Education
- Attorney and Public Notary – University of San Carlos, Guatemala City, Guatemala, C.A.
- BSW – Bethel College (North Newton, Kansas)
- MSW – Wichita State University, Wichita, Kansas
- Kansas Supreme Court Approved Mediator in Core and Domestic mediation (2010 to present)
Biography
Juan has provided Spanish-language services to KIPCOR’s Community Mediation Center (CMC) since at least 2009. These services include translation (of forms, mediated agreements, court orders, brochures, parent education manuals, and other documents), interpretation (assisting assessors, mediators and case managers with actual cases), teaching the Spanish-language version of CMC’s Parents Forever divorce impact education class, and serving as a domestic mediator in CMC cases involving non- or limited-English speaking parents.
As a native Spanish speaker, and following his move from Guatemala to Kansas, Juan has always looked for opportunities to serve people in Spanish. In addition to his work for KIPCOR and CMC, in 2010 Juan started volunteering at Offender Victim Ministries (Newton, KS), where for many years he co-facilitated their Batterers’ Intervention Program (BIP) services. In addition to his Supreme Court approval as a core and domestic mediator, in 2020 Juan completed his training as a parent-adolescent mediator.
Juan also has extensive experience mediating land disputes in Guatemala between indigenous Q’eq’chi communities and private land owners. These mediations resulted from the 1996 Peace Accords that ended the 36-year Guatemalan Civil War, and which required mediation of land disputes—including consideration for non-titled ancestral territory—that had been a significant cause of the Civil War.
Juan currently works as a social worker in Wichita, KS at a high-needs elementary school with a student population that is predominantly Latino, African American and immigrant. Juan was born in Coban, Guatemala. He and his wife have lived in Kansas for the past 20 years. Their two children currently attend Bethel College (North Newton, KS).
