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Zina Pickens Cruse is a 20th Judicial Circuit judge in St. Clair County. She was born May second of 1963.

Education and Career
Cruse graduated from Northeast Missouri State in 1985 with her Bachelors of Science in Business Administration. She then went on to attend law school at Florida State University College of Law and graduated with her Juris Doctorate in 1993. Judge Cruse owned a law firm and her practice focused on: Family/ Domestic, Criminal, Real Estate, Not-for-Profit organizations and Bankruptcy. Cruse was appointed as an Associate Judge to the 20th Judicial Circuit in St. Clair County, Illinois in 2009 and was elected as a Circuit Judge in 2012. Judge Cruse is the first African American woman to be elected to the 20th Judicial Circuit, in the state of Illinois.

January 31st, 1998 in Edwardsville, Illinois, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Upsilon Phi Omega chapter was chartered and Cruse was a chartering general member. The members then and now focus their attention on positively impacting the lives of families and communities in which they reside.

Family
Judge Zina Pickens Cruse married Mark Cruse and has they have a daughter, Marissa Cruse. The family resides in Belleville, Illinois.