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Valencia George is an intelligent and sharp-witted businesswoman with an innovative, creative, and motivational mindset. Her passion for helping people shows in her line of work. She is an independent, full-time Supreme Court certified mediator and qualified arbitrator. As an arbitrator, her role is to ensure the parties get a fair and effectively managed proceeding. Her talents as a mediator helps to guide the parties to a mutually acceptable dispute settlement. The combination of her past industry experience in Law enforcement, Forensic Investigations and her skills in crisis management makes her an ideal mediator or arbitrator for matters involving construction or employment, as well as complex business disputes. These multiple roles are crucial components in her position as a Co-founding partner of the George & George ADR Group. Ms. George has worked on cases involving commercial and business disputes, breach of contract, negligence, construction disputes, landlord and tenant disputes, and employment discrimination claims, She became a subject matter expert in her areas of work through hands-on training combined with licensing and certification. She has acquired certifications in the important areas of Construction Safety, legal assistant, human resource, conflict management, Forensic investigations, risk management, and construction project manager.
Growing up in the US Virgin Islands, her experiences led to some remarkably diverse careers. Ms. George was introduced into various areas of the construction business at an early age. As a young teen female, she spent a great deal of time building homes with her father who was also a construction worker. It shows in the career and education path she has chosen for herself. Her journey started right out of high school in the construction industry as a Construction Project manager where she gained qualifications in safety compliance, time management, vendor management, materials management, project estimation, contract bidding, contract disputes and negotiation, reading blueprints and supervising construction project from start to finish for the Virgin Islands Housing Authority, FEMA, and other Government, commercial contracts as well as individual residential clients between St. Thomas, St. Croix and St. John. Ms. George is able to leverage this in-depth construction industry knowledge through her work with contractors, subcontractors, public and private owners, and developers. Other skills included quality control, team building, building codes, blueprints, construction planning, scheduling, and budgeting. Ms. George has been working in Construction industry for well over 15+ years and has a great knowledge of the industry.
Her expertise in the areas of arbitration and mediation within the construction industry allows her to effectively handle Alternative Dispute Resolutions as a mediator and arbitrator for disputes involving scope of work, design defects, contract claims, scheduling issues, construction defects, mechanic’s liens, zoning/land use issues, warranties, labor disputes, and bonding.
In addition to working in the construction industry, she has worked for the Dept. of Labor as an Unemployment Insurance Specialist for 5 years. In this role she was involved in the review, examination, adjudication, and investigation of claims for unemployment insurance benefits, the continuation of benefit, the resolution of contested claims and benefit disputes, and the determination of coverage. The multitude of business knowledge Ms. George has acquired has provided her opportunities to effectively apply her skills as a strong negotiator, compassionate leader, team collaborator, and decision maker to produce the results needed when called upon.
Apart from the business world Ms. George has a diligent lifestyle calm balance, as he is a devout family-oriented woman. She currently resides in Gadsden, Alabama with her family and is very hands on raising her grandson and autistic nephew. She works closely with an individualized education program (IEP) which helps him to address any therapy for speech, behavior, or sensory concerns for her nephew. She is also a involved in community service speaker of community groups designed to inspire and motivate women of all ages who has been sexual, emotional, physical, and domestically abused.
