Lisa Bedinger, M.S.
Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director
Lisa Bedinger brings a restorative philosophy and practices to how schools operate in order to build an inclusive, vibrant and authentic culture and climate. Her work helps create the conditions for both students and educators to not only flourish when things are going well, but work together towards solutions when things get hard. Working with schools and school districts through all stages of the implementation process, she provides a strong, dependable compass as schools and districts travel towards creating more restorative, equitable and trauma-informed schools.
Lisa’s work is founded in a master’s degree in mediation and applied conflict studies and over 25 years of experience in teaching classes, support groups, and workshops on identity, culture, and their impact upon relationships and opportunity. Inspiring her work is her passion for dialogues on equity issues that aim to repair relationships across lines of difference. Most recently, she worked as the director of the South Burlington Community Justice Center and lead consultant for the Burlington Schools District’s restorative practice implementation efforts. In addition, she has taught classes in restorative justice at Vermont Law School’s Masters in Restorative Justice program and has facilitated hundreds of trainings across the state. She uses a dialogue-based approach for adult learning called Dialogue Education, which results in highly interactive, relevant and inclusive professional learning. She believes that the wisdom and creativity needed to address the important and challenging issues we face in our schools and communities increases when the diversity of voices at the table increases.
Contact Lisa at lisa@starlingcollaborative.org.