Event Information

Mary Bryan retired as director of the Graduate Program in Human Behavior and Conflict Management at Columbia College in Columbia, South Carolina, where she was a faculty member for eight years. Her conflict resolution practice included employment and personal injury disputes, business questions, and family cases involving financial questions, child custody and visitation, pre-nuptial and post-divorce issues, and other family conflicts. With Cotton Harness, she conducted family mediation training from 1998 to 2009, sponsored by the South Carolina Council for Conflict Resolution (SOCCR) and the South Carolina BarShe was also trained mediators through the Columbia College program and in the former Soviet Republic of Ambaijan.

Ms. Bryan has been a frequent lecturer and trainer in the field of conflict resolution since 1993. She has served as a Bridge the Gap lecturer on alternative dispute resolution for graduating University of South Carolina law students. She has practiced as an member of the American Arbitration Association Panel of Neutrals and an Advanced Practitioner Member of the Association for Conflict Resolution (formerly the Academy of Family Mediators). She has been active in promoting mediation practice and court-connected programs in family and civil cases through the South Carolina Bar, the SCCCR, the Joint Commission on Alternative Dispute Resolution of the South Carolina Supreme Court, the South Carolina Chapter of the Association for Conflict Resolution, and the Community Mediation Center in Columbia.

From 1978 to 1994 Ms. Bryan was an attorney and partner in a general practice with the Columbia law firm of McDonald, McKenzie, Fuller, Rubin and Miller, concentrating in workers' compensation, representing carriers, employers, and claimants, and in family law. A graduate of Agnes Scott College and the University of South Carolina School of Law, she also holds a Master of Arts in Teaching from The Johns Hopkins University and is a former high school and technical college instructor in English.

Ms. Bryan serves as a board member for the Community Mediation Center in Columbia. She is a member of St. John's Episcopal Church and the Arpad Darazs Singers. She is married to Thomas S. Kohlsaat and is the mother of three adult daughters and grandmother to Anna, Amelia, Kohl, and Thomas.

Tiffany Provence formed PMC Law Firm after more than 10 years as Dorchester County Probate Judge. Provence is a graduate of the University of Florida and University of South Carolina School of Law. Provence also holds dual certifications as both a Civil and Family Court mediator and is currently the SC Bar’s trainer for the 40-hour mediation certification course.  

Provence has served as President and Legal Counsel for Dorchester Paws (formerly Francis R. Willis SPCA), Secretary for the Dorchester County Bar, Advisory Counsel to the South Carolina Supreme Court, and a member of the Executive Committee for the South Carolina Association of Probate Judges. She is also currently serving as the Dorchester County Drug Court Judge and was formerly a professor at both the Charleston School of Law and Trident Technical College. Her classes and lecture topics include Probate, Wills & Trusts, Legal Ethics, Fiduciary Administration, and Mediation & Negotiation.

In her community, Provence currently serves on the Advisory Board for Truist and the Endowment Board for Dorchester Paws. She has also offered her tim e and talents to numerous organizations including the Board of Director's for Palmetto Scholar's Academy Charter School, Board of Directors for Sculpture in the South, Board of Directors for Children's Trust of South Carolina, Habitat for Humanity and local organizations supporting youth athletics. Tiffany was raised in Summerville, SC.