About Us
Advoz Mediation and Restorative Practices
Helping individuals & groups in Lancaster, PA find healing and hope since 1981.
Mission
Advoz provides conflict mediation, restorative practices, and education to transform personal and structural conflicts into constructive actions and resilient relationships.
Vision
Advoz envisions an empowered community that engages diversity, embraces differences, and promotes collaboration and justice.
Conflict and crime are inevitable in our community. But they can also be opportunities for positive change.
Advoz Values
Respect:
We embrace the uniqueness of individuals by being inclusive of race, ethnicity, ability, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, beliefs and other differences that often divide us.
Inclusiveness:
We commit to strengthen our entire community and cultivate trust and compassion, recognizing the unique strengths of the populations we serve.
Accountability:
We take responsibility for our words and actions, expecting the same from participants and partners in our programs.
Integrity:
We push ourselves to lead in the applied fields of conflict resolution, restorative justice, and peacebuilding.
Empowerment:
We encourage all parties involved in a conflict to have a voice and a role in determining outcomes.
Impartial:
We govern ourselves and provide services that assure fairness, empathy, and neutrality.
Collaborative:
We seek partners to build a “conversation-centered community” through guided conversation and self-empowerment.
Purposeful:
We are motivated by our personal experiences with community, faith, and moral convictions to provide constructive and transformative dialogue.
Our Story
Advoz formed in 2017 from two long-serving community-based organizations in Lancaster County providing conflict mediation for families, neighbors and businesses, restorative justice dialogue for youthful offenders and those they harm and conflict skills training for people of all ages throughout the region.
Both Lancaster Mediation Center, founded in 1981, and Center for Community Peacemaking/LAVORP in 1994, were started by veteran peacemakers, legal professionals and community and faith leaders. They saw a “third way” out of many conflicts and harms in our community. These visionaries, many now leaders in the field, saw the potential and moral imperative to offer deeper resolution and healing with “third party” facilitated face-to-face dialogue methods.
Those methods promise more effective outcomes in resolution and healing than courts and many other crisis response options because they get ownership from all involved in the conflict and harm. This effectiveness and ethical coherence drive our passion to offer this work in our community.
Drawing initially from expertise in local international development organizations and colleges, Lancaster County has developed a unique set of programs in Advoz. Unlike many other states and countries, Pennsylvania lacks statewide mandates or funding for using mediation and restorative justice. Only through continued community partnerships and support from hundreds of individuals, congregations, and businesses each year, Advoz has risen to meet a changing community with transformative approaches.
When Advoz was formed in 2017 to provide mediation and restorative justice from its parent organizations, it also combined resources and expertise to change the way our community “does” conflict and harm more proactively. That includes an expanded set of educational services, partnerships with organizations, schools, and police, and new trainings in restorative practices to prevent conflicts from erupting in worsening harm.
You can join us in this restorative and transformational story and help create positive change throughout Lancaster County by expanding the reach of Advoz’s mediation and restorative justice practices.
Advoz Staff & Board Members
Advoz is committed to helping those in challenging life situations–whether involved in conflict or impacted by violence.
Our skilled staff and volunteers offer conflict resolution and restorative justice services based out of Lancaster, Pennsylvania that have been recommended again and again by thousands who have participated since 1980.
Advoz is overseen by a dedicated staff including:
Krista Rittenhouse
Interim Executive Director
Krista got involved with Advoz training and volunteering in Restorative Justice Conferencing in 2019. But she went beyond the call of duty by successfully reaching dozens of case participants on the phone. Now the director for restorative conferencing, she coordinates and coaches facilitators on 150+ cases of harm each year. Krista graduated from Eastern Mennonite University in 2014, studying peacebuilding, development and Spanish, with an interest in restorative justice. She comes to Advoz with a range of experience in social services, mission work and retail management. Krista is excited to help people heal relationships and invest in Lancaster city youth. She is an avid runner and loves rock climbing, board games, and sharing food with friends.
Addrienne Whitfield
Operations Manager
Addrienne, is the friendly voice of Advoz, working in the organization since 2019 as an administrative assistant, office manager and now Operations Manager. She joins Advoz from the travel and service industry with extensive customer service and organizational skills. On any given day, you’ll find Addrienne directing inquiries for mediating disputes, inviting volunteers to work an event, or getting fair deals with our vendors. Addrienne enjoys spending time with family and friends, where she already has achieved peacemaker status. In her free time, you’ll find her at music concerts or escaping to the beach. We’re excited to have Addrienne contribute to Advoz’s present and future as she keeps our office humming — with an extra-friendly voice.
Chris Fitz
Director of Strategic Initiatives & Training
Chris worked and studied in conflict resolution, program management, and fund development for 25 years and now leads strategic partnerships, training and business development for Advoz. He began with the organization in 2014 as the Center for Community Peacemaking’s executive director before its merger with Conflict Resolution Services (formerly Lancaster Mediation Center) in 2017. Previously, he founded two campus-based mediation programs and has studied and worked in community-based conflict transformation efforts in the US, Northern Ireland and Croatia, earning his M.A. at the Universitat Jaume I (Castellon, Spain). More recently he nurtured interest in arts-based approaches to transforming conflict with improvisation and applied theatre. Chris shares a bustling bilingual and musical household in Marietta, PA with his wife and two teenagers.
Wilnelia Padilla
Restorative Practices Case Manager
Wilnelia (Wilny) was born in Puerto Rico but moved to PA to attend college, graduating with a Criminal Justice degree. She worked at a Juvenile Detention Facility in both detention and shelter programs. After that, she worked as a Youth Advocate, Therapeutic Support Staff, and Direct Care Staff, as well as volunteer experience in the re-entry program. Wilny is passionate about helping others and giving them second chances to develop their skills and potential. Outside of work, Wilny loves kayaking and spending time with her grandchildren.
Jill Heine
Restorative School Practitioner – McCaskey HS
Jill is passionate about creating spaces where everyone can flourish. After working in business and educational settings for over 25 years, Jill believes restorative practices help create environments where people feel seen and valued. Relationships, justice, and dignity ground her in her work. She believes restorative practices create structures to build safety and trust, inviting people to share their authentic selves while fostering the capacity to repair, heal, and transform.
Jill received her Master of Restorative Justice degree from The Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University. Jill works to embody a restorative paradigm in every sector of her life, including the monthly Community Circle she started in her neighborhood and in her various community organizing roles. She also enjoys reading, walking, cooking, and exploring small towns.
Susan Hochstedler
Restorative Programming Graduate Intern
Susan is interning with Advoz as a Conflict Transformation student at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding in Harrisonburg, VA. As an Eastern Mennonite Seminary student, Susan began taking conflict analysis and peacebuilding formation courses as electives when she discovered the two programs informed each other in intriguing ways. During her internship, Susan is supporting Advoz training programs and managing the Community Circle program. She is passionate about equipping others to engage in conflict in healthy ways, creating safe and trauma-informed spaces, and community building using dignity as a catalyst. When she is not working or studying, she enjoys hiking, adventuring, spending time with friends and family, and laughing.
Board of Directors
Sharon Allen-Spann
City of Lancaster Human Resources
President
Earldine Tolbert
Retired Human Services Professional
Vice Chair/Program Committee Chair
Jesus Cruz
Retired Finance
Treasurer
Drew Jabour-Gehman
Attorney at Apple, Yost & Zee
Grace Mentzer
Police Social Worker at Lancaster City Bureau of Police
Tasha Nankerville
Attorney at Barley Snyder
Jon Rudy
Peace Education Consulting
Warren Taylor
Director Advancement, Thaddeus Stevens
Kelly Kennedy
Clinical Therapist, Pennsylvania Counseling Services
Creating peace in our community through mediation and restorative practices that teach individuals and communities to work through conflict and create hopeful outcomes.
Be a part of the change Advoz helps to create
Through volunteering, donating, or participating in Advoz trainings you can be a change agent in Lancaster County when you partner with Advoz.
“Advoz services bring hope and healing where you think there is no way through.”
– Advoz Advocate
Become a Part of Our Stories of Hope and Healing
We believe there is always a possibility of restoration.
