Joyce London Alexander, Chair
U.S. District Court of Massachusetts

On January 2, 1996, Judge Alexander was sworn in as the nation's first African-American Chief United States Magistrate Judge. The first African-American woman Chief Judge of any court in Massachusetts, Judge Alexander was also sworn in as the country's first African-American woman United States Magistrate Judge, and one of the youngest, in August of 1979. She presides in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

She received a Boston N.A.A.C.P. Scholarship to Howard University where she graduated with a B.A. degree, holds a juris doctorate from New England Law School. Upon graduation from law school, she received a Reginald Heber Smith Community Lawyer Fellowship as a staff attorney with the Greater Boston Legal Assistance Project. She subsequently held positions as an Assistant Professor of Urban Law and Black Politics at Tufts University, Legal Counsel to the Youth Activities Commission of the City of Boston and the first African-American woman on-camera legal editor for a major network affiliate, (NBC) WBZ-TV in Boston, while at the same time serving as Assistant Vice Chancellor and General Counsel of the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education. She was also a legislative assistant to the late Speaker of the House Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr.

She currently serves as a member of the First Circuit Judicial Council, board member of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, member of the National Public Policy Committee of the Links, Inc. and a member of the Africa Law Initiative Council of the American Bar Association, member (Past Chair) of the Judicial Council of the National Bar Association, member (Past Chair) of the Massachusetts Black Judges Conference and President Emeritus (Co-Founder) of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts.

Based on her extensive professional and community involvement, published opinions and articles from civil rights to securities law to civil and criminal litigation, Judge Alexander is frequently called upon nationally as an informative lecturer and dynamic orator.
Her scholarship includes her law review article, Aligning The Goals Of Juvenile Justice With The Needs Of Young Women Offenders: A Proposed Praxis for Transformational Justice, 32 Suffolk L. Rev. 555 (1999), and her chapters, Discovery in FEDERAL CIVIL LITIGATION IN THE FIRST CIRCUIT (M.C.L.E. 1995), and Black Jurists/Black Juveniles, in FROM THE BLACK BAR: VOICES FOR EQUAL JUSTICE, 165-171 (Gilbert Ware ed., 1976).

In addition to her hundreds of awards, and National Bar Association highest honors, Judge Alexander has Honorary Doctor of Law Degrees from Northeastern University, New England Law School, Bridgewater State College, Suffolk University Law School, Cambridge College and North Carolina Central University.

Of all her achievements, she is, however, most proud of a program she created in the Federal Court in Massachusetts called "Kids, Courts & Citizenship." Approximately 700 fifth grade students from the Boston Public schools visit her courtroom throughout the school year, not only to view proceedings, but to engage in dialogue about the judicial/legal system with her, lawyers, and the U.S. Marshal. The children not only learn about alternatives to violence, guns and drugs, but also perform a mock trial. There is also accompanying curriculum for the program. Since the program’s inception in 1989, Judge Alexander has seen more than 7,000 children.

Cited by Jet Magazine’s "This Week In Black History" last August, 2004, Judge Alexander was also honored as a "Living Legend" by the Museum of Afro-American History on February 28, 2004. In May 2004, the Federal Bar Association honored Judge Alexander for her twenty-five years of outstanding service to the federal judiciary by presenting her with a chair. Simultaneously, the New England Law Review dedicated its entire summer edition, Volume 38, No. 4 (www.nesl.edu/lawrev/publications.cfm) to Judge Alexander in commemoration of her 25 years of invaluable contributions to judicial and community service. In August 2004, the Judicial Council of the National Bar Association bestowed Judge Alexander with its Thurgood Marshall Award at its national convention.