Our Team

Dr. Emily Gaarder (she/her/hers) is the Director of the Center for Restorative Justice and Peacemaking at the University of Minnesota Duluth and an Associate Professor in the Department of Studies in Justice, Culture, and Social Change at UMD.

Since 2003, Emily has taught restorative justice at the university level and also for community groups and organizations. She loves to share how restorative justice can be used in daily life by everyone. She has trained hundreds of volunteers in the circle process, circle keeping, and restorative dialogue.

Dr. Mark Umbreit is a Professor and founding Director of the Center for Restorative Justice & Peacemaking at the University  of Minnesota, School of Social Work. Mark serves on the faculty of the Center for Spirituality & Healing in the Academic  Health Center at the University of Minnesota, teaching courses on Peacebuilding Through Mindfulness Practice, and  Forgiveness & Healing. He also serves as a Visiting Professor at the Marquette University Law School in Milwaukee teaching a course on Peacemaking and Spirituality.

Ted Lewis has been a consultant and trainer with the Center since the summer of 2013. Since 1996 he has done a variety of work in the fields of restorative justice and conflict resolution, including work as a practitioner, program manager, trainer, writer, director, teacher, and consultant. Most of this work has been done through and for nonprofit organizations that have partnered with government agencies. He has also taught the Restorative Justice course as an adjunct professor at UMD Duluth campus.

Jacob Otis is a research and training associate with the Center for Restorative Justice and Peacemaking at the University of Minnesota Duluth and the Director of Programming at St. Croix Valley Restorative Services in Wisconsin.  

Cary Waubanascum is a member of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, Wakeny^ta (Turtle Clan), with ancestral roots in the Menominee, Forest County Potawatomi, and Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Nations of Wisconsin. Her work centers on identifying and challenging ongoing colonialism in social work and child welfare and reclaiming Indigenous lifeways. She is currently an Assistant Professor of social work at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. Before entering the Ph.D.

Katherine (she/her/hers) is an intern at the Center for Restorative Justice and Peacemaking at the University of Minnesota-Duluth (UMD). Katherine has a Bachelor's degree from UMD in English with a minor in Art History. She is also an artist. Katherine is a Masters of Social Work graduate student with a focus on rural mental health and a special interest in rural accessibility.

Isabel Dokhanchi (she/her/hers) is a former intern at the Center for Restorative Justice and Peacemaking. She recently graduated from the University of Minnesota-Duluth with a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus on communicating difference, a minor in Deaf Studies, and a certificate to teach English as a foreign language. 

Laura (she/her/hers) is a former graduate-intern for the Center and has an A.S. in Psychology, a B.A. in IS-Psychology of Domestic Violence, and a B.A. in Criminology and is a student in UMD's M.P.S. graduate program with a focus on violence prevention and community building. Laura also developed and taught Intro to Domestic Violence at UMD in the Spring of 2022.