Author of Elusive Peace Teaches Incarcerated Women Peacemaking Skills

Douglas E. Noll Professional Mediator and co-founder of Prison of Peace, a non profit organization dedicated to teaching peacemaking and mediating skills for incarcerated women, discovered insights from working with inmates that helped shape his new groundbreaking book, Elusive Peace: How Modern Diplomatic Strategies Could Better Resolve World Conflicts (Prometheus Spring 2011).

"We started the Prison of Peace nonprofit project a few months after I had acquired a publishing contract for Elusive Peace. A female inmate in Valley State Prison in Chowchilla, California reached out to us through a handwritten letter for help in reducing the conflict and violence within the prison. While working with these women, I saw many similarities to war and violence. My thought was that if we could be successful teaching these women with dark pasts, many of them serving time for murder and manslaughter, to be peacemakers, it would be a strong testament to the idea that peacemaking in other equally difficult and challenging parts of the world would be possible. Through working with these women I was energized with hope that world conflicts could be mediated, and peace can be achieved. The book, Elusive Peace offers strategies for accomplishing peace in areas of conflict around the world, as well as mediating peace at home," Noll explained.

Prison of Peace is a pro bono project created by professional mediators Laurel Kaufer, Esq. and Douglas E. Noll, Esq. at the request of life and long-term inmates at Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla, Ca, and has received attention from Senator Carol Liu, Chair of the California Senate Select Committee on Women and Children in the Criminal Justice System who said, "Prison of Peace in transforming inmates into trainers themselves, provides a low-cost sustainable rehabilitative program that is necessary in all California prisons. I look forward to seeing this program continue to grow and impact the lives of incarcerated women throughout California."After a successful 22 year trial career, Douglas E. Noll found litigation to be a wasteful way to resolve conflicts, and earned his Masters Degree in Peacemaking and Conflict Studies. Today, Douglas is a nationally recognized mediator, international peace advocate and speaker, and professor. He hosts The Doug Noll Show, a weekly radio program dedicated to giving a voice to international peacemakers. His current pro bono project Prison of Peace trains murderers committed to life sentences in the largest women's prison in the world to become peacemakers and mediators.

Noll was recently selected from a worldwide search as one of 194 mediators to be included in the International Who's Who of Commercial Mediation.

Professionally, Doug is a Distinguished Fellow of the International Academy of Mediators, a Distinguished Fellow of the American College of Civil Trial Mediators and on the American Arbitration Association panel of mediators and arbitrators. Doug was one of the first U.S. mediators certified under the international mediator standards established by the International Mediation Institute based in The Hague, Netherlands. Noll is a board member of Mediators Without Borders.

He is an author of the books Elusive Peace: How Modern Diplomatic Strategies Could Better Resolve World Conflicts (Prometheus, Spring 2011), Sex, Politics & Religion at the Office: The New Competitive Advantage (Auberry Press 2006), with John Boogaert, and Peacemaking: Practicing at the Intersection of Law and Human Conflict (Cascadia Publishing House 2002), and numerous chapters and articles on peacemaking, restorative justice, conflict resolution and mediation. Doug has been recognized as one of the Best Lawyers in America by U.S. News & World Report and is a Northern California Super Lawyer in Alternative Dispute Resolution. He has mediated over 1,500 conflicts, including business disputes, clergy sexual abuse cases, victim-offender criminal cases, and large litigated cases. His particular interest is in deep, intractable conflicts where emotions are running high.