As managing partner of Thompson Hine's seven offices, Debbie Read is at the top of the legal profession – not just in Cleveland, but nationwide.

Fernway neighborhood mom of three. Former State Department employee serving abroad. Managing partner of the Cleveland office of international law firm Squire Patton Boggs. It sounds like three people, but they’re all Michele Connell.

Robin Minter Smyers credits much of her own success to her Shaker roots, which still shape her work. “I believe that growing up in Shaker gave me a tremendous advantage in life. "

Margaret Wong didn’t break the glass ceiling, she simply did an end-run. Today, Margaret W. Wong and Associates, LLC has become a 15-attorney firm recognized internationally for its expertise in immigration and nationality law.

Partner-in-charge, Cleveland office, Ulmer & Berne By Jennifer Kuhel Patricia Shlonsky modestly describes her life’s path as a series of events that have happened to her. “I sort of fall into things,” she says. Yet at her core, the partner-in-charge of the Cleveland office of Ulmer & Berne is anything but a passive bystander. Shlonsky,

If you haven’t set foot in the Middle School recently, there are a number of new initiatives you might not be aware of that are helping to build a strong culture of inclusiveness. Community Circles For about ten minutes of every school day, every student is engaged in this brief community-building exercise.

Now in his 19th year of teaching at Shaker Middle School, there’s not a lot that Mike Sears hasn’t seen or heard from middle schoolers.

“You can either complain about the world, you can try to change it. Teaching gave me that opportunity.”

“My kids tell me have I have ‘bars’ – whatever that means.”