Note: Deb can do remote mediations with participants from any county during the COVID-19 judicial emergency and/or if both parties agree, and has successfully conducted numerous video mediations to date. In-person mediations are conducted in her Brattleboro office, and participants willing to travel there may come from any county.

In her other role as an attorney since 1991, Deb has seen the limits of the justice system in cases involving families.  In a litigated case, the parties are often financially and emotionally drained, alienated from one another, and often both parties are disappointed with the court’s decision.

Deb believes that in most cases, the parties are better off if they can sit down with a neutral guide who can help them find a path through the thick forest of facts, feelings, and emotions.  As a neutral mediator, Deb enjoys serving as that guide, helping to create a supportive atmosphere where the parties can take ownership of the process and harness their own skills to work together toward crafting an agreement that all parties find acceptably fair and reasonable.  Deb’s style is flexible, depending upon the needs of the participants.  No single approach works for everyone.

Deb has mediation experience in a variety of family-related cases: Divorce, Parentage, Modifications of custody or parent-child contact, and Family communication issues.  Deb has also provided mediation services in other areas such as business disputes, landlord-tenant matters, and foreclosure proceedings.  Deb also has real-life experience with difficult interactions, which helps her to have sensitivity toward the participants’ experiences.  

Deb is a member of the Vermont Family Mediators (VFaM) and the Vermont Bar Association, a panelist on the Vermont Supreme Court Family Mediation Program, and a consultant with The Mediation and Training Collaborative.

Deb received an A.B. in Politics from Mount Holyoke College and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.  Her mediation training began at Harvard Law School; she continued her training with The Mediation and Training Collaborative in Greenfield, Massachusetts; and she studied divorce mediation with Susan Terry, a Vermont mediation pioneer.