Hon. John J. Russo
Chair, Board of Directors
August 2019 – Present
… is the immediate Past Administrative and Presiding Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Ohio in Cuyahoga County (Greater Cleveland). Unanimously elected by his colleagues to lead the Court from 2014-2019, he was responsible for coordinating the development of Court policies and overseeing the administration of the General Division, the highest-level trial court in the state.
Currently, Judge Russo manages his own criminal and civil dockets as a trial judge. He oversaw the Veteran Treatment Court/Specialty Docket from 2018-2022. In addition, he has chaired or participated in numerous justice system boards and committees since beginning his judicial career in 2005 on the Common Pleas Court. Some include: Chair-Elect and Co-Chair of the Court Administration Committee of the Ohio Judicial Conference; President of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association; Cleveland Marshall Law Alumni Association where in 2018 he was inducted into the CM/Law Hall of Fame and in 2019 was CMLAA Alumni of the year; Member of the Judiciary’s Public Health, Death Penalty and Bail / Bond Reform Task Forces (all appointed by the Ohio Chief Justice); Past President and Man of The Year recipient of the Legal Eagles St. Edward High School.
He served as president of the National Association for Presiding Judges and Court Executive Officers (NAPCO), a national organization of court chief judges and court executives, from 2015-2016. In 2019, he was elected to, and currently serves as, NAPCO’s Chair of the Board of Directors. In addition, he has taught at numerous court conclaves, judges’ conferences, community programs, and bar association CLE programs.
Judge Russo is a member of the Ohio State Bar Association, Cuyahoga Metropolitan Bar Association, Westshore Bar Association, and Cleveland Marshall Law Alumni Association. Prior to the bench, Judge Russo was a civil and criminal litigator in private practice. After earning a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, he received his Juris Doctor degree at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, where he currently serves as an Adjunct Professor.
Trial Judge, and Former Administrative / Presiding Judge
Court of Common Pleas of Ohio, Cuyahoga County
Cuyahoga County Courthouse, Courtroom 16D
1200 Ontario Street
Cleveland, OH 44113-1678
216-443-8676
Hon. Ketu Shah
President
2024 – 2025
… is currently the Chief Criminal Judge and Assistant Presiding Judge and former Chief Judge for the Maleng Regional Justice Center. Judge Shah also presided over the Regional Mental Health Court and the Regional Veterans Court for 3.5 years.
Judge Shah was appointed to the King County Superior Court in May 2019. Previously, he served on the King County District Court from 2013 to 2019. He has served as a faculty member for Washington State Judicial College since 2017 and a Dean of the Judicial College in 2019 & 2021. He is a member of the Minority and Justice Commission, and several King County Superior Court Committees, including executive, budget, and education committees. He is also co-chair of the Superior Court Judges’ Association Education Committee
Since 2017, he has been a board member of Washington Judges Foundation and is currently the Treasurer. Judge Shah also has been a member of King County’s Mental Illness & Drug Dependency (MIDD) Advisory Committee since 2016 and was co-chair from 2019 to 2022. He has presented at the WSBA Pro Tem training on ethics, virtual voir dire, and immigration and competency issues at judicial conferences. Judge Shah has been a panelist with the Washington Leadership Institute and Judicial Institute for Diversity. He has also volunteered as a judge for the University of Washington Law School Gates Scholarship, Seattle University Legal Clinic, ABAW Mock Trial, Renton High School, and Hazelwood Elementary School.
Judge Shah is a graduate of Whitman College and the University of Minnesota Law School where he was a Managing Editor for the Journal of Law and Inequality. Judge Shah clerked for Judge Carol Schapira of King County Superior Court and was a public defender intern. He also prosecuted domestic violence cases, helping implement a domestic violence court in the City of Vancouver and assisted in forming a domestic violence unit for the City of Bellevue. Judge Shah additionally had his own private practice focusing on immigration law, and as part of his work, volunteered extensively representing pro bono clients through API Chaya, REWA, Immigrant Family Advocacy Project, and Eastside Legal Assistance Program (ELAP). Judge Shah was on the board for several years with the South Asian Bar Association of Washington and served on the Judicial Evaluation Committee for the Asian Bar Association. He took on Chaya’s first pro bono case in 2001 and then later served as Board Chair for over 6 years. He was awarded the 2008 Community Service Award by the South Asian Bar Association and the 1998 Community Award by the City of Vancouver. He coached select soccer for over 15 years for girls and boys after playing soccer in college and is a former board member of his local youth soccer club.
Presiding Judge
Superior Court of Washington in King County
Department 50, Courtroom E-942
King County Courthouse, 516 Third Avenue
Seattle, WA 98104
206-477-1635
Linda K. Ridge
Vice President
2024 – 2025
… is the Chief Administrative Officer for King County Superior Court, appointed by the bench in July 2021. Previously she served 16 years as the court’s Deputy Chief Administrative Officer, overseeing daily operations of all administrative staff departments. Prior to her appointment to the Deputy CAO position in 2005, Ms. Ridge served in several different roles within the court, including Court Operations Manager, Court Operations Director, and Director of the Maleng Regional Justice Center. She served as part of the staff team to the multi-phased Unified Family Court Project in the 1990’s and has also been involved in several capital design and construction projects during her tenure with the court, including the Maleng Regional Justice Center, Civil Commitment (ITA) Court at Harborview, and the Patricia H. Clark Children and Family Justice Center. She joined the court in 1992.
From 1989-1992, Ms. Ridge held the position of Staff Associate with the Institute for Court Management of the National Center for State Courts, where she worked on several national projects including Managing Trials Effectively, State Legislative-Judicial Partnership, Tribal and State Court Relations, and Integration of Child and Family Cases. She also served as Managing Editor for the Justice System Journal.
Ms. Ridge holds a B.A. from Washington State University and received her M.A. from the University of Denver.
Chief Administrative Officer
Superior Court of Washington in King County
King County Courthouse, 516 Third Avenue
Seattle, WA 98104
206-477-1365
Hon. Joseph C. Welty
Immediate Past President
… is the Presiding Judge of the Arizona Judicial Branch in Maricopa County. He has supervisory authority over the Superior Court and Adult and Juvenile Probation Departments and oversite authority regarding all lower courts in the County, including both Justice (county) and Municipal Courts. Maricopa County is the fourth most populous county in the United States with an estimated population of 4.6 million people. Judge Welty was appointed to the bench in 2007 and has served in the civil, criminal, family, and juvenile departments of the Superior Court. He was appointed by the Supreme Court as Presiding Judge in 2019. There are 150 judicial officers and 3500 staff in the Superior Court, a general jurisdiction court. Twenty-six justices of the peace (county judges) and 24 chief municipal judges handle lower court functions in the County.
Prior to becoming a judge, he served for 16 years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney with the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona. In that capacity, he served as the Deputy Chief of the Criminal Section and the Chief of the National Security Section. Judge Welty has been an adjunct professor at ASU and has taught extensively on a broad range of topics for the U.S. Department of Justice and the State Bar of Arizona. And for several years, he co-chaired the New Judge Orientation Program for the Arizona Supreme Court. He has served on numerous Supreme Court Committees and chaired the Supreme Court’s Criminal Rules Task Force and the Task Force on Rule 32 of the Arizona Rules of Criminal Procedure.
Judge Welty was born and raised in Phoenix. He received his BA from Loyola Marymount University and his JD from the Georgetown University Law Center.
Presiding Judge
Arizona Judicial Branch in Maricopa County
Maricopa County Old Court House, Courtroom 309
125 West Washington
Phoenix, AZ 85003
602-372-2537
Raymond L. Billotte
Immediate Past Vice President | Chief Financial Officer
… is the Administrator for the Judicial Branch of Arizona in Maricopa County, serving as the senior executive officer for the nation’s fourth largest trial court. Previously, he served as the District Court Administrator in the 5th Judicial District of Pennsylvania (Greater Pittsburgh) from 1996-2012 and the 46th Judicial District of Pennsylvania (Clearfield) from 1985-1992.
Mr. Billotte holds a master’s degree of Public Management from Carnegie-Mellon University and is a 1991 Graduate Fellow of the Institute for Court Management’s (ICM) Court Executive Development Program. During his tenure with the courts, he has led numerous successful court improvement projects, including caseflow management revisions, jury reform, strategic planning, jail population reduction strategies, and the use of evidence-based practices in both pre-trial and post-adjudicative phases of the criminal justice system. Additionally, he has served as a consultant with USAID addressing criminal justice reforms in the Mexican states of Oaxaca and Chihuahua and has served on numerous state and national court management committees addressing the use of technology in the courts, preservation and transcription of court records, professional development of court managers, and juror diversity.
Mr. Billotte has served as Vice President of the National Association for Presiding Judges and Chief Executive Officers (NAPCO) twice, once in 2016 when the Annual Conference and Academy Day was held in Cleveland, Ohio, as well as the following year (2017) when the Arizona Judicial Branch in Maricopa hosted the conference in Scottsdale, Arizona. He also serves as NAPCO’s Chief Financial Officer.
Prior to his work with NAPCO, he was a Board Member of the National Conference of Metropolitan Courts (NCMC) and its Strategic Planning Committee which was instrumental in creating NAPCO. Additionally, he is on the Board of Directors of the Justice Management Institute (JMI), a justice system nonprofit consultancy headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. He also served on the Board of Directors for the National Association for Court Management (NACM) from 2010-2013. He continues to be active in numerous court management organizations including the Urban Court Managers Network and the Arizona Association of Superior Court Administrators. Mr. Billotte is certified as faculty for the ICM’s Leadership and Visioning & Strategic Planning courses.
Court Administrator
Arizona Judicial Branch in Maricopa County
Maricopa County Old Court House, Fifth Floor
125 West Washington
602-506-3190
John Bello
Executive Director | Corporate Secretary
2024 – Present
… is the Executive Director and Corporate Secretary for the National Association for Presiding Judges and Court Executive Officers (NAPCO). He also works as a Deputy Managing Director with the National Center for State Courts’ Consulting Services. His work is focused primarily in the following areas: leadership, governance, case flow, workload management, facilities and capital improvements planning, and performance improvement for trial courts.
Before joining the National Center, Mr. Bello served as Court Administrator of the Massachusetts Trial Court where he oversaw 6,500 court staff, 97 courthouses, and a $850 million budget for seven court departments and the Massachusetts Probation Service. As Court Administrator, he was responsible for the administrative functions that supported the Trial Court’s mission – Justice with Dignity and Speed. These included budget preparation and oversight, labor relations and human resources, information technology, facilities management, capital projects, and security. John also served as co-chair of the court’s Trauma Task Force.
In 2017, John was named Associate Court Administrator and guided the efforts of the department heads within the Office of Court Management and coordinated their support of the court departments. He also guided the development and implementation of the Trial Court’s Strategic Plan 3.0 and 4.0, introduced enterprise project management, and led major operational initiatives in collaboration with leaders across all court departments. Mr. Bello joined the Trial Court in 2013 as the Director of Facilities Management & Capital Planning overseeing maintenance and capital improvements for 60 state-owned facilities and working with county and private landlords to manage another 40 court buildings. He oversaw the development of a 20-year Court Master Capital Plan in concert with the state’s Division of Capital Asset Management & Maintenance.
National Association for Presiding Judges and Court Executive Officers
300 Newport Avenue
Williamsburg, VA 23185-4147
617-921-5011