BIO

Charles Reynard is a retired Illinois Circuit Court Judge who headed the Family Division of the court for the last five of his 13 years on the bench. As such, he often handled emotionally-charged cases involving divorces, child custody disputes, adoptions, child abuse and juvenile crime. Prior to being elected judge, he served as State's Attorney of McLean County, Illinois, where he instituted many reforms involving the care and well-being of children. Charles is a published poet whose collection "The Utility of Heartbreak" chronicles his career serving in many rural courtrooms in Illinois. He founded and continues to lead the first-ever creative writing workshop for Illinois judges and other law practitioners. Charles was born in Indianapolis, attended St. Joseph College in Indiana and earned his jurisprudence degree from the Loyola University Law School in Chicago. He has helped train judges in Egypt and Nigeria and has co-led numerous spiritual retreats on the theme of "Touching the Sacred Through Poetry" with his wife, Judith Valente. He and Judith co-edited "Twenty Poems to Nourish Your Soul," an award-winning anthology of poems and reflections on finding the sacred in the ordinary, published by Loyola Press.