Our Board members come from various backgrounds and are responsible for the vision, policies and financial health of our agency. Board members serve three-year terms and act as ambassadors for our services.
Mavis Gragg
President–Attorney
Mavis is the Director of the Sustainable Forestry and African American Land Retention Project at the American Forest Foundation. Having been a peer mediator in high school, she served as an intern at DSC as an undergraduate and worked at The Mediation Center in Asheville after law school. She graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill and earned a J.D. and Masters in Dispute Resolution from Pepperdine University.
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Hank Straus
Vice President–Business Consultant
With a background in urban issues (Urban Studies, George Washington University) and 25 years as owner and operator of Aurora, the Triangle’s first fine dining Italian restaurant, Hank now consults for small businesses and professional practices. Hank is a certified mediator for NC Mediated Settlement Conferences and has launched an elder mediation firm called Elder Matters of the Carolinas.
Matt Epstein
Mediator
Matt is a lawyer by training and has had more than 30 years’ experience as a mediator. In addition to a career as a lawyer, he has served as Executive Director of multiple university based centers; taught at the high school, college, law school, and medical school levels; started various businesses; and worked with troubled youth, prisoners, and drug addicts. He is currently a principal in both a consulting company and a not for profit service organization. He has a BA in Psychology from Yale and law degrees from the University of New Hampshire and Boston University.
Jen Counts
Public Health
Jen is a research public health analyst at RTI International. In this role she teams with other researchers and community partners to evaluate the effectiveness of programs to prevent violence and promote social emotional learning and resilience. She earned her Master of Public Health from the UNC-Chapel Hill Department of Health Behavior.
Trey Tanner
Attorney
Trey Tanner is a general practitioner in the law firm of Blackburn & Tanner PLLC and has a law degree from UNC, an MA in Critical Theory from the University of Nottingham, and a BA in Philosophy from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He and his wife Jackie have lived in Carrboro for over 20 years, and have three boys. When Holy Family Episcopal Church closed its daycare, Trey and other parents formed Childcare Matters, a member-run non-profit LLC, to take over its daycare mission.
Neil Offen
Journalist
Neil Offen is a journalist who has written or edited more than a dozen books on subjects ranging from theater to sports to medicine. He has written for newspapers and magazines, both in the U.S. and abroad, and has served as a reporter, editor, columnist, news director and radio host. A former president of the board of the DSC, Neil has volunteered for a number of local nonprofits.
Erin Haygood
Attorney
Erin Haygood is Managing Attorney for the Pittsboro field office of Legal Aid of North Carolina, whose service area includes Alamance, Orange, Chatham, Lee, Moore, Richmond and Anson Counties. Legal Aid is non-profit statewide law firm providing civil legal assistance to low-income North Carolinians. Erin has been a practicing attorney in the private and non-profit sectors for more than 20 years concentrating on family law, mediation, child advocacy and Guardian ad litem work. Erin earned her BA from UNC-G and her law degree from Wake Forest University. She is a native of Chapel Hill, and lives in Hillsborough with her two teenaged sons.
Celisa Lehew
Assistant Chief of Police
Celisa Lehew, Assistant Chief of Police with the Chapel Hill Police Department, oversees the Uniformed Patrol Division, Investigations and School Resource Officers. She holds a Master’s Degree in Justice Administration from Methodist University and a Bachelor’s Degree from Lake Superior State University. Prior to her current responsibilities she oversaw the Training Division, Crisis Unit, Quartermaster, Information Services and Budget Operations. Celisa started her career as a Patrol Officer in 2004, having a passion for her community. She has had the opportunity to serve in various roles throughout the police department, Investigations, Traffic, and Community Services. She teaches classes on community policing, ethics, leadership and investigations.
Annie O’Leary
Director of Business Development – Pulse Health & Wellness
In her 25+ years in the non-profit world, Annie raised major and leadership gifts for environmental, education, and reproductive rights groups in North Carolina since 2001, including WUNC Radio, the Southern Environmental Law Center, the North Carolina Outward Bound School, and Ipas, and has served on numerous boards including ToxicFree NC, the Escambia Coalition on the Homeless, and the Florida Alliance of Information and Referral Services. At Pulse Health & Wellness, she works with an NC-based team to promote healthy foods nationally. She has a BA in Communications from the University of Illinois and an M.A. in International Communications from the University of West Florida.
Mia Burroughs
Board Liaison, Ipas
Mia Burroughs is the Board Liaison for Ipas, an international non-profit based in Chapel Hill. She served as an Orange County Commissioner and member of the Orange County Board of Health from 2014-2018, and served on the Chapel Hill Carrboro School Board 2007-2014 through which she was first introduced to the special contribution that the Dispute Settlement Center makes to our community. She worked at Advocates for Youth in Washington, DC; Shift NC in North Carolina, Planned Parenthood in South Florida, and as an aide to a US Representative from Pennsylvania. She has an undergraduate degree from Duke University, with a double major in Political Science and Spanish.
Shai Tamari
Professor of the Practice, UNC
Shai Tamari is the Director of the Conflict Management Initiative at UNC and teaches undergraduate- and graduate-level skill-based courses in negotiation and mediation under the Departments of Public Policy, Political Science, and Peace, War, and Defense. He developed and manages the minor in Conflict Management at UNC. In addition, Shai is an Adjunct Instructor in the Master of International Development Program at Duke’s Sanford School and is also the Associate Director of the Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies. Prior to his UNC and Duke appointments, Shai was the foreign policy adviser for Congressman James P. Moran (D-VA) at the U.S. House of Representatives, where he focused on issues such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, human rights in Iran, and parental child abduction to Japan.
Born and raised in Jerusalem, Shai served in the Israeli military 1994–1997. He earned a B.A. in Journalism from the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, and a Master’s degree in Near and Middle Eastern Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London in the UK. In 2006, Shai was awarded a Rotary Peace Fellowship and studied for a second Master’s in Global History, along with Arabic and Conflict Resolution, at UNC. Shai is a native speaker of Hebrew, and mediates at the District Court in Durham and at DSC.
Rick Igou
Attorney
Rick completed his first mediation training at DSC in early1990 and has been involved with the Center as a volunteer mediator, facilitator, and trainer/coach ever since. His professional practice is limited to mediation and arbitration – he holds all three certifications from the NC Dispute Resolution Commission and is a Durham County District Court arbitrator and a member of the FINRA Board of Arbitrators. He is also co-founder, with Hank Straus, of Elder Matters of the Carolinas, LLC, an elder mediation practice.
He is a past-chair of the Dispute Resolution Section of the NCBA, served twice as president of the NC Association of Professional Family Mediators, and has been a member of the NC Supreme Court Custody Mediation Advisory Committee since 2012. He is also an adjunct professor at the NCCU School of Law, teaching both mediation and arbitration. He has a B.A. in Political Philosophy from the University of Chicago and a J.D. from UNC School of Law.
Shelley Gist Kennedy
MPA Student
Shelley’s professional background has been primarily at the intersection of nonprofit and higher education work. This includes five years at Carolina Women’s Center, where she implemented and evaluated educational programming related to gender equity and violence prevention. She currently serves as volunteer coordinator at Orange County Rape Crisis Center. Shelley holds a BS in Psychology from UNC-Chapel Hill and is enrolled in UNC’s Master of Public Administration program with a concentration in nonprofit management.
Isabela Ferraz
Alternative Dispute Resolution
Isabela serves as a third-party neutral providing conflict management and dispute resolution services for the U.S. Department of Energy. As an ADR practitioner, she focuses on channeling the energy and momentum created by conflict to help individuals and groups achieve their outcomes while improving communication skills and strengthening their relationships. She is a licensed attorney with a BSBA and BA from the University of Miami and a JD from The George Washington University Law School. Isabela was raised in a multi-cultural environment and speaks Portuguese, Spanish and French.
If you are interested in board service, please contact Frances Henderson at fhenderson@nulldisputesettlement.org.
