About Professional Training and Simulation Programs
The ICONS Project is a training organization that offers skills-based training programs incorporating multi-player, real-time simulation exercises as a way for individuals, teams, and organizations to increase effectiveness. Drawing on 25 years of experience, we've trained thousands of professionals -- from seasoned executives to emerging team leaders.
As part of the Center for International Development and Conflict Management at the University of Maryland, College Park, the ICONS Project utilizes its cadre of world-class trainers and simulation developers -- including practitioners, academics, and subject matter experts -- to design and deliver engaging programs that consistently receive top-rated evaluations.
Trainers and Developers
Dr. Daniella Fridl, Director
Daniella is the Director of the ICONS Project. Her expertise is in the area of statehood, state failure, state recognition, conflict management, and post-conflict reconstruction and development. Her recent work has focused on the mediation process and techniques in international negotiations over issues of state formation. She conducted field research and consulting in the Balkans, mainly Bosnia and Hezergovina and Kosovo.
Daniella is also the Center for International Development and Conflict Management's Assistant Director for Training and Education. As the Assistant Director of CIDCM, Daniella coordinates the center's Minor in International Development and Conflict Management and manages the ICONS Project's training and development.
She holds a Masters Degree in International Economics and Conflict Management and a PhD specializing in Conflict Management and International Law from Johns Hopkins SAIS University. She is a recipient of an independent research grant from the International Research Exchanges Board (IREX) sponsored by the U.S. State Department and the American Academy of Sciences fellowship for her post-doctoral work, which she completed at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxemburg, Austria. She is fluent in Croatian and German.
Gururaj Kumar, Program Manager
Gururaj is the Program Manager for Training and Policy with the ICONS Project. He oversees all aspects of ICONS' professional training programs, serving as client manager and course facilitator, as well as managing the administrative aspects for each session.
Mr. Kumar served as the Director of American University's Mediation Services at American University, providing mediation, conflict management, and third-party facilitation services to all faculty, staff, and students on campus. Prior to working at American University, Gururaj was a management consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton, where he provided organizational development, conflict management, and strategic communication expertise to government agencies experiencing large-scale organizational change. His professional experience also includes family mediation with the Washington, D.C., Superior Court and workshop design and facilitation in conflict management, cross-cultural communication, and organizational development. He is also an adjunct professor with the Washington Semester at American University, in its Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution program.
Gururaj holds a BA in History and Psychology from the University of Michigan. He received his MA in International Peace and Conflict Resolution from American University.
Candace Bertotti, Lead Trainer
Candace is the Lead Trainer for the ICONS Project. Candace brings hands-on work experience, technical training in negotiations, conflict resolution, and mediation, and a proven track record of delivering relevant, engaging, and results-focused training.
Candace served in the federal government for seven years at the U.S. Department of Education where she helped negotiate multi-million dollar contracts as well as controversial content decisions among multiple stakeholders.
Ms. Bertotti has experience speaking in front of national, state, and local government leaders, and other diverse audiences. In Guatemala she helped devise experiential training workshops on complex public health problems. While at Harvard University, Candace coached mid-career professionals to better articulate their perspectives and best communicate in crisis and cross-cultural situations. She also serves as a volunteer mediator for Washington, D.C., Superior Court, mediating child protection cases involving physical abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect.
Candace earned her MPA from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, focusing on Negotiation and Conflict Resolution and Leadership. She holds a BA from Indiana University concentrating on Corporate and Community Education.
Jim Barry, Trainer
Jim Barry is a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for International Development and Conflict Management. Prior to joining the Center he was a Visiting Associate Professor at George Mason University, where he taught courses in international politics, ethics and management. Mr. Barry served with the Federal government for more than 30 years, in the military service and the Central Intelligence Agency, specializing in national security policy and arms control. Mr. Barry provided intelligence support to decision makers in a variety of crises, including the 1973 Middle East war, the Nicaraguan crises of the early 1980s, and the collapse of the Soviet empire. He was special assistant to DCI William Casey and Director of the Center for the Study of Intelligence, the CIA's internal "think tank." He has degrees in philosophy, political science, and economics from Georgetown and George Washington Universities, and is a graduate of the Royal College of Defense.
Jim is also an accomplished dog training instructor and behavior consultant in Middletown, Rhode Island. He provides both private and group instruction as well as behavior modification services throughout southern New England.
Dr. Victor Asal, Trainer
Victor has worked as a conflict resolution trainer in a variety of settings, most notably as a trainer for army officers. In addition to his years of training professionals, Dr. Asal has taught courses in conflict resolution, crisis management, terrorism, and the strategy and tactics of bargaining and negotiation. He is an investigator for the START Center (Center for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism) and Director of the Public Security Certificate at Rockefeller College, SUNY, Albany.
He holds an Advanced Training Certificate in Conflict Management and a PhD from the University of Maryland's Department of Government and Politics. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the State University of New York, Albany. He is a co-author of Mediating International Crises (Routledge, 2005). He is also the author of The Sword of Justice: Ethics and Coercion in International Politics (Praeger, 1998), as well as numerous studies and articles on foreign policy issues.
Dr. Joseph Hewitt, Trainer
Joe is the Assistant Director of the Center for International Development and Conflict Management. He is a specialist in international politics and foreign policy, with a particular focus in international conflict processes. Dr. Hewitt has extensive expertise in quantitative political analysis, statistical modeling, research design development, and management of large datasets. His specific research focuses on the causes of armed interstate conflict, international crisis bargaining, and the connections between government attributes and conflict behavior. His recent projects include a data-gathering initiative for the International Crisis Behavior Project that will permit many new analyses of the specific interactions between pairs of states (i.e., dyads) in crisis. He has also published on the connections between democracy and interstate conflict, as well as on the topic of conflict between enduring rivals. He has taught many courses in international relations including introductory world politics, U.S. foreign policy, international organizations, international conflict, and international relations theory.
Dr. Hewitt received a BA in history from the University of Michigan and earned his PhD from the University of Maryland.
Bern Beidel, Trainer
Bern Beidel, M.Ed., CEAP, is the Director of the Office of Employee Assistance at the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. He has been involved with the House employee assistance effort since its inception in 1991. He is responsible for the planning, development, management, evaluation, and continued enhancement and integration of the House's employee assistance service into the larger organization, including assuring its continuity of operations during emergencies and in response to disasters or terrorist situations.
Prior to joining the House, he developed the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for the New Jersey State Police in 1981 -- one of the first EAP efforts in a state law enforcement agency in the country -- and managed the service throughout the 1980s. The EAP effort in the New Jersey State Police was initially funded through a project grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and served as a national demonstration project for other state, municipal, and local law enforcement organizations throughout the decade. His ten years with the New Jersey State Police provided a foundation for developing and executing an EAP's critical incident stress response and management services for the employees, managers, and leaders of an organization.
His employee assistance experience began in the private sector in the late 1970s as the recipient of another federal project grant to develop an EAP consortium serving small and mid-size businesses and public sector organizations in rural Virginia. Prior to his employee assistance career, Bern served as a Drug and Alcohol Education Specialist during his active duty military service with the U.S. Coast Guard.
Bern has written extensively about the employee assistance field over the years, focusing particularly on the integration of EAPs into the workplace and the larger organization; the role of the EAP in the organization's disaster response and continuity of operations; the vital role of program evaluation in the management of employee assistance services; and other best practices and standards of operations, such as the follow-up of clients, and the mentoring and coaching of new practitioners in the profession.
He holds a Master's degree in Education with a specialization in Rehabilitation Counseling and Alcoholism studies, as well as a number of professional and training certifications. He currently sits as a Commissioner with the Employee Assistance Certification Commission (EACC) -- the international body that credentials employee assistance practitioners around the world.
Jared Ordway
Jared Ordway (MA, International Peace and Conflict Resolution) is a Program Specialist for the National Association for Community Mediation (NAFCM).
Jared is a conflict resolution practitioner serving the Washington, D.C. area, where he specializes in building community capacities to prevent and transform conflict. His experience includes cross-cultural mediation, facilitation, analysis and advising for NGO, IGO and community groups in the Americas. Jared recently joined American University as an adjunct lecturer and also instructs ADR workshops in Spanish and English for the University of Maryland and Montgomery College. He is a co-creator and consultant for NAFCM's HOME Community Mediation Program, a national initiative to provide cross-cultural conflict education, prevention and mediation services for reintegrating members of the National Guard, Reserves, and their families. Jared mediates frequently for local community mediation centers and is a member of the REMEDES Group -- a network of Spanish-speaking conflict professionals serving greater Washington, D.C.
Joseph G. Gray
Joe Gray is a consultant to public and private organizations in providing leadership development and organizational clarity. He has held responsible positions in federal civil service, military, business, civic, non-profit and ministry organizations.
Joe has served in a Senior Executive Service (SES) position in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) in the Department of Veterans Affairs. As the principal advisor for external relations to the Under Secretary of Health, he was responsible for the federal and private medical resource sharing programs, communications, liaison to Veterans Service Organizations, consumer and community relations, legislative programs and emergency medical preparedness. He represented VHA on the Policy Committee and Directorate of the National Disaster Medical System, the Armed Forces Retirement Home Board, DOD/VA joint sharing committee and the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Catastrophic Response Group. He has served on VHA's Executive Board, budget and policy review committee, performance review board, national data reports committee and the National Leadership Board.
He began his forty years in the military as a Private First Class, promoted to Sergeant, commissioned as an Infantry Second Lieutenant and retired as a Major General.
General Gray has had an extensive military career in the U.S. Army -- Active, Reserve, National Guard, that included command of three infantry companies, a battalion, a group, a brigade, and a division size organization (ARCOM.) He served in numerous staff positions as the Operations and Plans Officer of a brigade, training command, and a division. He was Chief of Staff of a Theater Army Area Command. His last assignment was Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and Plans (G-3) Mobilization and Reserve Affairs, Department of the Army. He served on the Department of Defense Reserve Forces Policy Board.
In the private sector he has been a real estate specialist, corporate government relations consultant and a regional manager for public affairs in the General Electric Company. He was a Vice President for Public Affairs of the Christian Broadcasting Network, Vice President for Economic Development for two large Chambers of Commerce; and most recently as the National Director of Military Ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ, International.
Joe is a graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College; Army War College; George Washington University Institute for Federal Health Care Executives; University of Houston Institute on Organizational Management and Harvard University Executive Program in National and International Security. He received a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Northwestern State University of Louisiana. Joe is an ordained Minister. He has been married to his wife and best friend, Betty, for over forty years. They have three children and five grandchildren. They reside in Williamsburg, Virginia.
