New York City LERA
presents
3rd Annual Joint NYC LERA, NAA Region 2, and AAA
Meet the Arbitrators Event!
3rd annual joint program introducing new arbitrators to the labor relations community with a red light-green program and a reception thereafter with food and drink. Always fun and informative!
Date and Time
October 5, 2026, 5:30-7:30 pm
Location
American Arbitration Association, 150 E 42nd St 17th floor, NY, NY 10017
Cost and Registration
Your booking is free, compliments of NYC LERA, NAA Region 2, and AAA,
but please reserve your seat with a booking below.
Questions?
Dean Burrell, DLBurrell1@gmail.com
Moderators
Erica Tener
Erica Tener has been working as a full-time labor arbitrator since the fall of 2010. After earning a master’s degree at the Labor and Industrial Relations School at Rutgers University Ms. Tener worked as the labor relations manager for a realty company and then a large hospital in Staten Island. While in grad school she also worked as a field examiner at Region 22 of the NLRB. Ms. Tener was admitted as a member of the National Academy of Arbitrators in October 2023.
Ms. Tener has served as Secretary on the executive board of the National Association of Railroad Referees for about ten years. She is also listed as an arbitrator on panels with the AAA, FMCS, NJ PERC, NJ State Board of Mediation & NY PERB.
Outside of work, Ms. Tener is a member of the New York & New Jersey chapters of LERA and served as president of the New Jersey and New York City Chapters. She is currently the Chair of Region 2 of the NAA. She also participates in the MidAtlantic Salon and has helped to mentor several up-and-coming arbitrators.
A resident of Woodstock, NY, Ms. Tener travels frequently to hear cases & to participate in professional conferences. When not working she enjoys traveling the world, baking for friends and family (especially her two grandchildren), hiking and spending time in her garden.
Dean Burrell
Dean Burrell is a labor and employment arbitrator and mediator with experience gained via the National Labor Relations Board, major management-side law firms, as Vice President of Labor for a Fortune 300 corporation, and as an adjunct labor law professor. Dean received his B.S. from the Cornell University School of Industrial & Labor Relations (past president ILR Alumni Association); J.D. from American University; LL.M in Labor and Employment from Georgetown University, and has completed the Cornell ILR Scheinman Institute Labor Arbitrator Development Program.
Panel memberships include the American Arbitration Association (labor, employment, MEPPA), Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, Postal Service-APWU, NJ Mediation Board, NJ PERC (grievance, health and interest panels), NYS PERB, Port Authority Employment Relations Panel, and previously the 3020a United Federation of Teachers-NYC, Local 32BJ SEIU-Realty Advisory Board and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority panels. Dean is a mediator for NJ State and Federal Courts, the EEOC and is a Special Master with NYS Courts 2nd Appellate Division.
Dean is a member of the National Academy of Arbitrators and a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. He is also a member of the NJ State Bar L+E Section Executive Committee, Dispute Resolution Section (past chair), the Diversity Committee, Minorities in the Profession Section (former chair), and the NJ State Supreme Court Committee on Dispute Resolution. Dean is a past ABA L+E Section ADR Committee Neutral Co-chair, president of NYC LERA, past president of Arizona LERA, past secretary of NJ LERA; past president of the Garden State Bar (the NJ National Bar Association affiliate), immediate past chair of NBA-ADR Section, treasurer of the NBA L+E Section; and Master of the Bench of the Reitman L+E Inn of Court. He was NJ State Bar ADR Practitioner of the Year in 2022, and is the first recipient of the Garden State Bar Lifetime Achievement Award in 2023. Dean is also a Revision Editor of the forthcoming edition of Elkouri and Elkouri, “How Arbitration Works.”
New Arbitrators
Karen P. Fernbach
Karen Fernbach has devoted her entire career as a neutral in the practice of labor & employment law. Upon graduation from St. John’s Law School, she commenced her legal career with Region 2 of the Manhattan Region of the NLRB. In 1988 she was promoted to Regional Attorney and in 2012 she was awarded the highest honor by her appointment as Regional Director. As Director, she was responsible for overseeing the investigations of all charges filed within her Region alleging unlawful activity against both employers and unions. As Director, she impartially reviewed all evidence and determined the merit or dismissal of all such cases. She also supervised the litigation and settlement of those cases where complaint had been authorized. Throughout her tenure, she was very successful in resolving hundreds of labor disputes involving every type of industry, including complex and high-profile cases
Ms. Fernbach retired from the NLRB in 2017. Upon her retirement from the NLRB, from 2017-2024 she was employed full-time at Hofstra Law School as a Visiting Assistant Professor. She also taught at her alma mater St. John’s Law School as an Adjunct Professor. The courses she taught were labor law, employment law, collective bargaining, and alternative dispute resolution.
Since 2024, Ms. Fernbach has pursued her career as a full-time arbitrator/mediator. She was appointed as a labor arbitrator by the AAA. As an arbitrator, she has been selected for numerous arbitrations in both the public and private sector. She has also been selected by the parties as a permanent arbitrator on several collective bargaining agreements. Currently, Ms. Fernbach is on other arbitration panels including FMCS, NYS PERB, NJ Board of Mediation, NYS Teacher Tenure Panel, and Labor Relations Connection (LRC) covering Conn, MA, ME, and RI. As a neutral, she also has expertise in conducting workplace investigations and certifying card check agreements.
Ms. Fernbach is also a trained mediator. In 2023, she joined Mediation Solutions of NY specializing in mediating labor and employment disputes. In 2023, she was appointed as a mediator for the EDNY Federal District Court Mediation Panel. She mediates labor, employment discrimination, and wage and hour cases filed in District Court. She is also on the NYS Nassau County Courts Commercial and Civil Mediation Panels. While employed by the NLRB, she volunteered to mediate employment disputes for federal employees in other agencies and also volunteered as a mediator with the EEOC Mediation Office in NYC.
Ms. Fernbach is an Executive Board Member and CLE Co-Chair of the Labor & Employment Law Section of the NYS Bar Association, Member of the Dispute Resolution Section of the NYS Bar Association, Executive Board Member and Secretary of the LI-LERA Chapter and a member of both the Labor and Dispute Resolution Sections of the Nassau County Bar Association and a member of the Suffolk County Bar Association.
Sandra Joseph
Sandra Joseph is a labor arbitrator and conflict resolution professional with more than 30 years of labor-management relations experience in highly unionized workplaces. As founder of Joseph’s ADR LLC, she is committed to conducting fair, efficient, and impartial proceedings grounded in collective bargaining agreements, the evidentiary record, established arbitral principles, and due process.
Before establishing her ADR practice, Ms. Joseph served as Director of Human Resources for
1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, Director of Human Resources for the 1199SEIU
Employment Training & Job Security Program, and Senior Labor Relations Specialist at New York-
Presbyterian Hospital. Throughout her career, she has managed complex labor relations matters and
labor arbitration cases involving just cause, contract interpretation, discipline and discharge, seniority, scheduling, investigations, attendance, workplace conduct, discrimination, and other disputes arising under collective bargaining agreements. Ms. Joseph serves as a FINRA Arbitrator and has completed arbitration and mediation training through the National Academy of Arbitrators, the American Arbitration Association’s Higginbotham Fellows Program, the American Bar Association Labor Arbitration Institute, and the New York Peace Institute. Throughout her labor relations career, she has presided over hundreds of grievance hearings, workplace investigations, and dispute resolution proceedings involving witness testimony, credibility assessments, evidentiary review, contract interpretation, discipline, discharge, employee misconduct, seniority, scheduling, attendance, and workplace conduct. As part of her advanced labor arbitration training, she has analyzed hearing records and prepared reasoned shadow arbitration awards involving discipline, discharge, contract interpretation, and workplace disputes across both public and private sector employment setting.
Drawing on more than three decades of labor relations experience, Ms. Joseph offers parties a balanced perspective, sound judgment, and an unwavering commitment to fairness, neutrality, and the integrity of the arbitration process.
Edward Kennedy
Edward J. Kennedy, JD, MA, is an experienced Labor Arbitrator. He serves on a USPS/NRLCA Arbitration panel for the Atlantic and Central Regions of the United States, permanent USPS/APWU Expedited, Contract, and Discipline panels in Kansas, Missouri, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas and Oklahoma, and permanent USPS/NALC Contract, Discipline and Impasse panels in Arizona, Colorado, California, Guam, Hawaii and Wyoming. Arbitrator Kennedy is a member of the State of New Jersey/ AFT panel and The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Employment relations panel. He is available for private appointment and selection from rosters maintained by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, National Mediation Board, JAMS, The Labor Relations Connection, New Jersey PERC, New Jersey State Board of Mediation, Pennsylvania Bureau of Mediation, Washington DC PERB, Alaska Labor Relations Agency, the Montana Board of Personnel Appeals, and FINRA.
Before becoming an Arbitrator, Mediator, and Administrative Law Judge, Ed practiced Labor and Employment law for fifteen years on behalf of businesses, non-profits, employees, and unions. As a litigator, Ed resolved labor and employment cases through negotiation and mediation, at arbitration, before administrative tribunals, and in Federal and State Courts. For ten years, Ed practiced public and private sector labor law as in-house counsel for AFT, Local 2, I.B.T., Local 456, and TWU, Local 100 where he served as an advocate in four hundred contract and disciplinary arbitrations that reached decision and negotiated many initial and successor collective bargaining agreements.
Ed holds a BA and JD with a concentration in Labor and Employment Law from Hofstra University and an MA in Labor Studies from the City University of New York. He is a graduate of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service’s “Becoming a Labor Arbitrator” course, has served as an apprentice to an NAA arbitrator, and is a member of the fourth cohort of Cornell ILR’s Labor Arbitrator development program.
Arbitrator Kennedy is from Long Island where he is proud to have been elected to the Herricks School Board at the age of 19, but now resides in Oradell, NJ with his wife and children. Accordingly, Ed will enthusiastically go to the beach, if asked, but declines to adopt the phrase, “down the shore” as inauthentic despite considerable pressure from friends and neighbors.
William Weisblatt
Will Weisblatt is a Brooklyn-based arbitrator and mediator working in the tri-state area. He has experience in both the public and private sectors handling a wide-variety of contract interpretation and disciplinary disputes. He also serves as a Hearing Examiner on the New York New Jersey Port Authority Employment Relations Panel. Prior to opening his practice he served as an Administrative Law Judge for the New York State Public Employment Relations Board and as an intern at the New York City Office of Collective Bargaining. He is a graduate of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and Hamilton College.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Bookings
Bookings are closed for this event.