The Honorable Immigration Judge Sharon M. Schnelle was appointed as an immigration judge to begin hearing cases in July 2026. Judge Schnelle earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1992 from California State University at Fullerton, a Master of Science in 1997 from East Tennessee State University, and a Juris Doctor in 2015 from Capital University Law School. Since 2025, she served as an assistant chief counsel at the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Department of Homeland Security, in Nashville, Tennessee. Most recently, she served as a special assistant U.S. attorney for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District Tennessee in Nashville, Tennessee. From 2022 to 2025, she served as staff attorney III at the Department of Public Advocacy, Commonwealth of Kentucky, Somerset Trial Office. From 2016 to 2022, she was a sole practitioner at the Law Office of Sharon M. Schnelle LLC in Cincinnati. Judge Schnelle is a member of the Kentucky Bar Association and the Ohio Bar Association.