Sierra Mediation was started by Melissa Mangiaracina and Karen Zavora in 2017. Melissa and Karen have worked together in different capacities since 2009 and have both dedicated their careers to helping others. Melissa and Karen first worked together at Nevada Legal Services, providing legal services to low-income individuals in rural Nevada. Melissa and Karen both moved to Washoe Legal Services, where they represented children in abuse and neglect cases in Reno, Nevada. From there, Melissa and Karen took a job share at the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ), where they worked as Senior Policy Analysts and Program Attorneys. Following that position, Melissa and Karen served as the co-Directing Attorneys of the Senior Law Project for Washoe County, Nevada.
All of these positions led Melissa and Karen to the field of mediation. They took a 40-Hour basic mediation class in 2017, founding Sierra Mediation shortly thereafter. Since 2017, Melissa and Karen have both served as mediators for Nevada's Juvenile Dependency Mediation Program (child protection cases) and the custody mediation panel for the Second Judicial Court of Nevada. Melissa also spent five years serving as a Settlement Judge for the Nevada Supreme Court.
Melissa and Karen are currently embarking on new endeavors and are in the process of wrapping up Sierra Mediation. Melissa is currently transitioning to her new role as Justice of the Peace for the Incline Village - Crystal Bay Justice Court and Karen is writing children's books. As such, we are not accepting new clients at this time. If you are visiting this site in the hopes of finding a mediator to help you resolve a conflict, we wish you the best in finding a mediator that fits your needs.
