Newsmaker: Lisa Pupo Lenihan

Noteworthy: The Mediation Council of Western Pennsylvania awarded Lenihan its 2013 Conflict Resolution Day Award last week for her work in establishing the Prisoner Civil Rights Conflicts Resolution Program. The federal court program, started in October 2012, seeks to reduce the caseload of prisoner lawsuits by working out non-monetary settlements. The council is a professional association for mediators.

Age: 55

Residence: Franklin Park

Family: Lenihan has three children who are all in college: Patrick, 23, Alexandra, 22, and Christopher, 20.

Occupation: Since April 2, 2004, Lenihan has been a U.S. magistrate judge. She previously was an in-house lawyer for UPMC and an attorney in private practice.

Education: Lenihan holds a bachelors degree in political science and a law degree, both from the University of Pittsburgh.

Background: Lenihan set up the program as a way to resolve prisoner complaints using volunteer mediators. About 30 professional mediators have volunteered their time. Both the prisoner and corrections officials have to agree to the mediation. The benefit to the public is that resolving more of the prisoner lawsuits through mediation frees up court resources to handle other cases.

Quote: “The court handles a large number of these cases. Personally, on my docket, there are about a hundred of these. They are extremely time-consuming to litigate for everyone concerned.”