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.
Mia Burroughs
President–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.
Rick Igou
Vice President–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.
Annie O’Leary
Secretary–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.
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.
Shelley Gist Kennedy
Violence Prevention Coordinator, UNC-Chapel Hill
Shelley’s professional background has been centered around gender equity and violence prevention in the higher education and nonprofit sectors. This includes previous work at the Carolina Women’s Center, Orange County Rape Crisis Center, and Girls on the Run of the Triangle. Shelley has a BS in Psychology and a Master of Public Administration with a concentration in nonprofit management from UNC-Chapel Hill.
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.
Erica Bluford
Family Support, Center for Child and Family Health
Erica received her B.S. in Business Administration in 2015 and her J.D. and M.S.W. in 2021, all from UNC-Chapel Hill. Her interests include the intersection of spirituality, social work, and law.
Erica worked in the legal unit at the Alamance County Department of Social Services, on child abuse, neglect, and dependency cases. She hopes to focus on vocational rehabilitation, mental health consultation, and other counseling for families and adults who have been exposed to trauma such as criminal justice involvement and domestic violence. She hopes to provide community resources to empower families, decrease the likelihood of children being exposed to trauma, and help adults break negative generational cycles.
Erica was licensed to minister in January 2020 and is the Founder of True Lifetime Commitment Ministries, which promotes holistic wellness and having fun while following Christ.
Moira Downey
Research Facilitator–NC State University Libraries
Moira works as a Research Facilitator at NC State University Libraries, connecting faculty and other scholars with the resources needed to support computationally intensive research. She has worked in libraries for over fifteen years, most of which has been spent between UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke. She is a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill, and completed an MS in Information Science at UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Information and Library Science in 2018. She has lived in Chapel Hill and Carrboro since 2000.
Fran Muse
Director–Carolina Student Legal Services, Inc
Fran Lewis Muse is the Director of Carolina Student Legal Services, Inc, a non-profit law firm for UNC students. Prior to joining CSLS, Fran was in private practice for 15 years representing clients from diverse communities, including many Spanish speaking clients. Prior to private practice, Fran worked with Student Legal Services at NCSU and worked as an Assistant Public Defender in Orange and Chatham counties. It was in her capacity as an Assistant Public Defender in the early 90s that Fran first recognized the valuable services that DSC provides for courthouse stakeholders. Fran received her undergraduate degree from UNC-Chapel Hill. She spent two years studying and teaching in Seville, Spain, and then earned her Juris Doctor at Campbell University School of Law.
If you are interested in board service, please contact Frances Henderson at fhenderson@nulldisputesettlement.org.
