The Alaska Association of Collaborative Professionals is a multidisciplinary association of family lawyers, certified public accountants, financial advisors, mediators, and licensed mental health professionals with years of experience helping their clients through the divorce process. During this workshop, we will discuss divorce and dissolution options available to you such as collaboration, mediation, do-it-yourself, and litigation and the pros and cons of each option. Come and ask all those questions burning in your mind.

There will be three speakers:

Stefan Otterson (Attorney): Stefan Otterson started out as a commercial attorney, and then joined the Attorney General’s Office in 1990. There he was a child protection and juvenile delinquency prosecutor, and also represented the Divisions of Public Safety, Mental Health, and Medicaid. Since 2000 Stefan has practiced family law in courts all over Southcentral, Southwest and Northwest Alaska. Stefan is also trained in mediation and collaborative law, has been a mediator for the court system, and was a child advocate (guardian ad litem) for over 12 years. Stefan now emphasizes mediation and collaborative law in the family law context.

Dr. Valerie Demming, PhD (Mental Health Professional): Valerie Anne Demming is a Mental Health Professional and Child Specialist with Alaska Association of Collaborative Professionals. She is a Ph.D psychologist and a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC). She is an experienced therapist who has worked with children, adolescents, individuals, couples, and families for the last 25 years. She has extensive knowledge in the area of child development and behavior. She has worked in the counseling setting with numerous children whose parents are in the process of divorcing or have obtained a divorce. She has additional training from The Grief and Loss Center in Ft. Collins Colorado, which has been invaluable with her work with children, and adults who have gone through or are going through the divorce process.

Lisa Rogers, CPA (Financial Professional): Lisa Rogers, CPA is president of Rogers & Company, CPA, P.C., a local accounting firm providing accounting and tax compliance and consulting services, including helping clients resolve the financial aspects of disputes, including divorces. In recent years, she has worked in collaborative divorce cases, both as the financial neutral member of the professional team and as an outside financial consultant. She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Alaska Society of Certified Public Accountants, Alaska Association of Collaborative Professionals, International Academy of Collaborative Professionals, and Anchorage Estate Planning Council. She earned the Jay A. Ofsthun Distinguished Service Award recognizing long and meritorious service to the accounting profession in 2006 and 2012.