This week,  jurists of the 17th Judicial Circuit have elevated Carol-Lisa Phillips to the position of chief judge, effective July 1.

“I was blown away by the tremendous support I had received,” Phillips said in an interview. “You have to be nominated by a fellow judge and then you have to have two seconds. And when the time of the nominations ended and I was the only one that was nominated, instead of just getting the one nomination and the two seconds, I ended up with multiple nominations from multiple different judges.”