Cheryl Hanna is a professor at Vermont Law School. She is an expert on constitutional law, the United States Supreme Court, and women and the law. Professor Hanna received her BA degree in sociology and anthropology, magna cum laude, from Kalamazoo College and her JD degree, cum laude, from Harvard University. Professor Hanna's scholarship focuses on the social status of women and girls in America. She is the co-author of Domestic Violence and the Law: Theory and Practice (Foundation Press), the leading casebook on violence against women. Her extensive scholarship has been published by the nation's leading law journals and her work has been cited by the United States Supreme Court, as well as by the national media. Professor Hanna is a frequent commentator for the media, including Vermont Public Radio and WCAX-TV 3 News. She is also active in legal practice as both a consultant on constitutional cases and in representing the interests of public interest organizations through the filing of amicus briefs in cases before state and federal courts. She is a member of the United States Supreme Court bar.

Professor Hanna received the Irving R. Kaufman Fellowship in 1993 for young lawyers who hold significant promise in public interest lawyering. In 1998, she received the Vermont Women in Higher Education's Margaret R. Williams Emerging Professional Award, and the Vermont Law School Student Bar Association Faculty Award the following year. She again received that award in 2006. In 2001-2002, she was a fellow at the Snelling Center for Government, Vermont Leadership Institute. In 2004, she received the first Phenomenal Woman Award given by the Vermont Women's Law Group, and again received that award in 2007, 2009 and 2010, and a lifetime achievement award in 2011. Vermont Women in Higher Education again honored her in 2010 with the Sister Elizabeth Candon Distinguished Service Award. She was also awarded an honorary Schweitzer Fellowship for work with the Schweitzer Fellowship Program. In recognition of her contributions to the state, Professor Hanna was chosen as an associate member of the Center for Research on Vermont at the University of Vermont.

Active in both the local and national organizations, Professor Hanna has served on the Council for the Future of Vermont and the Girl Scout Council of Vermont. She is currently the Chairperson of the Board for the Snelling Center for Government. She has chaired the Association of American Law Schools' Section of Law and the Social Sciences, served as an advisor to the Vermont Judicial College, and as a member of the Vermont Gender Bias Study Implementation Task Force. She frequently trains leaders in Vermont and elsewhere on ethical decision-making and is a trusted advisor to the Vermont State legislature. She lives in Burlington with her husband Paul and her two children.