West Central Official Assumes New Position

In/Around: West Central

Marilyn Mitchell, a program coordinator at the West Central Community Center for more than a decade, has left her job to work in the field of dispute resolution.

From managing youth and nutrition programs to publishing the community newspaper, Mitchell, 47, has handled a variety of tasks.

She started out as a program manager and worked her way up to assistant director at the neighborhood center.

“She has tremendous public relations and organization skills,” said Don Higgins, executive director of the center.

He said Mitchell had undergone a lot of management training in recent months and was ready to lead an organization herself.

“She was ready to take on new challenges. She was ready to leave the nest,” Higgins said.

Last week, she left the center to assume the job of executive director of the Dispute Resolution Center of Spokane County, a not-for-profit organization that contracts with the courts and other agencies to resolve conflict.

Mitchell said she was looking for a job that was less stressful with more stable hours that would enable her to spend more time with seven children.

At West Central, she took primary responsibility for managing the West Central Leadership Institute, which gave residents with an interest in volunteering the skills they needed to make changes.

She edited the neighborhood newspaper for five years and then supervised its publication. She also coordinated all 26 agencies that had a presence in the West Central neighborhood.

She managed the before- and after-school programs and helped train residents to mediate noncriminal disputes among themselves.

Mitchell said dispute resolution is a growing field, particularly in the areas of child custody and problemsolving. Though she’s looking forward to a new challenge, she said she’ll miss the people who have given themselves to the community.

“There have been so many people who have had dramatic life changes in the past three or four years,” she said.