COMMUNITY
STARTS HERE.
OUR STORY
​The Bridge Institute has been promoting peaceful resolution since 1989 and operates from the foundations of Roanoke's Conflict Resolution Center and Better Agreements, Inc. which served the New River Valley. Today, we serve all of Southwest Virginia as the region's leader in processes for resolving conflict and building community.
The Bridge Institute is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. All donations are tax-deductible and support our mission of ensuring everyone has access to alternative dispute resolution processes. Our federal EIN is 02-0655364.​​
MEET US
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
EDDY SMART began his career as a student intern reluctantly placed with the Conflict Resolution Center in 2006, Eddy observed the value of conflict resolution processes and the power found in transforming conflict into opportunities for understanding and productive ways forward. Eddy remained at the Conflict Resolution Center honing his skills as a mediator, restorative justice practitioner, group facilitator, and parent educator, and became Executive Director in 2010. Eddy’s passion for conflict and process-related work led him to return to the field after an eight-year detour in direct mental health services, starting his own firm in 2019. Eddy took on leadership of The Bridge Institute, then Better Agreements, in the fall of 2020.
RESTORATIVE JUSTICE AND COMMUNITY FACILITATOR
JES BOOKOUT moved to Roanoke from Portland, Oregon in the summer of 2018. Her background is in Early Education and child development. In 2020, Jes started volunteering as a community trainer and advocate with the Roanoke Valley Trauma Informed Community Network to bring awareness to the impact trauma has on the developing brain and how we can mitigate trauma in our everyday interactions with all humans. Jes is a board member of the Virginia Association for the Education of Young Children where she advocates for the importance of access to high-quality early education for all children AND living wages for early educators. Jes is currently working on her MS in Family and Community Services at Oklahoma State University. She brings with her a deep understanding of why a holistic multigenerational approach to wellness is important for our community and that communication is a fundamental step in that process. Jes loves music, being outdoors, cooking, and road trips with her teammate in life, Jesse, and their dog, Sugarface.
POLICE REFERRED MEDIATION PROGRAM MANAGER
CHELSEA CLEARY, M.S. is a violence prevention and mitigation researcher, educator & mediator originally from the Upstate New York area. She has over a decade of both practice and scholarship working on anti-poverty initiatives, violence prevention and mitigation education & practices, community building practices, and strategic planning. Chelsea has served as the inaugural Sexual Violence Prevention Specialist at Virginia Tech, contributed to research projects for the NYS Department of New Americans during her graduate studies, and is an active community member within the New River Valley. She holds a M.S. in Sustainable Communities from Binghamton University and B.A. in Psychology and a B.A. in Philosophy from SUNY Oneonta. Outside of work, Chelsea enjoys her new hometown in the New River Valley with her spouse, cats and garden.
CO-PARENTING COORDINATOR
SARAH McCAULEY
ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT
DANIELLE PETERSON
ASHLI SEMONES
Board President
Clinical Advancement & Patient Safety Director
Carilion Clinic
LAURA SPAFFORD
Board Secretary
Human Resources Manager
Star City Games
STEVEN P. LEE
Board Treasurer
Business Intelligence Developer
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
KIM KRISTENSEN
Board Member
Owner, Warrior Resolutions
DONNA CHEWNING
Board Member
Owner, Shared Solutions
HENRY YAMPOLSKY
Board Member
Assistant Director for Education, Outreach, and Conflict Resolution
Office for Equity and Accessibility, Virginia Tech
CLAIRE DOBSON
Board Member
School Counselor
Roanoke City Public Schools