YES YOUR HONOR –
May 5, 2025 – Lisa Mertz began using alcohol and marijuana in the eighth grade. By the time the suburban Cincinnati woman started the journey to sobriety in 2015, she’d progressed to painkillers and heroin. Along the way, she lost her job, her home and her kids. Near the end, “I spent every waking moment injecting heroin,” she said.
On May 9, Mertz, now 42 and president and CEO of Cincinnati’s Addiction Services Council, will graduate at the top of her Northern Kentucky University law school class.
Key mentors helped her believe she could build a life after addiction. She wants other people battling drug and alcohol use disorders to know they can do the same.
She also wants law school classmates to consider her path as they navigate the intersection of law and treatment in the years ahead.
“These are going to be the people who can change things,” said Mertz, of Pierce Township. “I’ve got to tell them.”
