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. Mr. Salem 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 M.A. in Communication and Mediation Management from Emerson College in Boston and a B.A. 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 and professional counselor 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 B.A. in Psychology from Beloit College where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Her M.A. 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. Ms. Walker 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. Ms. Shanahan 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.

Office Manager/Conference Registrar
Dawn Holmes

Since 1999, Dawn Holmes has been the Office Manager and Conference Registrar for AFCC. She handles membership records, renewals, new member applications and membership customer service. She directs and coordinates registration activities for the organization. Ms. Holmes also provides technical support for software, hardware and network problem solutions for the office.

Program Coordinator
Nola Risse-Connolly, BA

Nola Risse-Connolly began working for AFCC in 2002 and was promoted to Program Coordinator in 2006. Her responsibilities are both creative and organizational – she designs, lays out and produces many of the documents that represent the program to the public, including the electronic newsletter. The AFCC conferences are AFCC’s hallmark events every year, and Ms. Risse-Connolly designs the conference brochure covers and assists the Program Director in the many aspects of organizing the conference. She also writes and edits many of the articles and documents issued by AFCC. She earned her B.A. in sociology from Central College in Pella, Iowa.

Program Coordinator
Erin Sommerfeld, BA

Erin Sommerfeld began working for AFCC in 2006 and was promoted to Program Coordinator in 2008. She is responsible for marketing AFCC and its conferences and trainings. She writes and edits press releases, membership letters, blast emails and is one of the AFCC Facebook page administrators. Ms. Sommerfeld is a contributing editor to the electronic newsletter. She oversees publications sales and orders, helps coordinate chapter relations and works with the Resource Development Committee on fundraising efforts. She received her B.A. in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is working on a Master's of Library and Information Science at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Administrative Assistant
Jessica Murdy, BS

Jessica Murdy began working as the Administrative Assistant at AFCC in August of 2010. As administrative assistant, Jessica answers the phones and assists with member inquires and issues. She also helps maintain the membership database and assists with the mailing. Jessica has had the opportunity to intern at the Madison Police Department in the summer of 2009 and Safe Harbor Child Advocacy Center in the summer of 2010. In addition to working at AFCC, Jessica volunteers as a children's advocate for Domestic Abuse Intervention Services (DAIS) and serves on their Trauma Informed Care Committee. Jessica earned her B.S. in Human Development and Family Studies with a Certificate in Criminal Justice from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.