At the annual conference in August, NASJE’s newest Board members will be sworn into office. Candidates are recommended by the membership to NASJE’s Nominating Committee, chaired by Past President Caroline Kirkpatrick. Other committee members (representatives from each region) include Crystal Banks (DC), Ben Barham (AK), Tony Simones (MO), and Kelly Tait (NV). Three members of the committee also serve on the Diversity, Fairness and Access Committee, and all committee members are tasked with promoting diversity of the slate of candidates.
Within the next few weeks, Caroline will be sending an email to the membership requesting recommendations for individuals who might serve in NASJE leadership positions. The Nominating Committee assesses members’ interest in serving and assures those nominated or voicing interest are qualified to serve. The Vice President position is always on the ballot, but this year, terms also expire for the Secretariat and the Southeast Regional Director. The Midwest Regional Director position will also be open.
Do you know a member who would serve the organization well? Are you interested in serving? Your input, in one way or another, is important. Keep in mind that you may nominate yourself, and please consider reaching out to the Nominating Committee.
Appendix B, NASJE Board Resolution 1, in NASJE’s Constitution and Bylaws, provides the guidelines for nominations. Details related to the duties and responsibilities of each position are found in the Policies and Procedures. After reviewing that information, if you have questions about serving, please contact Caroline: ckirkpatrick@vacourts.gov.
James Barnhardt, husband of Lee Ann Barnhardt, takes advantage of a photo-op with Andre Agassi.
When I heard that former world No. 1 tennis player Andre Agassi was going to be the closing speaker at the Conference of Chief Justices mid-year meeting in January, I honestly geeked out just a little. I am a big fan and was looking forward to meeting him. My second thought was what could the chiefs possibly learn from a tennis star who was a 9th grade dropout? Surprisingly, I learned quite a few things from his fireside chat.
Love what you do. Agassi reached the world No. 1 ranking for the first time in 1995, but said he found no joy in the game and actually hated playing. He felt obligated to play the game that was thrust on him at a young age by his father, an Iranian immigrant. His attitude toward the game led to personal issues, including drug use, and he sank to world No. 141 in 1997, prompting many to believe that his career was over. After coming to terms with the game and learning to play for himself, Agassi returned to world No. 1 in 1999 and enjoyed the most successful run of his career over the next four years.
Have a passion. Agassi’s passion post-tennis is education. Andre created the Andre Agassi Foundation For Education in 1994 and has been hands-on every step of the way – from envisioning and creating Agassi Preparatory Academy in Las Vegas and continuing to engage with its students, to raising funds to support public charter schools and advocating for changes in public education. He said that making a difference in children’s lives is his life’s work. Agassi sacrificed his own education for success on the court, but saw education as the key to opportunity because giving kids education gives them options.
Andre Agassi spoke to the Conference of Chief Justices at their mid-year meeting in Nevada. The session was facilitated by Chief Justice of Nevada Michael L. Douglas.
Know your strengths. After successfully graduating 9 senior classes, Agassi Prep made the decision to turn over operations to a high achieving charter management organization. Agassi said he made this decision because he realized that he was not an educator and was not a school administrator. As much as he wanted to be part of the daily operations, he knew it was not a sustainable model. He said he had to figure out what he was good at, besides playing tennis, and use that strength to accomplish his goals. Agassi told the chiefs that his gift was being a facilitator, connecting people with needs with people with assets.
Leverage your resources. Since the inception of the Andre Agassi Foundation more than $180 million dollars has been raised to benefit the mission of the foundation. In 2007, along with several other athletes, Agassi founded the charity Athletes for Hope, which helps professional athletes get involved in charitable causes and aims to inspire all people to volunteer and support their communities. He most recently created the Turner-Agassi Charter School Facilities Fund. The Fund is an investment initiative for social change, focusing on the “nationwide effort to move charter schools from stopgap buildings into permanent campuses.” The Turner-Agassi Charter School Facilities Fund meets the facilities challenge by acting as a “bridge developer” for charter schools. Turner-Agassi serves school operators by taking the lead on site selection, acquisition, design and construction and providing 100 percent of development costs. School facilities developed by Turner-Agassi are then leased to school operators, who can then purchase the sites once they reach full occupancy. It has funded 79 campuses for high-performing charter schools. Agassi said the investors have recouped their initial funds and are now recycling that money to assist an estimated 85 more campuses.
While I will always think of Agassi as the brash young tennis player with the long hair and the rock-star attitude, I will not forget the lessons I learned from the man with a passion who is willing to use his celebrity for the greater good.
The National Judicial Opioid Task Force has expanded its reach with the addition of 20 new members including judges, probation officers, attorneys, and representatives from children and family services. They join the task force’s eight-member executive committee, formed in September 2017, and made up of four members each from the
Conference of Chief Justices and the Conference of State Court Administrators.
Patty McCord created the famed “Culture Doc” that became Netflix’s foundation. Here, she talks about how to make honesty everyone’s default.
As judicial educators, we recognize that humans hate being spun, yet our job sometimes requires us to be the “spinner.” We know in order to build trust, respect, and confidence we must be honest and give difficult feedback.
Please join us to discuss the theory and practice of radical honesty.
2018 NACM MIDYEAR Conference is Live Streaming from Orange County, CA
February 11-13, 2018
Select education sessions from the 2018 NACM Midyear Conference will be live streamed and can be accessed through NACM’s conference website. You can view the full Midyear Agenda on the NACM conference app. While we’re sorry you can’t join us in person, we hope that you take in some of the rich educational programming back at home. The content is so good, we hope you won’t keep it to yourself! Share the details with a friend or colleague.
NACM will live stream its plenary sessions, several workshops each day, and some other conference proceedings on Monday and Tuesday. View the live streaming schedule on the next page, and mark your calendar today so that you don’t miss this educational opportunity from NACM. We will even take questions from our streaming audience during the keynotes, so if you have questions for our keynote presenters, send them during the live presentation to #NACMMY2018.
If you are unable to view the sessions being live streamed, you can view those same sessions within a couple of weeks after the conference on the NACM website.
Live streaming is made possible through a grant from the State Justice Institute.
The Membership and Mentor Committee is looking for new members, and would love to have you!
This committee supports and enhances both continuing membership in NASJE and recruits new members. by ensuring that each member is aware of the resources available to them through their NASJE membership and has access to those resources and services.
NACM is revising their Strategic Planning Curriculum and has invited NASJE members to take part in the process.
To see the current materials, visit the NACM Core website, and contact Kathy Griffin at kathy@nacmnet.org to get more information about serving on this committee.
As judicial educators, we recognize trials are not as exciting as they appear in the media, but that doesn’t mean our courts should accept jurors sleeping through critical testimony and evidence. Join us to discuss how our courts can handle the inattentive juror and how to create an environment for engaged jurors.
A new NCSC report, Elements of Judicial Excellence: A Framework to Support the Professional Development of State Trial Court Judges, is now available. It is a first-of-its-kind resource for judges, mentors, educators, and state court leaders who support and seek to enhance their state systems of judicial professional development.
The report provides information about the general types of knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics that judges themselves believe are important to judicial excellence, as well as recommended strategies to support professional growth.
The Elements of Judicial Excellence framework is based on the views of Illinois state Circuit Court and associate judges as shared with project staff through over 100 hours of interviews, 24 hours of focus group discussions, and follow-up surveys with all participants.
This project was supported with funding from the State Justice Institute and NCSC.
The framework and complete project final report can be found at the NCSC website.
The Membership and Mentorship Committee would like to introduce one of NASJE’s newest members. Hailing from the great state of Ohio, we present Morgan Patten!
1. What was your path to judicial education?
Before coming to the Supreme Court of Ohio, I worked at a couple of non-profits in positions that happened to have an education component. One of my favorite projects was working on a pain management curriculum for patients with chronic pain.
2. How long have you worked at your organization?
I’ve been at the Supreme Court of Ohio for almost four years, and just moved into a new position a couple months ago.
3. If you could do another job for just one day, what would it be?
I would be an actuary! I really like math and problem solving, and I have a nerdy interest in data-driven decision-making.
4. What do you like to do, when you’re not at work?
Well, I mostly run around with our kids. We have four, so there is lots of running! Favorite thing of late has been going to the new dinosaur exhibit at our local museum.
5. What’s your favorite movie?
Every Marvel movie. Can’t wait for Black Panther. Not to be too controversial in an introduction, but I just don’t love the DC film universe.
A new NCSC report, Elements of Judicial Excellence: A Framework to Support the Professional Development of State Trial Court Judges, is now available. It is a first-of-its-kind resource for judges, mentors, educators, and state court leaders who support and seek to enhance their state systems of judicial professional development.