Bernice B. Donald

Hon. Bernice B. Donald is a U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge in Memphis, Tenn. Prior to her appointment in 2011, she served on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee for more than 15 years. Judge Donald is currently chair of the American Bar Association’s Center forHuman Rights, and she recently chaired a committee that published an implicit bias resource book for judges and practitioners. Previously, she chaired the ABA’s Criminal Justice Section, where her focus was on issues concerning implicit bias, children of incarcerated parents, mass incarceration and the col-lateral consequences of incarceration. Having previously served as secretary of the ABA, Judge Donald is currently a member of the ABA House of Delegates and of the American Law Institute. She has also served as faculty at the National Judicial College, the Federal Judicial Center and the Judge AdvocateGeneral’s Legal Center and School. Judge Donald has served as a Jurist in Residence at New YorkUniversity, American University, Washington University and the University of Cincinnati law schools, and is the Edenfield Jurist in Residence at the University of Georgia School of Law. In addition, she has served as faculty for international programs in Romania, Mexico, Turkey, Brazil, Bosnia, Jordan,Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Senegal, Rwanda, Tanzania, Russia, Egypt, Morocco, Uganda, Thailand, Armenia, Jamaica, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Great Britain, Costa Rica, Vietnam, and the Philippines.Judge Donald has received more than 100 awards for professional, civic and community activities, including the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Memphis, the Martin Luther KingCommunity Service Award and the Benjamin Hooks Award from the Memphis Bar Foundation. She received her B.A. and J.D. from the University of Memphis.