With over 35 years of experience as an educator, attorney, mediator, community leader and mother, Martha has both the legal skills and life experience necessary to ensure firm but fair and equal justice for all as a Municipal Court judge.

In the 25 years since Martha graduated first in her class from University of Cincinnati College of Law, she has clerked for a federal judge, served as a Circuit Mediator, and represented hundreds of clients in state courts. Currently Assistant Professor of Political Science at Miami University, Martha teaches Constitutional Law, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, Women and the Law and American Government. Previously she was a professor at Dayton School of Law where she was named Professor of the Year by her first year Property students. Martha has also taught at St. Xavier High School, Cincinnati Public Schools, and University of New Mexico.

A descendant of Jakob Gut, a baker who emigrated from Austria to Cincinnati in 1869,
Martha has deep roots in Ohio. Her maternal grandparents were born in Belmont County; her grandfather, Charlie Hoover graduated from Marietta College and worked at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company in Akron for 40 years.  Her paternal grandfather Fred Good started a plumbing and heating supply business in Akron, Good Supply & Equipment Company.

A 1967 graduate of Akron's Firestone High School, Martha served as student council vice-president and was an editor of the school newspaper and yearbook. After graduating from Skidmore College with Honors in Government, Martha earned a Ph.D. from Brown University specializing in Comparative, European and American politics. Ten years later, she graduated #1 in her class from University of Cincinnati College of Law where she won prizes for earning the highest grades in Contracts, Federal Income Tax, Evidence, Appellate Advocacy and Comparative Law. Martha was one of the first Arthur Russell Morgan Fellows of the Urban Morgan Institute of Human Rights at University of Cincinnati College of Law. While in law school Martha was an editor of both University of Cincinnati Law Review and Human Rights Quarterly in which 4 of her articles were published. She also gave birth to her two sons while in law school.

Following law school, Martha was law clerk for U.S. District Judge David Porter. She also was associated with one of Cincinnati's premier law firms, Frost & Jacobs. During six years as Circuit Mediator for the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, Martha held settlement conferences in over 1200 cases, resolving hundreds of them. Martha continues to sit occasionally as an Arbitrator for the Hamilton County Common Pleas Court. In private practice as a contract public defender and now as a Volunteer Lawyer for the Poor, Martha has  represented many people in Common Pleas, Municipal, Domestic Relations and Juvenile Courts.

An active community leader, Martha has worked or volunteered for Friends of the Harriet Beecher Stowe House, Volunteer Lawyers for the Poor, Pro-Kids, Dress for Success Cincinnati, Women Helping Women, National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra, and Cincinnati Museum of History. She is a long-time member of Knox Presbyterian Church.
In addition, while raising three children, Martha was a soccer coach, science fair judge, room mother, tutor and PTA President.
Martha's children attended Kilgour Elementary and Walnut Hills High School and have earned degrees from Oberlin, Yale, and Harvard.

After living in Mt. Lookout for more than 25 years, Martha now resides in downtown Cincinnati on the Ohio River.