LADIES' GALLERY

State Representative Dorothy Liggett Pelanda served her first term as a member of the Ohio House of Representatives after being appointed to serve during the 129th General Assembly. She represented the 83rd House District, which includes Union and Logan counties, as well as most of Marion County.

Having attended Marysville High School, Representative Pelanda went on to graduate from Miami University (Ohio) and the Akron University School of Law. Her law practice for the past thirty years has been focused primarily on domestic relations. Additionally, Representative Pelanda established the Criminal Indigents of Union County in 2005, before the Union County Criminal Defense Lawyers assumed the work of representing indigent persons charged with felonies.

Representative Pelanda's most recent service to the community has been serving on the board of trustees for the Union County Public Law Library since 2010, but she began her public service in 1988, when she was a member of the charter review committee for the city of Marysville. Since then, she has also been a two-term president of the Marysville Library Board and a two-term president of U-CO Industries, which serves disabled adults in Union County.

Staying active in the community, Pelanda continues to be a member of the Union County and Ohio bar associations, as well as the Union County Chamber of Commerce.

Dorothy Pelanda became the first female Director of the Ohio Department of Agriculture in 2019, after leaving the Ohio House of Representatives.

She is a lifelong resident of Marysville and has three children: Brian, Doug and Zoë.

Sources:  Biography courtesy of the Ohio House of Representatives

and Wikipedia.org