Linda L. Chezem is a Professor in the School of Agriculture at Purdue University.  She also holds an adjunct appointment at the Indiana University School of Medicine and is an Affiliated Scholar at the Institute for Bioethics, Health Policy and Law.  Prior to joining Purdue University, Professor Chezem served as a full-time judge in Indiana for twenty-two years – first on the Lawrence County Court and, subsequently, on the Indiana Court of Appeals, where she authored more than one thousand opinions.  Throughout her judicial career, Professor Chezem focused on the improvement of adjudication through judicial education, serving on the Indiana Judicial Conference Education Committee, the American Bar Association’s Judicial Administration Division, and the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges.  During her appointment to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Judicial Fellowship, Professor Chezem wrote The Improvement of the Adjudication of Driving Under the Influence, a manual and workbook series used to train judges on the issues surrounding DUI cases.

Professor Chezem also has extensive experience working with federal and state government and law enforcement agencies in the area of substance abuse and mental illness.  She has served on various committees and councils for the Indiana Family and Social Service Administration, Division of Mental Health since 1978; developed and implemented the Lawrence County Court Alcohol and Drug Services Program, the first such program to be certified by the Indiana Division of Addiction Services; planned training programs to instruct law enforcement officers about the medical symptoms of intoxication, drug induced complications, or mental illness in detainees; and participated in the United States Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s Rural Domestic Violence and Child Victimization Review Panel (1998).  Professor Chezem currently receives funding from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Professor Chezem is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including the Mid-America Regional Public Health Leadership Institute Fellowship (2000-2001), a Joint Resolution of Recognition and Honor by the Indiana General Assembly (1998), and the Indiana State University Distinguished Alumni Award (2000).  Her most recent publications include Legal Issues in Lay Language (Purdue University 2003) and Impaired Driving on Trial (Indiana University 2004).  Professor Chezem received her B.S. from Indiana State University and her J.D. from the Indiana University School of Law.