Pamela Harris

President, International Association for Court Administration | Maryland State Court Administrator, Ret.

Pamela Harris was appointed by Chief Judge Barbera as the first female Maryland State Court Administrator in August 2013 through July 2023 following a 24-year career as the Trial Court Administrator for the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, the most populous region in Maryland.  Ms. Harris is committed to infusing evaluation-based practices into every aspect of court administration so that quality initiatives achieve intended results while meeting the needs of court personnel and the public the judiciary serves.  As the State Court Administrator for the Maryland Judiciary, she was responsible for a $750 million dollar budget and approximately 4,500 employees.

Ms. Harris is a Fellow of the National Center for State Courts’ Institute for Court Management (ICM). She served on the ICM Board of Advisors from 2017-2023 and taught national programs on ethics, leadership, and differentiated case management. Ms. Harris served a four-year term on the Board of Directors of the National Center for State Courts and continues serving on their International Programs Advisory Committee.  In 2021, she was inducted into the Warren E. Burger Society and subsequently in 2024 received the prestigious Warren E. Burger Award for Excellence in Court Administration.

Her international experience includes serving as President of the Maryland International Coordinating Council, Inc. as well as serving in various board positions on the International Association for Court Administration (IACA) and in fall of 2024 became President of IACA. She also serves on the Board of the International Institute of Justice Excellence (IIJE in The Hague) and currently serves on the International Judicial Council of the Supreme Court of Kazakhstan.

She previously served on the Board of the Russian American Rule of Law Consortium (RAROLC) where she worked for more than a decade promoting the rule of law and improving the capacity of local Russian legal institutions to implement reform prior to the current state of matters. She also served on the Maryland International Sister States Program, Legal Affairs Committee within Maryland Office of the Secretary of State. She has spoken internationally on strategic planning, court and case management, specialized courts, and association development. Over her career, she was active in various rule-of-law initiatives in Argentina, Brazil, China, El Salvador, India, Morocco, Russia, Sri Lanka, Kazakhstan, and the Ukraine. She has professionally hosted numerous foreign delegations in Maryland.

She was elected to serve on Conference of State Court Administrators (COSCA) as a Board Director for a three-year term, followed by an additional year; Chaired Court Statistics Project 2014-2021; and served on the CCJ/COSCA Security Committee 2014-2023. She also serves on the Justice Management Institute Board (JMI).

She is a Past President of the National Association for Court Management (NACM), where through her professional membership in the organization, served on the Professional Development Advisory Committee (PDAC) which originally developed the NACM Core Competencies and Curriculum Guidelines. She chaired the Ethics Committee which developed the original NACM Code of Ethics; and chaired the Membership Committee.

She previously held executive board positions including President of the Mid-Atlantic Association of Court Management (MAACM), an organization committed to the fair and effective administration of justice through improved management of courts.