OFFICE ADDRESS
Potter Stewart U.S. Courthouse, Room 810
100 East Fifth Street
Cincinnati, OH 45202
Phone: (513) 564-7610

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
The Honorable Sandra S. Beckwith was appointed by President George H.W. Bush to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio on February 21, 1992. On September 1, 2004, Judge Beckwith became the first woman Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. She also serves on the Defender Services Committee of the United States Judicial Conference.

Judge Beckwith is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati McMicken College of Arts and Sciences in 1965 and the University of Cincinnati William Howard Taft College of Law in 1968 with honors.

Judge Beckwith's career started in a private law practice in Harrison, Ohio. In 1977, she was appointed and then elected as the first woman to the Hamilton County Municipal Court.

In 1982 she was re-elected to the Hamilton County Municipal Court. In 1987 she was the first woman elected to the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas, Division of Domestic Relations. In 1989 she was the first woman appointed to be a Member of the Board of County Commissioners of Hamilton County, Ohio, by Governor James A. Rhodes. She was elected in 1990 as the first woman Member of the Board of County Commissioners of Hamilton County, Ohio. She was elected President of the Board of County Commissioners in 1990 by her fellow Commissioners, the first woman to hold the office. While serving as County Commissioner, she also practiced law with the firm of Graydon, Head & Ritchey from 1989 to 1992.

Judge Beckwith has served on numerous boards including United Way of Cincinnati, Great Rivers Girl Scout Council, National Association of Women Judges, U.C. College of Law Alumni, U.C. Friends of Women's Studies, U.C. College of Law Board of Visitors, and the Greater Cincinnati Chapter of the Red Cross.

She has been a member of numerous legal organizations and remains a member of the Federal Judges Association, and currently serves locally as the Chair of the Federal Bar Association Executive Committee.