MICHAEL J. KOPP, Executive Director
McLennan County Dispute Resolution Center
900 Austin Avenue, Suite 502, Waco, TX 76701
P. O. Box 1488, Waco, TX 76703-1488
Office  752-0955
drcwaco@hot.rr.com

MICHAEL J. KOPP has been the Executive Director of the McLennan County Dispute Resolution Center (DRC) since it began operation in 1998.  He received a BBA degree from Sam Houston State University in 1967. 

Mr. Kopp completed the 40-hour basic mediation training through Sam Houston State University's Department of Continuing Education; he completed a 30-hour advanced divorce mediation training at Dispute Mediation Service, Inc. in Dallas, Texas; the advanced 24-hour Child Protective Services (CPS) mediation training sponsored by the Children Justice Act Section of the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services; and Peacemakers Unlimited, Inc.'s Peer Mediation Facilitator Training.

In addition to serving as Executive Director of the Dispute Resolution Center, Kopp is a Texas Mediator Credentialing Association “TMCA Credentialed Mediator” and he personally mediates 50 to 60 cases a year; many of those Child Protective Services (CPS) parental termination cases. He served as one of three public (non-attorney) members of the State Bar of Texas Alternative Dispute Resolution Section Council from 2002 to 2005. Additionally, he serves on the Texas Dispute Resolution Center's Director's Council and is a member of the Texas Association of Mediators.

Mr. Kopp has served as an Adjunct Professor with Baylor University where he periodically teaches “Negotiation and Conflict Resolution" in the Hankerer School of Business. He also teaches a quarterly workshop for Habitat for Humanity for the benefit of Habitat clients and has taught Mediation and Conflict Resolution in Baylor University's Department of Continuing Education and he frequently lectures to the Legal Assistants classes at McLennan Community College (MCC). Over the past five years Mr. Kopp has trained well over one two hundred plus students to serve as “peer mediators” for the West Independent School District, China Spring Independent School District, Lake Waco Montessori School and Valley Mills ISD as well as performing several conflict resolution trainings for school counselors, teachers and administrators at Region 12 Education Center. Additionally, Mr. Kopp speaks frequently to schools, professional and business groups and civic organizations on the topics of conflict resolution, negotiation and alternative dispute resolution.

Mr. Kopp formerly served on McLennan Community College’s Advisory Board which worked to formulate the curriculum for MCC's Legal Assistant's Associate Degree Program. He is a current member and past Chairman of the City of Waco's Citizen's Advisory Board for Cottonwood Creek Golf Course and a former recipient of the Waco YMCA’s Elihu Levy Service Award.  For more than a decade (during the eighties and early nineties) Mr. Kopp served as the master of ceremonies for the Christian Men’s Luncheon which met weekly at Underwood’s Cafeteria.

Michael & Kay Kopp celebrated 41 years of marriage on June 4, 2006.  Together they have two grown, married daughters and six grandchildren.  The Kopp's are active and involved members of Antioch Community Church in Waco, Texas.