Judge Joyce Williams Warren
Trailblazing Jurist and Youth Advocate | Class of 2023
Judge Joyce Elise Williams Warren was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, October 25, 1949, and grew up in Little Rock. Her parents were educators. She and her sister, Janice, were reared and nurtured by their mother and maternal elders, who were all school teachers. She attended LR public schools and broke a color barrier herself at age 11 when she was one of ten Black students who integrated West Side Junior High School—just four years after the media spectacle of the Little Rock Nine integrating Central High School from where she graduated in 1967. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and earned her Juris Doctorate degree in 1976 at the UALR William H. Bowen School of Law as the school’s first Black female graduate. After becoming a judge, Warren also earned a Diploma of Judicial Skills from the American Academy of Judicial Education in 2001. Judge Warren is best known for her tireless work as a juvenile judge who formed, joined, and led collaborative efforts to improve the lives of Arkansas children and families.
Her list of firsts includes being Arkansas’ first Black female judge, first Black person ever elected to an Arkansas state-level trial court judgeship, first Black law clerk for the Arkansas Supreme Court, first Black female appointee and first Black Chairperson to serve on the Arkansas State Board of Law Examiners, first Black person to be elected to the Arkansas Judicial Council Board of Directors, first Black President of the Arkansas Judicial Council, and first Black person to receive the Outstanding Jurist Award from the Arkansas Bar Association and the Arkansas Bar Foundation in 2021. She helped to create a new Arkansas juvenile justice system that improved many areas, such as adoption laws, legal representation for children and parents in child abuse and neglect cases, and accountability for attorneys providing services to children in need and protecting children in correctional facilities and/or medical facilities. Her equally impressive career history includes appointments by then Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton.
Warren has received numerous honors and awards; and she authored A Booklet for Parents, Guardians, and Custodians in Abuse and Neglect Cases, which has been published and updated in English and Spanish and distributed nation-wide.
The former Joyce Wiliams and James Warren were married in 1972, and they reside in Little Rock. They have three sons, Jonathan (Courtney), Jamie (Kassie), and Justin (Heather); and the blessing of eleven grandchildren. She is a member of St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church, where she serves on the Vestry.