What is JFI
The Judicial Family Institute (JFI) is a national organization dedicated to providing information and education on topics of concern and importance to judicial households and their extended family members. We set aside personal differences in politics, geography, and positions on controversial issues to attend to JFI matters.
The JFI is a subcommittee of the Past President's Committee of the Conference of Chief Justices and enjoys an affiliation with the National Center for State Courts, the host of our website.
Through educational programs, research, and this website, JFI encourages the exchange of information and resources between judicial branch educators and staff, judicial family members, and various organizations. Among current areas of interest to judicial families are home and travel security, ethics guidelines, judicial elections, and quality of life issues. The public benefits when helpful information about public family life is shared with members of judges’ households.
Judicial Family Institute (JFI) Committee business meetings occur twice yearly during meetings of the Conference of Chief Justices and by conference call at other times. Voting members and advisors may include spouses of state chief justices, spouses of other appellate judges and court administrators, judges, judicial educators, and others interested in information and education on judicial family topics.
Collecting helpful information and selecting articles for the JFI website are JFI's main goals. Thousands of individuals are served monthly through the website. States copy JFI articles for distribution at their state judicial education conferences and share them with their judges.
JFI also sponsors Law and Literature sessions for the Conference of Chief Justices described in the Law and Literature section of this website.
Mission
The judicial Family Institute (JFI) is dedicated to providing information and education on issues of concern and importance to judicial family members.
We set aside differences in politics, geography and positions on controversial issues to attend to what we share in common as judicial families.
Goals
- Inform and educate families of judges about the responsibilities and challenges of belonging to a judicial family.
- Share knowledge and information with judicial families on topics of interest, such as home and travel security, ethics guidelines, judicial elections, and quality of life issues.
- Provide judicial families the tools necessary to effectively manage the stresses and successes of public life and to balance their public and private lives.
- Encourage the exchange of information and resources between judicial family members, state and national judicial educational organizations, such as the Conference of Chief Justices (CCJ), National Association of share Judicial Educators (NASJE), the Conference of State Court Administrators (COSCA), the American Judicature Society (AJS), the National Association of Women’s Judges (NAWJ), and to nurture connections with state contacts and state judicial family programs.
- Maintain JFI website, a source of important information for our community of judges and their families.
- Increase readership of JFI website, the only nationwide clearinghouse of judicial family education linked to all states, U.S. territories and commonwealths.
- Promote inclusion of JFI purpose in revision of state judicial codes and post ethics articles on the JFI Website.
- Address health and wellness issues, such as substance abuse, eating disorders and stress and promote assistance program for judges and their families.
- Keep the judicial community aware of security risks at home and on the Internet.
Officers
Judicial Family Institute Officers 2010-2012
Pat Hannah (AR), Chair
Seymour Abrahamson (WI), Vice Chair
Roslyn L. Smith (MD), Secretary/Treasurer
Isabel Picó-Vidal (PR), Past Chair |
Lifetime Members
| Seymour Abrahamson (WI) |
|
Jan Aikman Dickson (IN) |
|
Barbara George (CA) |
|
Mary Moyer (OH) |
|
Polly Seto Richardson (HI) |
|
Executive Committee
| Pat Hannah (AR), Chair |
Seymour Abrahamson (WI), Vice-Chair |
Roslyn L. Smith (MD), Secretary/Treasurer |
Isabel Pico-Vidal (PR), Past Chair |
Sheryl Webber Washington (DC), Chair, Law and Literature |
| Claudia Fernandes (CA), Chair, Website Committee |
Committees and Agendas, 2010-2012
Executive Committee
Pat Hannah (AR), Chair
Seymour Abrahamson (WI), Vice-Chair
Roslyn L. Smith (MD), Secretary/Treasurer
Isabel Pico-Vidal (PR), Past Chair
Sheryl Webber Washington (DC), Chair, Law and Literature
Claudia Fernandes (CA), Chair, Website Committee
Website Committee
- Widen use and sharpen appeal of website.
- Post approved new articles.
- Revise JFI graphics and layout of website.
- Work with JFI chair on organizational chart and timetable.
- Request biannual report on website hits from NCSC.
- Submit new articles to committee chairs on such topics as political stress, finances, career changes, children of judges, plus others.
Chair: Claudia Fernandes (CA)
States Programs Committee
- Track judicial family programs in states, territories and commonwealths.
- Update list of liaisons from states, territories, and commonwealths; encourage states to select contacts.
- Encourage state liaisons to increase JFI readership, programming and reports on their jurisdiction.
- Nurture connections with state liaisons by sending information on a regular basis.
- Send same updates to Chief Justices because they authorize programs to begin in their states and support established programming for judicial families.
Chair: Faye Carbullido (GU)
Health and Quality of Life
- Increase posting on website of new articles on health and wellness issues including substance abuse, eating disorders, and judicial stress.
- Authorize articles on health and quality of life.
Chair: George Durham, M.D. (UT); and Seymour Abrahamson, members
Ethics and Conflicts of Interest
- Increase posting of new articles on website.
Chair: Jan Grant Johnson (OK)
Judicial Elections and Political Life
- Review articles on how judges’ families approach campaigns for judicial elections.
- Approve submitted articles on political life for the JFI website.
- Share information with judge's families about the realities and stresses of political campaigns.
- Educate judicial family members on ethical rules related to political activity.
- Increase publication of articles on judicial elections and political life topics on the JFI website.
Chair: Susan Page Minton (KY)
Security Committee
- Increase awareness and number of JFI articles on new security risks on the homefront and the internet.
- Authorize submitted articles on security to be added to the website.
Chair: Donald Dietz (AL)
Law and Literature Committee
- Helps plan and coordinate Law and Literature programs for the Conference of Chief Justices in consultation with Executive Committee, National Center for State Courts, and CCJ/ COSCA Planning Meeting Committee for Annual and mid-year conferences of Chief Justices.
Chair: Sheryl Webber Washington (DC)
Judicial Assistance Programs Committee
Chair: Mirelsa Modestti (PR)
Law and Literature Committee
History of the Judicial Family Institute
and its Relationship to CCJ and NCSC
- In 1987, Jan Aikman Dickson, a graduate of Purdue University in International Relations, founded the Judicial Family Institute (JFI). She served as editor of the Judicial Family Life publication and also as secretary.
- JFI was incorporated from 1993 until 2003 as an independent not-for-profit, tax-exempt organization under IRS Code Section 501.
- The year 1997 meant a boost for national attention to judicial family educational programming when the American Judicature Society (AJS) Director, Sandra Ratcliff Daffron, suggested co-sponsoring the “Judicial Family Forum” in San Francisco. The wife of United States Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, Mary Kennedy, honored the group by presenting the keynote speech. Participants were welcomed to California by Barbara George, wife of Chief Justice Ronald George. Panelists included state supreme court spouses Ilona Holland (DE), Shirley Taylor Frye (NC), and Seymour Abrahamson (WI).
- Educational program for spouses and guest at the conference of Chief Justices (CCJ) started in 1997. Amy MacDonell, spouse of Indiana Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard, and Indiana First Lady Judy O’Bannon invited spouses and guests of Chief Justices to an event at the Governor’s Residence to focus attention on public family life issues.
- In 1998, Suzy Veasey (DE) turned attention to ethics during a joint meeting of judicial partners from Delaware and Maryland. Barbara George (CA) awakened a judicial newsletter journalist to judicial family issues, and he reported to a statewide audience of judges.
- In 1999, Suzy Veasey (DE), spouse of CCJ President Norman Veasey, with help from Delaware Judicial Educator Frannie Maguire Haney, planned a fascinating panel of speakers for a breakfast for spouses and guests when the Conference of Chief Justices met in Williamsburg.
- In 1999, Tom Korson (CO) asked Colorado State Court Administrator Jerry Marroney and Judicial Educator Merril Linton to distribute materials on public family life at a judicial spouses’ social gathering. A year later he was successful in encouraging them to invite a Judicial Family Institute speaker to address solutions to judicial family challenges. An audience of both judges and spouses at an annual conference heard a Colorado panel of judges and spouses and participated in an interactive informational session addressing family preparedness for high profile cases, children’s responses to peers, security measures, and other topics.
- In January 2000, Lyn Phillips (TX) invited a group to her home in Austin, where Barbara George (CA) led a conversation about judicial family life educational programs and materials relative to the unique cultures, codes of judicial conduct, and interests of the various states. Participants saw the need for the Judicial Family Institute, Inc. to have an online presence.
- At summer 2000 meeting in South Dakota, hosted by Chief Justice Robert and Shilee Miller, spouses and guests met to discuss family issues. With Suzy Veasy (DE) leading the way, they explored the idea of an official liaison with the National Center for State Courts to provide continuity as presidents of the Conference of the Chief Justice changed. They proposal spouses and guests serve in an advisory capacity to professionals who do the program planning. CCJ President Jerry Vandewalle (ND) stated he wanted to see attention to public family life education continue. He noted the importance of making information and support available to extended family members as well as partners.
- In Ohio in 2000 Chief Justice Tom Moyer supported his spouse Mary Moyer and Supreme Court staff member Ruth Newcomer in their efforts to devise a remarkably organized educational plan and outreach for Ohio judicial families. Mary and Ruth formed a statewide, nonpartisan, geographical distributed advisory group called the Ohio Judicial Family Network Steering Committee.
- Chief Justice Robert Bell hosted a 2001 mid-winter conference in Maryland where Justice Randy Holland (DE) addressed a gathering of spouses and guests. He focused on An Ethics Guide for Judges and Their Families in this presentation “Ethical Issues for Judges’ Families.”
- National Association of State Judicial Educators liaison and California judicial educator Karen Thorson planned an ethics session for spouses and guests when Chief Justices Gerald and Christine Broomfield Alexander hosted the Conference of Chief Justices in Seattle during the summer of 2001.
- In 2001, CCJ voted to treat the JFI as a committee of the Conference in order to allow the NCSC to provide minimal financial and staff support to JFI.
- NCSC agreed to provide the following services at no charge to JFI:
- Contribute toward speaker expense (later to focus on Law and Literature speakers)
- Transcription of Board of Directors meeting audio tapes
- Recording of donations and expenses
- Provide quarterly financial reports to the Board of Directors
- Host the JFI website, including updates and maintenance
- Maintain and update JFI membership database
- Distribute camera-ready campaign mailings
- Arrange a meeting of the JFI Board a CCJ mid-year and annual meetings
- JFI website was created and maintained by Karen Thorson’s spouse. Karen Thorson was the judicial educator in California. NCSC began hosting the site in 2002.
- NCSC established a password protected database of JFI members in 2003.
- JFI conducted a fundraising campaign in 2003. Because JFI future activities were determined to be minimal financially, a decision was made to defer any future fundraising campaigns until activities warranted additional revenue.
- JFI dissolved its incorporation status on March 24, 2003, to avoid some of the governance and accounting activities the current corporate status entailed. NCSC determined that it still could receive tax-deductible contributions, either directly or through CCJ or NCSC.
- In 2005 Jan Aikman Dickson was appointed Chair of the JFI Committee. Under her mentorship JFI state programs were organized throughout the U.S. For her outstanding work she was honored in 2006 by the Conference of Chief Justices.
- On August 2008 Isabel Picó-Vidal, a lawyer and spouse of the Puerto Rico Chief Justice Federico Hernández-Denton, was elected JFI Chair for one year and re-elected for another term in 2009.
- JFI began publication in 2008 of Online with the Judicial Family Institute, a quarterly e-newsletter with news, articles, and interviews on topics of interest to judicial families.
- JFI website hosted by the National Center for State Courts was redesigned and updated in 2010.
Notes for the 1987-2003 periods are excerpts taken from the Judicial Family Institute, Inc. (JFI) History and Mission, “Chair’s Notebook”, compiled by Jan Aikman Dickson.
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