The Leader-in-Residence (LIR) program is designed to more closely connect our students, staff and faculty with key community leaders from whom we can learn and benefit.
While CSU|LAW hosts many lawyers and business practitioners as visiting lecturers, panelists, and conference participants each year, the LIRs maintain uniquely deep, long-term relationships with the law school.
Each LIR volunteers their time and talent, and works with the Dean and one or more designated faculty and staff to design a program customized to the mutual needs of the LIR and the law school.
CURRENT CSU|LAW LEADERS-IN-RESIDENCE:

JUDGE RONALD ADRINE '73
JURIST-IN-RESIDENCE
Judge Adrine recently retired as Administrative and Presiding Judge of the Cleveland Municipal Court in 2017, a position he held since 2009. He first took a seat on the Cleveland Municipal Court bench in 1981 and was reelected five times. Judge Adrine is the co-author of Ohio Domestic Violence Law and is a nationally recognized expert on domestic violence issues. He is a past recipient of the CSU College of Law Alumni Association Alumni of the Year and Cleveland State University Distinguished Alumni Award for Civic Achievement, and in 2017, was inducted as an inaugural member of the CSU|LAW Hall of Fame, along with his father, Russell, a 1954 CSU|LAW graduate.

PROFESSOR SUSAN BECKER '83
PUBLIC INTEREST LEADER-IN-RESIDENCE
Susan Becker has been a part of CSU|LAW for nearly four decades, first as a law student and then an adjunct instructor, law professor, associate dean, and currently as professor emerita. She served for 24 years as a full-time faculty member at CSU|LAW before retiring in June 2014. Throughout her academic career, Becker maintained a modest pro bono practice, providing legal counsel primarily regarding attorney ethics and professionalism, and forms of discrimination that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals commonly experience. Becker currently works in a volunteer capacity as a board member and as general counsel for the ACLU of Ohio. She was awarded the Cleveland State University Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award in 2010 and inducted as a 2018 member of the CSU|LAW Hall of Fame.

SHERYL KING BENFORD '79
LEADER-IN-RESIDENCE
Sheryl King Benford was a teacher and the first African American woman school administrator for the City of East Cleveland School District before graduating from CSU College of Law. Later, she served as the first African American assistant dean at our law school, in the office of admissions and student affairs, from 1979-1981, and as adjunct professor from 1980-1981. In addition to having a private practice, she worked as Cleveland’s assistant law director from 1981-1984 and 1988-1991. She served as the first African American law director for the City of Shaker Heights from 1992-2000. In 2000, she became the Deputy General Manager and General Counsel of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA), the first woman to serve in the General Counsel role at GCRTA. She retired from GCRTA in 2022 as a Senior Advisor.
She has served CSU|LAW as president of the Alumni Association and as a member of both the National Advisory Council and Visiting Committee. Benford has received many honors in her career including Cleveland State University’s 2006 George B. Davis Award for Service, which recognizes a graduate’s generous dedication to the growth and advancement of the university, and the 2014 YWCA Women of Achievement Award. She is a member of the CSU|LAW Board of Visitors Executive Committee.

JUDGE PATRICIA A. BLACKMON '75
JURIST-IN-RESIDENCE
Patricia Blackmon is a 2017 inaugural member of the CSU|LAW Hall of Fame. A magna cum laude graduate of Tougaloo College, she was born in Oxford, Mississippi. During the 1970s, in an effort to increase its African-American student population, CSU College of Law sent then-Professor and fellow Hall of Fame honoree Ann Aldrich south to recruit promising students studying at historically Black colleges. Blackmon, with majors in African-American Studies, Political Science, and History, was such a student, bound to excel. And she has: both in law school and, notably, as Chief Prosecutor for the City of Cleveland and as Assistant Director of the Victim/Witness Assistance Program. She was elected to a Judgeship on the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals in 1991, the first African-American woman in Ohio to serve on any of the state’s appeals courts, and is now serving her fourth term with distinction. Blackmon was inducted into the Ohio Women’s Hall of Fame and received the Law Alumni Association’s 1996 Recognition Award.

KIM BIXENSTINE
HEALTH LAW & POLICY LEADER-IN–RESIDENCE
Kim Bixenstine is a professional mediator and arbitrator with expertise in health law, medical malpractice, employment, business and commercial, tort, fraud & abuse, environmental and antitrust matters. Kim retired from University Hospitals (UH) in April, 2019, after 16 years. From April, 2015-April, 2019, Kim served as Chief Compliance Officer of UH, leading the compliance and ethics program system wide. From April, 2003-April, 2015, Kim served as Vice President & Deputy General Counsel of UH, where she was in charge of claims, litigation and risk management system-wide. Before joining UH, Kim was Vice President and Chief Litigation Counsel for TRW, Inc. Prior to that, Kim was a partner in the Jones Day law firm.
Under her leadership as Chief Compliance Officer, UH was named by the Ethisphere Institute as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies for four straight years. She was named the Medical Mutual/Smart Business non-profit executive of the year in December, 2017 for her Board service for Cleveland Rape Crisis Center. She has received the YWCA Woman of Achievement Award, the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association’s President’s award, and the award for outstanding in-house counsel for a non-profit by Crain’s Cleveland Business.
Kim is a summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Middlebury College and obtained her law degree from the University of Chicago Law School.

JOSÉ C. FELICIANO ’75
LEADER-IN-RESIDENCE
Feliciano is a former Partner in the Litigation Group in the Cleveland office of Baker & Hostetler LLP. Previously, he served as the City of Cleveland’s chief prosecuting attorney and was the first Hispanic public official in the City’s history. Earlier in his career, he was a Cuyahoga County Public Defender, an attorney for the Legal Aid Society, and in 1984, was selected as a White House Fellow. Feliciano has founded or served in leadership capacities for multiple organizations that advance the Hispanic community in Northeast Ohio, including the Hispanic Roundtable, the Hispanic Leadership Development Program, and the Hispanic Community Forum, and the Ohio Hispanic Bar Association. He is a past recipient of Cleveland State University Distinguished Alumni Award, the CSU College of Law Alumni Association Alumnus of the Year and is a member of the CSU College of Law Hall of Fame and the Cleveland State University College of Business Hall of Fame.

SHARON SOBOL JORDAN
LEADER-IN-RESIDENCE
Sharon Sobol Jordan is the Chief Executive Officer of the Unify Project, a high-tech nonprofit committed to creating an expanding economy powered by inclusive prosperity. Before joining the Unify Project, she served as Chief of Staff for Cuyahoga County for three years, where she drove early childhood education expansion, workforce systems transformation, the first unified strategic plan, and other key initiatives. She also led the County’s top team and served as chief strategy officer and policy advisor to the County Executive. Jordan also previously served as President and CEO of the Centers for Families and Children. She had previously served as Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel at The Centers. Jordan’s public career also includes serving as Law Director for the City of Cleveland and special counsel to Mayor Michael R. White. Jordan was recognized as one of the Smart 50 leaders in Northeast Ohio by Smart Business in 2017, Nortech’s Innovative Leader of the Year and an EY Entrepreneur of the Year finalist in 2014, Crain’s Woman of Note in 2013, and YWCA Woman of Achievement in 2012.

HOWARD KATZ
LEGAL EDUCATOR-IN-RESIDENCE

CHIEF JUSTICE MAUREEN O'CONNOR '80
JURIST-IN-RESIDENCE

STEVE W. PERCY ’79
LEADER-IN-RESIDENCE

ANN C. ROWLAND
LEADER-IN-RESIDENCE
Ann Rowland received her J.D. and her B.A. from Case Western Reserve University.

CARTER STRANG ’84
LEADER-IN-RESIDENCE

KELLY TOMPKINS ’81
LEADER-IN-RESIDENCE

ROBERT J. TRIOZZI
LEADER-IN-RESIDENCE

SONALI BUSTAMANTE WILSON, ESQ.
LEADER-IN-RESIDENCE
About the Leader-in-Residence ProgRAm:
LIR Background:
LIR Qualifications:
Activities:
Possible activities include, but are not limited to:
- Mentor, coach and advise students on their prospective career choices
- Work on specific projects related to the law school’s strategic priorities
- Strengthen our relationships with employers and donors
- Speak in classes
- Design and/or participate in a workshop, seminar or symposium
- Participate in breakfasts, lunches and/or informal gatherings with students, staff, and/or faculty
- Judge competitions
- Advise law student organizations
- Participate in monthly Dean’s Cabinet meetings (non-voting)
- Participate in faculty meetings (non-voting)
Logistics:
- The Dean selects the LIR after consultation with the Associate Deans. Before any announcement, the Dean also consults the faculty.
- The Dean works to ensure that LIRs reflect the diversity of the community.
- The law school provides an office and/or conference room and computer access for the LIR’s use when they are at the law school.
- The law school provides business cards for the LIR.
- Each LIR has a lead faculty liaison.
- The length of time of the LIR appointment varies from one semester to several years.