Joan Stearns Johnsen, FCIArb, CEDR Accredited, IMI Certified has over thirty years of experience resolving disputes as an arbitrator and mediator. Prior to becoming a neutral, Joan was, Associate General Counsel for the Commodity Exchange, Inc., (now a designated market of the CME Group), Assistant Counsel for Smith Barney, Inc. (now Morgan Stanley) both in New York city, and as an enforcement attorney for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in Washington, D.C. Joan has a diverse practice with particular expertise in financial and banking, entertainment, employment, and general commercial disputes. Joan teaches negotiation, mediation, and arbitration at the University of Florida Levin College of Law where she is also the Director of the Law School’s Institute for Dispute Resolution.

Joan is on the arbitration and mediation panels of the American Arbitration Association, FINRA, The International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution, (“CPR”), the National Futures Association, the New York Supreme Court, Commercial Division, NAM, The American Health Law Association, and Resolute Systems.  Joan is a frequent speaker and trainer on best practices in negotiation, mediation, and arbitration and has been quoted on NPR and CBS radio. Among those for whom she has conducted trainings is The American Trucking Associations, the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution, the US Commerce Department, Trade Representative’s Office, and the National Council of State Boards of Nursing.

Joan also is active in the Dispute Resolution Community. In addition to serving on the Editorial Board of the AAA’s Mediation Magazine, she is a past Chair of the ABA’s Section of Dispute Resolution, on the Counsel of CPR, Senior Vice Chair of the Mediation Committee of the International Bar Association, and a Board Member of the Miami International Arbitration Society and the AAA’s Financial Advisory Committee. Joan is the 2022 recipient of the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (“CPR”) James P. Groton award for Outstanding Leadership in Dispute Prevention.