From left: Stephanie Hess, director of Court Services; Rick Dove, director, Board of Professional Conduct; and Margaret Allen, education program manager.

From left: Stephanie Hess, director of Court Services; Rick Dove, director, Board of Professional Conduct; and Margaret Allen, education program manager.

Three Ohio Supreme Court employees will serve in leadership positions with national organizations in 2015-2016.

Stephanie Hess is the new president of the National Association for Court Management (NACM), the largest organization of court management professionals in the world with more than 1,700 members committed to improving the administration of justice. Hess has been with the Supreme Court since 2006 and was named director of Court Services in 2013. Her involvement with the NACM board has included terms as director, secretary-treasurer, and officer positions leading up to the presidency. Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor today administered the oath to Hess and the other NACM officers as well as board members. Additionally, Hess will also assume a Board of Directors position on the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) later this summer. NCSC is a nonprofit court reform organization dedicated to improving the administration of justice by providing leadership and service to the state courts.

Margaret Allen will begin her term in the fall as the next president of the National Association of State Judicial Educators (NASJE), a member organization of judicial educators and others interested in judicial branch education. Allen is also co-chair of the NASJE Membership and Mentor Committee and has served on the education committee. She is an education program manager for the Ohio Judicial College, and has been with the Judicial College for 14 years.

Rick Dove is the new president of the National Council of Lawyer Disciplinary Boards (NCLDB), an organization that provides a national forum for the exchange of information about the administration, conduct and improvement of lawyer disciplinary proceedings. Dove served on the Supreme Court staff for more than 22 years before becoming director of the Board of Professional Conduct in 2011. He has held several other officer positions with the NCLDB including as an at-large director, secretary, and president-elect.

“This is not the first time that multiple Supreme Court employees have led national organizations,” Chief Justice O’Connor said. “That fact speaks to the caliber of professionals we employ and the knowledge, skills, and experience they possess.”

After the completion of their presidential terms next summer, Hess, Allen, and Dove will serve successive one-year terms as past presidents with NACM, NASJE, and NCLDB.