’s Indigenous People’s Law and Policy Program. It focuses on collaborative approaches to indigenous economic development, native nation building, and indigenous natural resources. She brings 4 years of practical litigation and transactional legal experience in the fields of real estate and land use development. After years of providing legal advice and counsel to developers and businessmen, she is invaluable in assessing private industry norms, business feasibility, and the legal pitfalls associated with development. Before joining the IDRS team Stephanie worked as an advocate/consultant/ and researcher for numerous tribal courts.
Stephanie has a BA in Native American Studies and English from the University of California, Berkeley and a JD from Boalt Hall (School of Law), University of California, Berkeley where she served as the Native American Law Students Association Co-chair. While at Boalt Hall, Stephanie received the Francine Diaz Memorial Award for her commitment and efforts in public interest and collaboration building, demonstrating the skills and passion that she brings to the IDRS team. Stephanie also has an LLM from University of Arizona’s Indigenous Peoples’ Law and Policy Program.
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Heather Zenone (Cherokee), JD, serves on the staff of IDRS as the Director of Indian Child Welfare Research and Policy Reform. Her responsibilities include coordinating IDRS’ study of Indian youth who are aging out of the state foster care system, and promoting reforms in child welfare delivery systems at the state, county and tribal levels to be more responsive to the unique treatment and cultural needs of Indian children and youth.
As a lawyer specializing in Federal Indian law and community economic development, Heather has spent the past ten years working in low income and minority communities to build coalitions of organizations that provide social, education, and job training services. Heather uses research and technology to bring together communities, academia, and professionals in pursuit of social justice goals.
Heather works closely with the California Indian Child Welfare Association (Cal-ICWA), a statewide Indian advocacy organization that IDRS has helped organize to promote compliance with the Indian Child Welfare Act in California, and surface other Indian child welfare issues that need attention. Cal-ICWA is a member organization that includes Indian tribes, Indian youth and families; federal and state Indian-serving agencies and administrators; state and tribal courts; counties (dependency, delinquency, education); Indian foster family agencies; Tribal TANF programs; Indian education centers; Indian health services; and other culturally appropriate service providers. Cal-ICWA’s 2009 research on transition-age Indian foster youth, conducted with UCSF Medical School, indicates gross neglect of youth’s physical and mental health needs; and that these needs and services are qualitatively different from the problems and solutions for transitional foster youth in general. Based on this research, IDRS and Cal-ICWA is introducing concrete reforms including ICWA/Tribal TANF coordination and a collaboratively developed ICWA information management system.
Heather began her career in the construction sector collaborating with researchers, community, organized Labor, and local government to create jobs and training for low-income or homeless persons, minorities and women. Later, Heather co-founded Impact209, in which she structured and directed a statewide coalition of academics, elected representatives, community-based organizations, and activist agencies investigating the links between equal opportunity and the economic and social prosperity of California.
Heather has 15 years of program and non-profit management experience including organizational start-up and program design for a Bay Area Tribal TANF program, and seven years of service as a very active Treasurer of the Board of Directors of the American Indian Child Resource Center. Heather has five years experience as a diversity outreach and recruitment professional, with training in strategic market management. In her capacity as an economic development consultant, Heather’s technical assistance expertise encompasses non-profit strategic planning, fundraising strategy, Board relations, policies and procedure, and program design. Heather has also collaboratively designed technology solutions and implemented technology training programs for social services organizations.
Heather has a BA in Rhetoric from the University of California, Berkeley and a JD from Boalt Hall (School of Law), University of California, Berkeley where she served as the Native American Law Students Association Co-chair. Heather has a personal understanding of Indian child welfare issues because she is a second-generation American Indian foster youth who aged out of the California system.
Ms. Joyce Burel (Picayne/Chukchansi) LMFT has served IDRS as a Senior Associate Trainer, Facilitator and Mediator with IDRS since 1997 Ms. Burel has extensive background as a Family Mediator and brings her rich first-hand experience to IDRS’ Leadership Training Team. She serves as a lead trainer in IDRS Workshops on Cross-Cultural Communication and Negotiation Skills and Processes, and in IDRS Workshops on Introductory and Advanced Mediation/Peacemaking.
She brings an unusual combination of experience to IDRS. On one hand, she is an astute practitioner and trainer schooled in a range of conflict resolution disciplines. At the same time, she has accumulated a wealth of practical experience as a tried and tested Indian leader. Several years ago, Ms. Burel served as the elected Chairperson and later as Tribal Council Secretary of the Picayune Rancheria of the Chukchansi Indians in Coarsegold, CA. Prior to these positions, she served on the Tribe’s Housing Board of Commissioners for four years. Working in these roles, she has the opportunity to be integrally involved in the entire range of her Tribe’s internal matters. In addition, she has shepherded her Tribe through extensive external negotiations with federal, state and county government agencies, local political jurisdictions, and private interests in the non-Indian community regarding economic development and land use and acquisition issues
While working three days a week as her Tribe’s Tribal Chairwoman, Ms. Burel has worked as the Site Supervisor of the Behavioral Health Program at the MiWu Mati Healing Center. Her primarily responsibility is providing therapeutic services.
In the past, Ms. Burel served as the Director of Counseling Services at the Fresno Indian Health Program, as a Family Court Mediator with the Fresno County Family Court in Fresno, CA. and has mediated disputes concerning child custody, stepparent adoptions, and guardianship.
She also served as the Director of Training, Consultation and Supervision for Social Advocates for Youth (SAY) (Santa Rosa, CA), where she supervised, consulted and trained a staff of 35 in case management, treatment planning, mediation, and family, group and individual therapy. These services were delivered in clinic, public school and outreach settings.
Ms. Burel worked as a Private Practice Therapist with the Family Therapy Center in Santa Rosa (CA), with a focus on families, adolescents, chemical dependency, violence and abuse recovery. Referrals came from the Department of Human Services, California Youth Authority Parole, the Sonoma County Probation Department and the Victim Witness Program.
Ms. Burel earned her BA Degree in Anthropology with a special focus on Native American Studies, and her MA Degree in Counseling from Sonoma State University (Rohnnert Park, CA). She is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. She received training and was certified as a mediator by IDRS and was placed on the IDRS Panel of Professional Mediators.
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Stanley Sitnick, JD, has served as a Senior Associate of Indian Dispute Resolution Services for the past twelve years. He has conducted over a hundred training workshops in Cross-Cultural Communication and Negotiation Skills and Processes, and has helped train and certify new Mediators, and provided mediation services to IDRS clients
Mr. Sitnick currently serves as an Associate Professor at Portland State University in Portland Oregon where he teaches core courses in Conflict Resolution in the Graduate Program. He also maintains a very active private mediation practice.
Mediator / Facilitator in private practice where he provides a broad range of mediation and conflict resolution services primarily in domestic relations, civil litigation, family, workplace and public policy settings.
Mr. Sitnick serves as a Trainer in private practice, providing training to governmental units, businesses and organizations in conflict resolution, interest-based negotiation, mediation, team-building and intercultural communication.
Mr. Sitnick formerly served as the Program Coordinator of the Clackamas County Dispute Resolution Center (CCDRC) where he directed community-based mediation program serving county residents in a wide variety of cases involving neighborhood, community, landlord/tenant, governmental, workplace, family, school and criminal disputes. He was responsible for program management and development, training and supervision of staff and volunteers, mediation of sensitive and complex cases and professional trainings in conflict resolution and mediation.
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He formerly served as the U.S. Speaker with the U.S. Department of State, working on a special grant from the U.S. Department of State, Office of International Information Programs, to provide mediation training for school administrators and government officials in Windhoek, Namibia.
As a private Attorney in practice of general civil law he as served as a Consultant and Developer of public-interest law projects, including Oregon State Bar and Interest on Lawyer Trust Accounts (IOLTA) Program. He also served as the Litigation Director for Oregon Legal Services and Multnomah County Legal Aid Service, Consultant to National Legal Services Corporation in the areas of lawyer training and program evaluation, andAdjunct Professor: Northwestern School of Law at Lewis and Clark College in Portland Oregon.
He earned his B.A. at Georgetown University and his J.D. at the University of Chicago Law School