Erricka Bridgeford is an activist, healer and inspirational speaker from Baltimore. She is the executive director of the Baltimore Community Mediation Center, where she mediates conflicts, trains mediators nationwide and leads conflict management trainings.

Bridgeford is co-organizer of Baltimore Ceasefire 365, a movement that quarterly calls for 72-hour periods of life-affirming events promoting peace in Baltimore. Launched in 2017, the initiative has contributed to weekends of reduced violence and the reclaiming of hundreds of murder sites as sacred ground. Bridgeford previously trained incarcerated individuals in conflict mediation and community mediators in Israel.

What is the biggest challenge facing your industry today?

Funding for peace work.

What is the best advice you’ve ever received?

Be yourself and know that there is nothing to earn … just be.

How do you define success? I define success by how much I am following my heart’s guidance and my soul’s callings.

David Bulitt is a partner at Joseph Greenwald & Laake, PA. He earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Baltimore School of Law in 1986 and his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1983. He was admitted to practice in Maryland; Washington, D.C.; the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland; and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Bethesda Magazine has recognized him among its Top Attorneys in Family & Divorce and Alternative Dispute Resolution. He has been named to Super Lawyers since 2006 and The Best Lawyers in America since 2008. In April 2024, he joined the Board of Directors of the Center for Adoption Support and Education.

What is the biggest challenge facing your industry today?

To me, there are two significant challenges facing the legal profession. First is the lack of willingness for new lawyers to initiate actual contact with clients, peers and other lawyers. There is an overreliance on email and other technology while ignoring the human and personal side of being a lawyer. The second is the growth of and reliance on artificial intelligence.

What is the best advice you’ve ever received?

Be yourself. Don’t try to copy others that you emulate, work for, or who may have served as mentors. You can’t be them; you can only be you.

How do you define success?

The ability to walk that balance beam between work and home.

A cum laude graduate of the District of Columbia School of Law, Rada A. Machin brings more than a decade of experience to her role as principal of The Machin Law Firm LLC. She concentrates her practice in family law, business representation and immigration, with a particular focus on divorce, child custody and high-net-worth property division. Machin brings her family law experience to her role as a mediator, emphasizing collaborative problem-solving in complex disputes.

She chairs the Executive Committee of the Young Lawyers Section of the Bar Association for Frederick County and authored “How to Start a Small Business on a Tight Budget: The Checklist.” She earned her Bachelor of Arts from Georgetown University.

Jonathan B. Marks has practiced as a full-time mediator and arbitrator since 1981, when he co-founded Endispute Inc., recognized as the nation’s first provider of a full range of dispute resolution services. Following Endispute’s 1994 merger with Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services, he served as vice chairman of JAMS-Endispute before launching MarksADR LLC in Bethesda.

Over more than four decades, Marks has mediated and arbitrated more than 1,500 major disputes, including the landmark Microsoft-Department of Justice antitrust mediation. He earned his bachelor’s degree cum laude from Harvard College and his J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he served as president of the Harvard Law Review.

Christopher Page serves as executive director of the Conflict Resolution Center of Montgomery County. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in social sciences and a Master of Divinity, both from the University of Maryland. Page is an ordained preacher, a youth basketball coach and an active member of the Maryland Black Chamber of Commerce and Nonprofit Montgomery.

Recent organizational milestones include launching Youth Restorative Services at the Montgomery County Detention Center and executing a countywide memorandum of understanding with Montgomery County Public Schools. The center received the 2024 District Court of Maryland Program Award and the 2024 Leader in Law Award from The Daily Record.

What is the biggest challenge facing your industry today?

Sustainable funding remains one of the biggest challenges facing the conflict resolution and restorative justice field. As tensions continue to rise within communities, there is a growing need for mediation and restorative services to help people navigate conflict in healthier ways. At the same time, more young people are becoming involved in detention and court systems, increasing the need for youth-focused restorative support. This combined demand is outpacing available resources, making it difficult for organizations to expand services and ensure consistent access for the communities that need them most.

What is the best advice you’ve ever received?

The best advice I’ve ever received came from my father: “Always keep the main thing the main thing.” I carry that with me in my leadership every day. For our organization, the main thing is our mission. In meetings and decision-making, especially when deciding which partnerships or programs to pursue, I consistently come back to that principle. If something aligns with our mission, we move forward. If it doesn’t, we don’t. That clarity helps us stay focused, even as new opportunities and challenges come our way.

How do you define success?

For me, it’s not just about numbers or statistics but about the stories of the people we serve and the impact on their lives. Success happens in levels. I see success every day when individuals and families are able to resolve conflict and move forward in a healthier way. But the bigger vision of success is creating a community where conflict is addressed early and constructively, and where Montgomery County is recognized not just in Maryland but as a model for peace and conflict resolution nationally and globally.