Crystal Thorpe is a mediator, trainer, co-founder and the principal of Elder Decisions® and its parent company Agreement Resources, LLC. She facilitates family meetings for families eager to have successful conversations, and she mediates disputes among adult family members about caregiving, living arrangements, family communication, Powers of Attorney, Health Care Proxies, estate planning, family real estate, and personal property distribution.

Crystal has trained hundreds of mediators from around the world in the growing field of Elder & Adult Family Mediation, and she provides trainings in Conflict Resolution Skills for public audiences, eldercare professionals, work groups and others. She has presented seminars and workshops for the Academy of Professional Family Mediators, the Association for Conflict Resolution, Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, the New York State Bar Association Elder Law and Special Needs Section, the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, and the Northeast Human Resources Association, among others.

Crystal is the co-author, with Rikk Larsen, of "Elder Mediation: Optimizing Major Family Transitions" for Marquette Elder's Advisor Law Journal. She was the guest expert for The Washington Post online discussion "Family Mediation for Elderly Care" and has been quoted in The New York Times and other national press. She and her colleagues co-authored the book Mom Always Liked You Best: A Guide for Resolving Family Feuds, Inheritance Battles & Eldercare Crises.

She served on the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Council on Family Mediation and is a member of the Academy of Professional Family Mediators and the Association for Conflict Resolution. She served on the ADR Education Subcommitee, the Public Awareness Working Group, and the Court Systems Working Group for the Massachusetts Trial Court Standing Committee on Dispute Resolution.

Crystal holds an MSW and an MBA from Boston College and an undergraduate degree in Cognitive Science/Psycholinguistics, magna cum laude, from Brown University.

Arline Kardasis is a mediator, trainer and co-founder of Elder Decisions®, a Division of Agreement Resources, LLC.

Arline designs and delivers trainings for mediators, lawyers, social workers, eldercare professionals and public audiences. She has presented workshops and seminars around the United States on the use of mediation for resolving adult family disputes - and participants have traveled to Massachusetts to attend these programs from more than 20 states and from Germany, the UK, Switzerland, New Zealand and Australia.

As a thought leader in the field, she has been invited to speak at the Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation, the Sino-U.S. Judicial Mediation Exchange Program, The American Bar Association, the National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers, and the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) along with many other venues.

Arline served as a founding tri-chair of the Elder Decision-Making and Conflict Resolution Section of the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR). She served for many years on the Board of Directors of the Association for Conflict Resolution - New England Chapter and is the former Vice President of the Chapter. She was the Newsletter Editor of the Chapter for several years. She also served on the Public Awareness Subcommittee for the Massachusetts Trial Court’s Standing Committee on Dispute Resolution.

She received her BA in Political Science and Urban Studies from Boston University and her MAT with honors from Simmons College. She also completed the Harvard Law School Mediation Semester.

Arline Kardasis co-authored Mom Always Liked You Best: A Guide for Resolving Family Feuds, Inheritance Battles & Eldercare Crises (published in 2011). She also co-wrote "When Aging Issues Lead to Family Conflict" for Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly.

Rikk Larsen is a co-founder of Elder Decisions® where he is a mediator, trainer and conflict coach. At Agreement Resources, LLC, Rikk’s mediation and conflict coaching practice includes divorce, post-divorce, marital mediation and life coaching. He has helped create and present conflict skills trainings to eldercare professionals from around the world. Rikk served on a Subcommittee for the Massachusetts Trial Court’s Standing Committee on Dispute Resolution. He has co-presented “Using Mediation in Elder Law” at the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, presented a workshop “When Families Struggle with Dementia: Facilitating Solutions through Mediation” at the Dartmouth Alzheimer’s Conference, and co-wrote with Arline Kardasis “When Aging Issues Lead to Family Conflict” for Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly. He is the co-author, with Crystal Thorpe, of "Elder Mediation: Optimizing Major Family Transitions" for Marquette Elder's Advisor Law Journal. He was featured on NPR’s Morning Edition show, “Mediators Help Families with Tough Choices of Aging,” and has been on the Emily Rooney show on WGBH/TV as well as CBS Radio with Dan Rea.

Rikk is a former case coordinator for the Harvard Mediation Program in Family and Probate Court and Small Claims Court. Rikk attended Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation and Harvard Mediation Program as well as trainings at The Center for Social Gerontology and Mediation Works Incorporated. He received his BA from Williams College and his MBA from Harvard Business School.

Rikk and his colleagues co-authored the book Mom Always Liked You Best: A Guide for Resolving Family Feuds, Inheritance Battles & Eldercare Crises (published in 2011).

Halee Burg mediates elder, adult family, divorce, post-divorce and other family disputes. She has, for many years, had a strong interest in supporting collaborative family decision making around health care, finances, residential transitions, home care, estates and trusts, and other concerns involving seniors, adult siblings, and/or other family members.

As a member of the mediation panels for several Boston area community mediation programs, Halee also provides community mediation services and mediates in a number of greater Boston District Courts.

Halee has served as an elder care ombudsman in a local nursing home under the auspices of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Elder Affairs. She is a member of the New England Chapter of the Association for Conflict Resolution, the Academy of Professional Family Mediators, and the Massachusetts Council on Family Mediation.

Halee has written a number of articles regarding elder mediation, which may be found at Mediate.com. She is a graduate of the University of Rochester (B. A., Psychology) and the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley (J.D.).