An Officer and A Gentleman Chief Judge of U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals Is CLEO Alum

Alexandria, VA —October 25, 2022— Twenty-six years ago, Brigadier General Ronald D. Sullivan began his impressive career after he earned his Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Howard University and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army in 1993. Additionally in the summer of 1993, he matriculated at the Council on Legal Education Opportunity’s (CLEO) Six-Week Summer Institute (now the CLEO Pre-Law Summer Institute) at the University of Richmond School of Law. Like so many others before him, Sullivan learned about Legal Research and Writing, Contracts, Torts, and more. Then, in 1994, he returned to CLEO to function as a Teaching Assistant, where he met his future spouse. So, CLEO not only served to acquaint him with the law, but it also helped him to find his lifelong love interest. In 1996, he earned his Juris Doctor degree from The University of Kansas School of Law.

Brigadier General Sullivan, Chief Judge of the U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals, is the subject of the third CLEO EDGE podcast hosted by J.C. Polanco, Esq., MBA, CLEO’s Chief Executive Officer. “He is an American hero, an incredibly highly-decorated Army JAG officer who has reached the apogee of his career at the JAG Corps,” declared Polanco. Recently, he and the General met at the Hispanic National Bar Association Annual Convention where Brigadier General Sullivan and his team were acquainting Latinx students with the JAG Corps. The U.S. military, like the rest of the legal community needs more diversity. Concerned with the lack of ethnically-diverse representation in top JAG positions, Brigadier General Sullivan’s superior gave him a mandate from the top echelons of the military to diversify the U.S. Judge Advocate General Corps.

Reared in San Antonio, Texas, Brigadier General Sullivan served on Active Duty from 1996 to 2005. The military leader serves as the Chief Judge for U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals (Individual Mobilization Augmentee). In his civilian capacity, he is the Chief of Acquisition, Personnel and Ethics Law for the U.S. Army Futures Command, Office of the Staff Judge Advocate in Austin, Texas.

To learn more about this trailblazer’s upwardly mobile trajectory listen to our new CLEO EDGE podcast.  The video podcast link on YouTube is https://youtu.be/TyZsMOgHLxI. The Audio version is on Spotify (remember to subscribe!) here: https://tinyurl.com/cleo-spotify-ep3.

About the Council on Legal Education Opportunity, Inc.

CLEO, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization committed to diversifying the legal profession by expanding legal education opportunities for persons from traditionally under-represented racial and ethnic groups, low-income, and disadvantaged communities. Founded in 1968, when the number of lawyers of color was less than one percent, CLEO has since had more than 28,000 high school, college, prelaw, and law students participate in its programs. CLEO alumni have excelled in every area of the legal profession to include judges, corporate attorneys, law school deans and professors, practitioners, and politicians. More information about CLEO, its 50+ year history, and its programs can be found at https://cleoinc.org/ and https://cleoconnection.com.

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