Macon Reporter

Appellate Court Judge and Millikin University Trustee Emeritus Lisa Holder White has been appointed to replace Justice Rita B. Garman's seat on the Illinois Supreme Court. Justice Holder White, whose term is effective July 8, 2022, through Dec. 2, 2024, will be the first Black woman to serve on the Illinois Supreme Court.

In a statement released by the Illinois Supreme Court, Holder White said, "Being appointed to the Illinois Supreme Court is the honor of a lifetime. I am humbled by the confidence Justice Rita B. Garman and the entire Court have placed in me. My service to the judiciary for the past 21 years has helped prepare me for this historic moment. I look forward to the privilege of resolving matters my fellow citizens bring before the Court."

Justice Lisa Holder White began her career as an Assistant State's Attorney for Macon County before going into private practice while also serving as an Assistant Public Defender for Macon County. In 2001, Justice Holder White was sworn in as an Associate Judge in the Sixth Judicial Circuit, the first Black Judge in the circuit. In 2008, she became a Circuit Judge, having been appointed to the position by the Illinois Supreme Court to fill a retirement vacancy, and in 2010, was elected to the position. Judge White was sworn in on Jan. 14, 2013, as the first Black Justice on the Illinois Appellate Court, Fourth District. In 2014, she was elected to the Illinois Appellate Court, Fourth District.

Justice Holder White previously served on and chaired the Illinois Supreme Court Judicial Conference Committee on Education, which is charged with planning and providing continuing judicial education for Illinois judges. She teaches at the bi-annual Education Conference, which all Illinois state court judges are required to attend, and previously served as an instructor for "New Judge School."

In April 2013, Judge White was named "Woman of the Year" at the 2013 Women of Excellence Awards, hosted by the Decatur YMCA and United Way of Decatur and Mid-Illinois. She has also been the recipient of a Lewis University Alumni Achievement Award, the Joe Slaw Civil Rights Award from the Decatur branch of the NAACP, the Illinois Jaycees Ten Outstanding Young Persons Award, the University of Illinois College of Law Black Law Students Association's James Seaberry Award for Excellence and the Illinois Judges Association Harold Sullivan Award.

Marilyn Davis, Class of 2000 and MBA Class of 2011, who serves as chief of staff and board secretary at Millikin, met Holder White when both women served on the Decatur Public Schools Foundation board together.

"I helped recruit her to become a trustee at Millikin," Davis said in an interview with the Herald & Review. "She served for nine years and is an emeritus trustee now. I'm so proud of her and so happy. She so deserves it. Lisa works so hard on behalf of people, trying to make the right decisions."

Davis was invited by Holder White to come to her swearing-in when she joined the appellate court, and has already invited her to come to the ceremony for the Illinois Supreme Court, too.

"You'll never find anybody with more integrity and she's a woman of God," Davis said. "I credit that to her parents. They're just lovely people and I'm looking forward to the ceremony. I am also proud that she is breaking a glass ceiling by becoming the first Black woman on the Illinois Supreme Court."

Justice Holder White is a member of the Decatur Bar Association, the Illinois Judges Association, the Central Illinois Women's Bar Association and the University of Illinois College of Law Leadership Project. She previously served on the boards of the Decatur Public Schools Foundation, the Mid-Illinois Chapter of the American Red Cross, the Community Foundation of Macon County, and Millikin University. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree, magna cum laude, from Lewis University in 1990, and her Juris Doctor from the University of Illinois College of Law in 1993.