Our Mediators

The Neighborhood Justice Center has a team of contract mediators who offer their services to our office. Please take some time to meet them.

• LANCE YOUNGBLOOD

  After retiring from a successful IT sales career, Lance is leveraging his experience to help individuals and teams develop creative solutions that bring peace. Lance believes that mediation should be more than agreeing to a transaction. He believes in win-win scenarios, that pain often accompanies conflict. Lance believes that mediation is an opportunity to begin the process of reconciliation. Lance currently serves as a conflict consultant and mediator coach for Phoenix Strategies. Lance also volunteers as a mediator for El Paso County Small Claims Court.

• HILARY OSBOURNE

  Hilary Osborne holds a Bachelor's degree in Speech Communications from Wayne State University in Detroit, MI, and has received additional training in domestic violence and workplace conflict. She currently volunteers as a mediator for the Better Business Bureau of Colorado Springs. She has also mediated for Community Mediation Concepts, El Paso County Small Claims, Jefferson County Courts, and Jefferson County Mediation Services. Her cases have involved assault, barking dogs, business-to-business and business-to-consumer claims, insurance claims, landlord/tenant, neighbor-to-neighbor, police referrals, restraining orders, retribution, and small claims.

• LESLIE SHAFER

  Leslie has thousands of hours practicing negotiation and facilitation of settlement through mediations, courtroom experience, and client engagement in various areas of law including, criminal, domestic and neighborhood disputes. After years experiencing the communication breakdowns that occur in mediation, and the lost opportunities to facilitate settlement, she decided to apply her experience to the practice of mediation, helping others to reach settlement in a cost-effective manner. Leslie has a great passion for negotiation and resolution and applies her education and training in the areas of neurodivergence, domestic violence, family development, inter-communicational skills, and trauma on a regular basis within mediation.