I’ve been highlighting the academic winners of the CPR Awards with short summaries of the each award winner (past entries here, here, here, and here , and this is the final post of this series.* Today I’m highlighting one of the recipients of the Outstanding Contribution to Diversity Award, an award that typically does not go to academics or those who are academic adjacent.** This year Katherine Simpson, PhD (Simpson Dispute Resolution) received the award. She frequents the ADR Prof blog, is affiliated with the University of Michigan, completed post-doc work at Cornell’s ILR School, and has written a few pieces of interest:
CETA – Where are the Women? Diffusing Thought-Terminating Cliches that Impeded Diversity in Sustainable Diversity in International Arbitration (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022) (with Anthony Scott Marcum).
The Diversity Dividend, 52 University of Toledo Law Review 447 (2021)
From the CPR announcement:
For years, Dr. Simpson has repeatedly challenged the status quo, in particular the continued exclusion of diverse neutrals in international arbitration. Rejecting the oft-stated canard, “there just aren’t any diverse arbitrators,” she compiled ample evidence to the contrary, presenting in 2020, the European Union and Canada with a list of seventy women arbitrators who were qualified to be appointed to the Chairpersons roster for the Comprehensive and Economic Trade Agreement. Two years later, the EU signed the Equal Representation in Arbitration Pledge and created a new process for appointing arbitrators to trade treaty and investor-state disputes. Later, Simpson and Nancy Thevenin published the “Arbitrators of African Descent” List of 120 qualified, diverse arbitrators for commercial cases. Simpson also made early and significant contributions to the Ray Corollary Initiative, a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the selection of neutrals.
Congratulations Katie !
* Note: Melvin Loh (Singapore Univ.) won the award for Outstanding Short Article for The Power of Stories: Advocating for Therapeutic Justice Through Mediation,” 2023 Asian Journal on Mediation 1 (December 2023). I’ve reached out to him on LinkedIn to get an abstract of the piece, and while we’ve connected he has not sent anything my way. As a busy professional who teaches, that is no surprise. If anyone reading this knows him, please reach out to him on my behalf for a post. Thanks.
** The other person who received this award was Ingeuneal Gray (AAA) who does not appear to be academic adjacent from her online profile. If I’m wrong, let me know and I will revise this post. Of course that does not diminish in any way the award. Congratulations Ms. Gray !
