Patricia McGinnis holds a degree in education from the University of Minnesota and has over twenty years of teaching experience. She has been the Coordinator of the Minnesota Department of Education's Special Education Mediation Service since 2001, assuring access to the federally required mediation process and Minnesota's facilitated IEP meetings. In addition, she is a statewide trainer of leaders in special education on communication, due process and facilitation of IEP meetings and presents to parents, advocates, the Minnesota's State Bar Association, county social workers, professors, graduate students and others on conflict management, impasse strategies and Minnesota's
dispute resolution options. Ms. McGinnis is a qualified neutral on the Minnesota
Supreme Court Rule 114 and mediates divorce and post-divorce conflict.