Cleveland Housing Court Administrator

Samantha Coleman serves as Court Administrator for Cleveland Housing Court. She is a former Ambulatory Operations Manager, most recently at the MetroHealth System in Cleveland. She has a nursing background and is a graduate of Mercer University, where she received a B.A.Sc. in Organizational Leadership. She earned her Executive Masters of Business Administration degree from Bowling Green State University. Coleman launched her career in nursing, working in the specialty areas of Labor & Delivery (Mt. Sinai Medical Center) and MICU/SICU (Huron Road Hospital) in the Greater Cleveland area. After relocating to Atlanta and graduating from Mercer, she transitioned into health care leadership. That eventually led to a 12-year career at the largest pediatric hospital in the southeast (Children's Healthcare of Atlanta). In this capacity, she championed change management, process improvement, operations, and nursing leadership. Subsequently, her expanding expertise in operations and process improvement allowed her to lead expansion of the first Telemedicine program at CHOA and the designation of the first FQHC-LAL at the MetroHealth System. Coleman returned to the Greater Cleveland area in late 2017. A Cleveland Heights High School graduate, she has two daughters and a dog, Bella. She enjoys traveling, biking and spending time with family and friends.

Chief Housing Court Specialist

Mary Barnwell serves as the Chief Housing Court Specialist for Cleveland Housing Court. In this position, she oversees the Housing Court Specialists Department. The Virginia native earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Health Science from Benedict College in Columbia, S.C. She also attended Youngstown State University. She was hired in 2018 as an Enforcement Specialist with the City of Cleveland’s Division of Air Quality. In 2020, she joined Cleveland Housing Court as the Housing Court Compliance Specialist. She worked to educate the staff and the community about the new Lead Safe Law and how Housing Court can assist in ensuring landlords know about the law and its requirements. She partnered with the Lead Safe Coalition, Environmental Health Watch and other organizations to prevent noncompliance, illegal dumping, and unhealthy and unsafe homes. 

Director of Communications

Chris Ball is the Director of Communications for Cleveland Housing Court. He worked as Managing Editor of FreshWater Cleveland in 2019 and 2020. Ball spent 20 years at The Plain Dealer as a Copy Editor and Writer. For 15 years, he also wrote a weekly DVD review column for the PD and Cleveland.com. Ball has written or edited for various publications and media companies, including Crain Communications, the Sun Press, Small Business News, the Cleveland Free Times, the Cleveland Edition, Corporate Cleveland Magazine, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Northern Ohio Live, the Lorain Morning Journal, and the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram. A resident and native of Cleveland Heights, Ball graduated from Hawken School and Oberlin College.

Anthony Crespo is the Chief of Information Technology for Cleveland Housing Court. Anthony has served the city of Cleveland with the courts for six years before accepting this role. First he was a Records Manager for the Criminal Division, before joining Housing Court as a Deputy Bailiff. He was born and raised in Garfield Heights, attended Ohio State University, and has his two-year Associates Degree from Cuyahoga Community College. He has worked on the implementation of the Odyssey Case Management System since the project's inception, serving as a lead documenter and Subject Matter Expert for both Housing Court and the Criminal Division. He enjoys running, making people happy, telling stories, traveling, the Cleveland Browns, and 360° windmill dunking on a 10-foot-high hoop.