Melissa A. Knopp, Esq., CCM, CCE

Melissa is admitted to the bars of Ohio and the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. She is a Certified Court Manager and a Certified Court Executive by the Institute for Court Management of the National Center for State Courts. 

She served as a magistrate for the Butler County Probate Court and was the first coordinator for the county’s drug court. She joined the Supreme Court of Ohio in 1998 as staff counsel to the director of Legal and Legislative Services. In 2001 Melissa was named manager of the Ohio Supreme Court Specialized Dockets Section where she supervised the section's activities and provided technical assistance to adult offender programs. During her tenure, Melissa oversaw the growth of specialized dockets from seven drug courts to 155 programs encompassing drug, family dependency, DUI, mental health, SAMI, domestic violence, reentry, child support enforcement, sex offender, and Veterans courts. She served as staff to the Supreme Court’s Commission on Specialized Dockets and was instrumental in developing and implementing its certification process. She provided consulting services for the Council of State Governments Justice Center in several states and was featured in their Mental Health Court Curriculum. 

Currently Melissa serves as the Stepping Up Ohio Project Manager for Peg’s Foundation, a private, philanthropic organization committed to creating opportunities for sharing knowledge, promoting partnerships, and inspiring improvements in the behavioral health system. In this role she manages the state-wide Stepping Up Ohio initiative and provides technical assistance focused on justice system related projects to appropriately respond to parties with mental health issues. Melissa was appointed in 2020 by the County Commissioners to the newly created Delaware County Public Defender Commission where she serves as Vice Chair. She also is a certified trainer on Effective Practices in Community Supervision (EPICS) for the University of Cincinnati Corrections Institute.