President Profile

Sheriden Barnett, BA, LLM (ADR) is the President and founder of the Boreal Centre For Dispute Resolution, located on the north shore of Lake Superior at Thunder Bay, Ontario.

Sheriden is a Certified Mediator/Negotiator and an experienced Facilitator/Trainer. Sheriden received a Master of Laws (LLM) degree from Osgoode Hall Law School, specializing in Alternative Dispute Resolution. She is also a graduate of Carleton University in Ottawa, where she obtained a B.A. in Aboriginal Studies and pursued Graduate studies in Canadian Studies and Anthropology. In addition, Sheriden has been awarded Certificates in Alternative Dispute Resolution from the Canadian International Institute of Applied Negotiation (Ottawa), and the University of Alberta Law School (Alberta Arbitration and Mediation Society). Sheriden is recognized by the Association for Conflict Resolution as an ADR practitioner, educator, and researcher. She was a mediator, coach and trainer with the Carleton University Mediation Centre from 1995-1996 and 2000-2002.

Sheriden also studied at the internationally recognized INCORE, University of Ulster in Northern Ireland where she had the opportunity to study the Northern Irish conflict and a peace process that has led to constitutional changes, a 10 year cease fire, and the development of a human rights commission (http://www.nihrc.org/index.htm).

Since 1988, Sheriden has worked with Federal, Territorial and First Nations governments and various organizations throughout Ontario, Nunavut and the NWT in the areas of conflict resolution, land claims, aboriginal rights, and human rights. She has acted as a facilitator/mediator for complex Treaty discussions between Canada and an organization representing over 50 Anishinawbe and Cree First Nations. She has provided research analysis expertise on over a dozen Treaty and Indian Act based land claims cases, utilizing her ADR training to promote a joint problem-solving approach to facilitate agreement and resolution.  Sheriden facilitated cutting-edge processes for the Whitefeather Forest Initiative, bringing together environmental NGO's, first nations, and provincial government scientists and representativeswhich involved deep dialogue and resolution based on mutual interests.  

Since its inception, Sheriden has acted as the Mediation Advisor to the Nunavut Human Rights Tribunal, developing mediated resolutions that reflect both Inuit approaches to conflict resolution and Canadian Human Rights Law, as well as providing training, mentorship and mediation services.  In recent years, Sheriden has also focused on resolving organizational conflict and harassment through mediation and investigation practices.

Sheriden has written academic publications, presented lectures, and developed a culturally appropriate model for the negotiation of Aboriginal land claims in Canada (see Articles and Publications).