Executive Director
Peter Salem, MA

Peter Salem has served as Executive Director since 2002 and was Associate Director from 1994-2002. He taught mediation at Marquette University Law School for ten years and served as mediator and director of Mediation and Family Court Services in Rock County, Wisconsin. Peter is a former president of the Wisconsin Association for Mediators and is co-editor of Divorce Mediation: Models, Techniques and Applications. He has provided training and technical assistance to family court service agencies throughout the United States since 1990. He is author of numerous articles and videos on mediation, domestic violence and divorce. He received the John M. Haynes Distinguished Mediator Award presented by the Association for Conflict Resolution in 2008 and received a William T. Grant Foundation Distinguished Fellows award in 2009. He holds an MA in Communication and Mediation Management from Emerson College in Boston and a BA in Political Science from McGill University in Montreal.

Associate Director
Leslye Hunter, MA, LMFT

Leslye Hunter has served as Associate Director since 2008 and was Chapter Services and Development Consultant from 2006-2008. She is a licensed marriage and family therapist who has practiced as a custody evaluator, parent educator, mediator and parenting coordinator. She served on the boards of the Family Mediation Council of Louisiana and Voices for Children; chaired a subcommittee on Evaluator Standards and Guidelines for the Louisiana State Bar Association Family Courts Committee and sat on the Louisiana State Board of Social Work Task Force for Child Custody Evaluation Standards. She was on the Steering Committee of the AFCC/Hofstra University Law School Family Law Education Reform Project and is on the editorial board of the Journal of Child Custody. She was President of AFCC in 2004-2005, during which time she appointed the AFCC Child Custody Evaluation Model Standards Task Force. She earned her BA in Psychology from Beloit College where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Her MA in Psychology was earned from Long Island University, New York.

Program Director
Candace Walker, CMP, CMM

Candace Walker joined AFCC in January 2003 as Program Director to oversee the development and management of conferences and training programs. For more than twenty years, she has planned and managed conferences, exhibits, educational meetings and seminars for nonprofit membership organizations and previously was Executive Director of the Middleton Chamber of Commerce. Candace is a Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) and earned a Certification in Meeting Management (CMM) designation for senior-level strategic management in the worldwide meeting industry. She is a member of Meeting Planners International (MPI) and served as co-chair of education at the state level and roundtable facilitator for hotel contracts and negotiations at national conferences.

Business and Administrative Director
Chris Shanahan, BA, CPA

Chris Shanahan began working with AFCC in December of 1996 as a contract accountant. She assisted with the World Congress conference in June of 1997, in San Francisco, CA. Chris became Business and Administrative Director, handling finances and human resources for AFCC in 2006. She also coordinates the volunteer and dine-around programs for the annual conferences. She attended Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, Illinois and is a CPA.

Operations Administrator
Dawn Holmes

Dawn Holmes joined AFCC in 1999 and was promoted to Operations Administrator in 2012. She handles membership records, renewals, new member applications and membership customer service. She directs and coordinates registration activities for the organization. Dawn also provides technical support for software, hardware, network problem solutions and AFCC's website.  She also assists the Business and Administrative Director with accounting functions.

Program Manager
Erin Sommerfeld, MLIS

Erin Sommerfeld joined AFCC in 2006 and was promoted to Program Manager in 2012.  She develops and implements marketing strategies for membership, conferences, trainings and publications. She manages advertising, sponsorship, and exhibit opportunities associated with AFCC events.  Erin is the editor of the monthly AFCC eNEWS and handles social media. She works with the Resource Development Committee on fundraising efforts for the scholarship program and annual silent auction and is the staff liaison for Awards Committee.  Erin earned a Master of Library and Information Science at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a BA in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  She serves on the Public Relations, Outreach and Marketing Committee at the local listener-sponsored community radio station WORT.

Program Coordinator
Carly Wieman, BA

Carly Wieman began working as the administrative assistant at AFCC in April of 2012. Carly answers the phone and assists with inquiries. Carly also helps maintain the membership database, assembles mailings, keeps the filing in order and packs and ships publication orders. In addition to working at AFCC, she volunteers as a children's advocate at Domestic Abuse Intervention Services (DAIS). Carly earned her BA in English Literature and Gender and Women's Studies with a Certificate in LGBT Studies, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.