The AAA-ICDR® joins in this global celebration year after year as a staunch supporter of gender equality. As the largest arbitral institution in the world, the AAA-ICDR is led by CEO and President India Johnson – the first woman to hold this position. She has also contributed greatly to the field of alternative dispute resolution (ADR), assisting legislatures, courts, and other organizations in exploring and implementing dispute resolution programs.
In addition to the organization’s leadership, the number of women arbitrators and mediators on the AAA-ICDR Roster continues to grow.
Highlighted below are just a few of the diverse women who comprise our international panel.
Angela Foster is a Principal with the Law Offices of Angela Foster. As a mediator and arbitrator, Dr. Foster has resolved and adjudicated over 500 disputes involving commercial and business disputes, negligence actions, employment discrimination claims and intellectual property law disputes. She is past chair of the Dispute Resolution Section of the New Jersey State Bar Association and a member of numerous alternative dispute resolution panels. Dr. Foster was appointed to the Silicon Valley Arbitration & Mediation Center's List of the World's Leading Technology Neutrals, Fellow of the College of Commercial Arbitrators, and a member of the AAA-ICDR Council. She was also selected as a mediator of the peer-vetted AAA Commercial Division Master Mediator Panel. The New Jersey State Bar Associated awarded the James B. Boskey Award to her – as Alternative Dispute Resolution Practitioner of the Year for 2021.
Mélida Hodgson is a recognized investor-state and commercial arbitration practitioner, counseling governments, state-owned entities and corporate entities on international investment protection, business disputes and World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute resolution. Ms. Hodgson is also an arbitrator of international disputes. With three decades of experience practicing at the intersection of international arbitration and sovereign obligations, Ms. Hodgson represents clients operating anywhere in the world across the range of arbitration forums, including the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). Her sectoral experience includes infrastructure, construction, mining, transportation, energy, telecommunications and post-merger disputes. She is particularly respected as an arbitration expert in Latin America—Latinvex consistently rates her as one of top lawyers for the region—where she has handled matters for sovereign clients Venezuela, Panama and Peru. Ms. Hodgson also recently represented the Republic of Sierra Leone in its first investor-State and commercial arbitrations. She is currently a vice chair of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Institute of World Business Law and serves on the ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR and its Task Force on Corruption in Arbitration. She is also on the council of the AAA-ICDR. Ms. Hodgson is a founding member of the Washington Women in International Arbitration.
Érica Franzetti is a Partner at King & Spalding, focusing on international commercial and investor-state arbitration across several industry sectors (e.g., energy and natural resources, life sciences, financial services, hospitality, and information technology) and jurisdictions (e.g., U.S., Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Croatia, Hungary, and the Philippines). She advises on multiple procedural rules, including the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR), and United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) arbitral rules. Prior to practicing international arbitration, Ms. Franzetti practiced law at a leading Brazil-based law firm, where she represented clients in complex commercial litigation proceedings before the Brazilian courts. She also serves as arbitrator on international commercial arbitrations and teaches a course in investor-state arbitration as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center. She is also an active advocate for the promotion of diversity within the international arbitration community.
Aisha Nadar is active in international construction, dispute resolution and large-scale infrastructure and defense programs. For over thirty-five years she has handled all phases of project implementation. She advises clients on strategic procurement planning, contract drafting, contract management and dispute resolution. She acts as arbitrator, mediator, adjudicator and Dispute Board member and has experience as president and member of tribunals under ICC, SCC, DIAC, AAA/ICDR and UNCITRAL rules. She is listed on the Panel of Conciliators at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and the FIDIC President’s list of adjudicators and served as a member of the FIDIC Board, responsible for the Contracts Committee (2016-2020). She has carried out dispute resolution assignments for organizations such as the World Bank, USAID and US DoD and many commercial players. She is a regularly invited speaker at universities and professional conferences. Ms. Nadar holds a BS degree in Electrical Engineering (University of Nebraska), an MBA (University of Texas-Austin) and an LL.M. in International Commercial Dispute Resolution (Queen Mary, University of London).
Cecilia Flores Rueda, FCIArb handles complex and high-stake international and domestic arbitration cases and represents clients before federal and local courts. She acts in arbitration as both a party representative and an arbitrator and focuses her practice on issues related to cases involving governmental entities (administrative law), shareholders' disputes, energy, oil and gas, clean energies, infrastructure projects, trusts, construction, joint ventures, lease agreements, transportation and logistics, international sale of goods, distribution, insurance and reinsurance, e-commerce, intellectual property, and commercial transactions in general. She advises clients on ethics and compliance matters as well. She has been recognized as one of the best lawyers, in Chambers Latin America, Leaders League and Who’s Who Legal, in the International Arbitration and litigation categories. In 2014, Ms. Flores Rueda was awarded by IACAC, for her outstanding career in arbitration. She previously worked for major law firms. Before that she acted as Secretary General for the Mediation and Arbitration Centre of the Mexico City National Chamber of Commerce (CANACO), where she was in charge of the administration of mediation and arbitration proceedings, both domestic and international, under the rules of CANACO, the Commercial Arbitration and Mediation Centre for the Americas (CAMCA) and the Inter-American Arbitration Commission (IACAC). At the same time, as an independent practitioner, Ms. Flores Rueda participated in many arbitration proceedings related to international trade, some of them ad hoc proceedings under the Arbitration Rules of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNICTRAL). She also acts as Counsel of the Institute of Transnational Arbitration (ITA) and is member of the Advisory Committee on Private Commercial Disputes of the USMCA (31.22 Committee).
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