Carla Loon Leader, a Cincinnati native, received her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and Women’s Studies from Washington University in St. Louis in 1996. After working for a year in the university’s student affairs division, Carla moved to the District of Columbia to attend American University’s Washington College of Law. She graduated from law school cum laude in 2000. After a one year clerkship with the Honorable Ronna Lee Beck at the District of Columbia Superior Court, she began her career as a civil prosecutor of Child Abuse and Neglect cases for the D.C. Office of the Attorney General. Finally, after more than a decade in DC, she and her husband returned to Cincinnati in 2007 to raise their family, which now includes 12 year old Matthew and 8 year old Evan.
Carla spent over 5 years working as an attorney for the Legal Aid Society in Cincinnati. During her Legal Aid tenure, Carla practiced consumer law and education law and advocacy, and gave many informative trainings on education law, particularly pertaining to children in foster care.
Carla has been practicing education law privately since 2012. Carla’s extensive knowledge and experience in education law makes her the perfect choice to guide you through the education system, ensuring that your child receives appropriate services from the school system, and that you and your children are fully informed of your rights and entitlements within the public and private school systems.
Marcelina (“Celina”) Woods received her BA in political science and history from Western Carolina University in 1985. After working for several years as a paralegal, Celina attended Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law at Campbell University in Buies Creek, N.C where she received her J.D. in 1992.
Celina currently lives in West Chester, Ohio with her husband, Scott and her daughters, Kasi, age 18 and Amy, age 15.
Celina has been practicing law for over 23 years, with a large focus on representing the best interest of children in settlements, custody disputes and abuse and neglect matters.
In addition to being a Court Appointed Special Advocate, she has been a Guardian ad Litem, represented children in delinquency and dependency matters and is a certified mediator.
In her role as a Guardian ad litem and Court Appointed Special Advocate, she often ran into issues with educational issues. She was often called into IEP meetings, ETR meetings and other school related hearings. Therefore, to navigate this complicated landscape, she sought training as a “parent surrogate” to be able to better advocate for those children in foster care. She also sought assistance from The Law Office of Carla Loon Leader, where she was able to gain more knowledge and information on school-related legal issues. Celina’s law practice has always focused on the well-being of children and is a tremendous addition to the Law Office of Carla Loon Leader.
