ENDORSEMENTS
- North Carolina Association of Women Attorneys (2020)
- Equality NC (2020)
- Replacements Ltd. PAC (2020)
- Young Democrats of Forsyth County (2020)
WHY I'M RUNNING FOR RE-ELECTION
I am running for another four-year term as one of your Forsyth County District Court judges because I want to continue to ensure that people with matters in District Court receive a fair hearing and a full opportunity to be heard, regardless of which side of the "vs." they are on or what type of case it is. My goal since day one on the bench has been to treat everyone who appears before me equally, fairly, and impartially. I practice my judicial philosophy every day, which is to apply the law without fear or favor as the General Assembly has written it and how our appellate courts have interpreted it. Serving as a judge for the last three years has been an opportunity and honor of a lifetime, particularly my time spent presiding in Juvenile Court. I would be honored to continue serving you as one of your District Court judges for another four years.
I grew up in Winston-Salem, attended Summit School, and ultimately graduated from R. J. Reynolds High School. After graduating from Duke University and Tulane University Law School, I chose to return home to be closer to my family and to establish myself in the local legal community. Before becoming a judge, I practiced law in Winston-Salem for nine years. For seven of those years I served the people as an assistant public defender.
Through my work as an assistant public defender representing indigent clients, I faced the problems affecting the most vulnerable members of our community, including drug and alcohol addiction, mental health issues that often go untreated or undertreated, and the seemingly never-ending cycle of the collateral consequences of poverty. It was often not enough to solely “practice law.” Because of every client's unique needs, coming up with a plan to help each client individually often required thinking of creative alternatives with the end-goal of setting up each person for success. It was incredibly rewarding to work closely with each of my clients, not only to guide them through the very complicated criminal justice system, but also to ensure that their rights were protected at every step of the process.
As a District Court Judge for the last three years, I have presided over a variety of proceedings involving divorce, child custody and support, misdemeanor, traffic, and low-level felony criminal cases, and juvenile delinquency and DSS civil cases. The most rewarding work for me personally has been presiding in Juvenile Court where I must balance public safety with the rights and rehabilitation of juvenile offenders, and where I must ensure that children are protected from abuse and neglect while respecting parents' constitutional rights to raise their own children.
Serving as a trial court judge is demanding, exhausting, oftentimes frustrating, but ultimately so rewarding. Every day I keep in mind the faith and trust that Forsyth County voters have placed in me to hear and decide some of the most sensitive and stressful issues that they will deal with in their lifetimes. I hope I can count on your support to continue serving as a Forsyth County District Court judge for another term.
I grew up in Winston-Salem, attended Summit School, and ultimately graduated from R. J. Reynolds High School. After graduating from Duke University and Tulane University Law School, I chose to return home to be closer to my family and to establish myself in the local legal community. Before becoming a judge, I practiced law in Winston-Salem for nine years. For seven of those years I served the people as an assistant public defender.
Through my work as an assistant public defender representing indigent clients, I faced the problems affecting the most vulnerable members of our community, including drug and alcohol addiction, mental health issues that often go untreated or undertreated, and the seemingly never-ending cycle of the collateral consequences of poverty. It was often not enough to solely “practice law.” Because of every client's unique needs, coming up with a plan to help each client individually often required thinking of creative alternatives with the end-goal of setting up each person for success. It was incredibly rewarding to work closely with each of my clients, not only to guide them through the very complicated criminal justice system, but also to ensure that their rights were protected at every step of the process.
As a District Court Judge for the last three years, I have presided over a variety of proceedings involving divorce, child custody and support, misdemeanor, traffic, and low-level felony criminal cases, and juvenile delinquency and DSS civil cases. The most rewarding work for me personally has been presiding in Juvenile Court where I must balance public safety with the rights and rehabilitation of juvenile offenders, and where I must ensure that children are protected from abuse and neglect while respecting parents' constitutional rights to raise their own children.
Serving as a trial court judge is demanding, exhausting, oftentimes frustrating, but ultimately so rewarding. Every day I keep in mind the faith and trust that Forsyth County voters have placed in me to hear and decide some of the most sensitive and stressful issues that they will deal with in their lifetimes. I hope I can count on your support to continue serving as a Forsyth County District Court judge for another term.
WHO I AM
Born in Winston-Salem, I grew up in the Moravian Church, as did my father and grandfather. My mother worked as a K-5 art teacher at various Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools for 25 years before retiring. My father worked as a child clinical psychologist, focusing his practice primarily on testing children with possible learning disabilities and behavioral disorders.
I graduated from R. J. Reynolds High School in 2002 and moved to Durham, North Carolina to attend Duke University. After graduating with a degree in environmental science and policy in 2006, I moved to Massachusetts and worked for two years as an environmental scientist. I then moved to New Orleans in 2008 where I attended law school at Tulane University.
My first experience in New Orleans, and what drew me back to that community for law school, was in the spring of 2006. Hurricane Katrina had ravaged southeastern Louisiana during the 2005 hurricane season. During my senior year at Duke, I had the opportunity to travel to New Orleans with Campus Crusade for Christ during spring break. We were able to help residents in the lower Ninth Ward demolish parts of their home infested with black mold. The families we helped couldn’t afford contractors to perform this work and were relying on volunteers to help. It was exhausting work, both physically and emotionally, but to this day it remains one of the most rewarding and memorable experiences I have ever had.
As a student-attorney at Tulane University Law School, I represented several neighborhood groups and environmental organizations that were aligned in fighting the Industrial Canal Lock Replacement Project, which my clients alleged was an unnecessary, costly, and environmentally irresponsible project being pushed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. By discovering and highlighting the legal problems involved with the project, our legal team comprised of myself, another student-attorney, and our supervising attorney, were able to get an injunction in federal court that halted the project until it complied with the law. It was this work helping people with legitimate legal concerns, but who could not afford to pay for legal counsel, that would later encourage me to become an assistant public defender when I returned to Forsyth Count to practice law.
After returning to Winston-Salem upon my graduation from law school, I worked as an intern with the Children’s Law Center before opening up my own solo practice. I ran my own practice for a year and a half, handling criminal and civil matters for both private and court-appointed clients. A job became available at the Forsyth County Public Defender’s Office and I took it, excited to help indigent clients once again.
I have served on a number of non-profit boards of directors primarily geared toward protecting children and helping families find needed resources. I currently serve on the board of Dress for Success Winston-Salem, which aims to empower women to achieve economic success.
Another cause that is important to me is blood donation. We all contain a miracle in our bodies in the form of our blood. We can literally save peoples' lives, at no cost to our own, by taking a few minutes or a few hours to donate blood. I donate whole blood and platelets through the American Red Cross in Winston-Salem. Platelets help the blood clot, and are a crucial blood product used in the treatment of cancer and in emergency medicine. I am also on the national bone marrow and stem cell registry through Be the Match, where doctors treating blood cancer patients can search for close genetic matches to donate life-saving blood products to their patients.
I graduated from R. J. Reynolds High School in 2002 and moved to Durham, North Carolina to attend Duke University. After graduating with a degree in environmental science and policy in 2006, I moved to Massachusetts and worked for two years as an environmental scientist. I then moved to New Orleans in 2008 where I attended law school at Tulane University.
My first experience in New Orleans, and what drew me back to that community for law school, was in the spring of 2006. Hurricane Katrina had ravaged southeastern Louisiana during the 2005 hurricane season. During my senior year at Duke, I had the opportunity to travel to New Orleans with Campus Crusade for Christ during spring break. We were able to help residents in the lower Ninth Ward demolish parts of their home infested with black mold. The families we helped couldn’t afford contractors to perform this work and were relying on volunteers to help. It was exhausting work, both physically and emotionally, but to this day it remains one of the most rewarding and memorable experiences I have ever had.
As a student-attorney at Tulane University Law School, I represented several neighborhood groups and environmental organizations that were aligned in fighting the Industrial Canal Lock Replacement Project, which my clients alleged was an unnecessary, costly, and environmentally irresponsible project being pushed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. By discovering and highlighting the legal problems involved with the project, our legal team comprised of myself, another student-attorney, and our supervising attorney, were able to get an injunction in federal court that halted the project until it complied with the law. It was this work helping people with legitimate legal concerns, but who could not afford to pay for legal counsel, that would later encourage me to become an assistant public defender when I returned to Forsyth Count to practice law.
After returning to Winston-Salem upon my graduation from law school, I worked as an intern with the Children’s Law Center before opening up my own solo practice. I ran my own practice for a year and a half, handling criminal and civil matters for both private and court-appointed clients. A job became available at the Forsyth County Public Defender’s Office and I took it, excited to help indigent clients once again.
I have served on a number of non-profit boards of directors primarily geared toward protecting children and helping families find needed resources. I currently serve on the board of Dress for Success Winston-Salem, which aims to empower women to achieve economic success.
Another cause that is important to me is blood donation. We all contain a miracle in our bodies in the form of our blood. We can literally save peoples' lives, at no cost to our own, by taking a few minutes or a few hours to donate blood. I donate whole blood and platelets through the American Red Cross in Winston-Salem. Platelets help the blood clot, and are a crucial blood product used in the treatment of cancer and in emergency medicine. I am also on the national bone marrow and stem cell registry through Be the Match, where doctors treating blood cancer patients can search for close genetic matches to donate life-saving blood products to their patients.
