Super Survivors Advisory Team

Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney was born in Cincinnati and is a proud graduate of Cincinnati Public Schools: Rockdale Elementary School and Walnut Hills High School. She graduated cum laude from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, and did an exchange program at Talladega College, an HBCU. She earned a master’s degree in psychology from Harvard University and a law degree from Harvard Law School, where she was elected first class marshal of her law school class and gave the commencement speech at graduation.

She owns a multi-media publishing company, Sesh Communications, that includes ownership of the award-winning The Cincinnati Herald newspaper.

She was appointed to Cincinnati City Council in 2020, and then elected in the 2021 election. Mayor Aftab Pureval appointed Jan-Michele Vice Mayor, chair of the Healthy Neighborhoods Committee, and vice chair of Public Safety and Governance. She is an active volunteer in many organizations including Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., The Cincinnati Chapter of The Links, Incorporated, NAACP, YWCA, the Cincinnati Zoo Board, and Via Character.

She is married to former Ohio State Senator and Minority Leader Eric H. Kearney. They are blessed with two children, Celeste and Asher.

Raised in Chicago, Elizabeth graduated in Biology-Honors at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She completed medical school at the University of Illinois at Chicago, remaining for general surgery residency at the University of Illinois (Cook County, U of I, Michael Reese Hospitals and West Side VAMC) plus a PhD in Cell Biology. Following fellowship in surgical oncology at the City of Hope, she became a professor of surgery at the University of Cincinnati, breast surgical director and interim co-director of the Comprehensive Breast Cancer Program at the Barrett Cancer Center. Her research includes benign breast disease and environmental factors relative to breast cancer risk done collaboratively. Elizabeth belongs to and participate in the Association of Women Surgeons (immediate past president), Society of Surgical Oncology and the American Society of Breast Surgeons activities. She lives in Cincinnati with her architect husband.

Dr. Shaughnessy’s CV