Commission Vice Chair (Former)
Associate Justice (Retired)
Supreme Court of North Carolina
Fayetteville, North Carolina
POLITICAL AFFILIATION: INDEPENDENT
President Barack Obama appointed Patricia Timmons-Goodson to the United States Commission on Civil Rights in July 2014.
Patricia Timmons-Goodson was most recently an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of North Carolina from 2006 to 2012. She served as an Associate Judge on the North Carolina Court of Appeals from 1997 to 2005 and a District Court Judge of the Twelfth Judicial District of North Carolina from 1984 to 1997. The judicial selection system employed by North Carolina required her to stand before the voters in two statewide elections and three district elections during her judicial career. The twenty-eight year tenure on the bench was marked by distinguished work on each of the three courts. Her years of judicial service to the people of North Carolina have been recognized with awards such as the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, Liberty Bell, Appellate Judge of the Year, three honorary degrees, and induction into the North Carolina Women's Hall of Fame.
Justice Timmons-Goodson began her career as a District Manager of the United States Census Bureau in the Department of Commerce from 1979 to 1980. Her professional quest for justice began as an assistant prosecutor and continued as a legal services lawyer in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
Justice Timmons-Goodson is an active member of the American Bar Association, where she serves on the Editorial Board of the ABA Journal and the ABA Law School Accreditation Committee. She continues to invest her energies in North Carolina by serving on the Guilford College Board of Trustees, The Fayetteville Chapter of Links, Incorporated and the Board of Directors of the North Carolina Civil War Center. Justice Timmons-Goodson received her B.A. and J.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an L.L.M. from Duke University Law School.