Kelly R. Johnson - Health Law Fellow, Center for Health Law & Policy

For Kelly Johnson, healthcare has always been a part of life. Growing up surrounded by nurses and medical professionals, she spent her formative years around hospitals, caregivers, and the realities of patient care. That lifelong exposure—combined with more than two decades working in operating rooms—made the move to law school feel less like a career change and more like a natural next step.

This May, Kelly will be the first Health Law Fellow with the Center for Health Law & Policy to graduate from the Cleveland State University College of Law. Before entering law school, she spent twenty years working as a Certified Surgical Technologist, primarily in Level I trauma centers, assisting in complex surgical procedures and collaborating closely with multidisciplinary clinical teams.

“Working in healthcare, you see so much that works—and so much that could work better,” Kelly said. “At some point, I realized that law was a way to take those experiences and help improve the system.”

Throughout law school, Kelly continued working in the operating room, bringing a frontline perspective to her legal studies. CSU Law’s part‑time evening program and collaborative culture was appealing to Kelly, as they mirrored the teamwork she experienced in the operating room. She became deeply involved in the law school’s health law community, serving as the President of the Health Law Society and President of If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice. 

During the summer of 2025, Kelly completed a legal externship at The MetroHealth System, where she worked with in‑house counsel on hospital regulatory issues, policy development, contract review, and patient consent compliance—an experience that allowed her to contribute her legal knowledge and skills to the healthcare system where she has worked as a certified surgical technologist for the last fifteen years.

After graduation, Kelly plans to spend time with family before sitting for the bar exam. Professionally, she is interested in medical malpractice defense and hopes to work in‑house at a mission‑driven healthcare system or nonprofit organization, continuing her long‑standing commitment to improving healthcare outcomes from inside the system she knows so well.