Judge Doretta Walker: Ebonettes 2020 “Dare to Make a Difference” Honoree
DURHAM, NC – Durham County District Court Judge Doretta Walker recognizes the need for making community outreach and involvement in the community a personal choice and priority. She serves as a mentor to youth and aspiring attorneys. Walker’s commitment led the Ebonettes Service Club to honor her with their 2020 “Dare to Make a Difference” Award” in the category of Service to Youth and Community.
Judge Walker would have been honored at The Ebonettes Service Club’s 48th Founders Day that was scheduled for Saturday, March 21, 2020. The Covid 19 pandemic canceled the celebration. Since 2002, the Founders Day program annually has showcased hard-working Durham citizens in the “Dare to Make A Difference Recognition Program.”
The other outstanding 2020 “Dare to Make a Difference” Honorees are Kasib Abdullah, Juliet Black, Garisha Davis, Joseph K. Davis, Jr., Rev. Dr. William M. McCoy, Jr., Angela Pittman, Gail S. Taylor, and Queen Lawrence.
About Judge Doretta Walker
Doretta Walker currently serves as a district court judge in Durham County. She was elected in 2010 and re-elected in 2014 and 2018. She has presided over cases in family court, child support court, civil court, juvenile court, traffic court, domestic violence court, criminal court and abuse, neglect and dependency court, involuntary commitments, jail first appearances, and the former juvenile drug treatment court. Judge Walker is one of the two judges presiding over the Durham County Abuse Neglect and Dependency Court and is the presiding judge in the Durham County Mental Health Court. Additionally, she is a juvenile certified district court judge by the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts.
Walker is a Durham native and a proud graduate of Northern High School. She attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she received a Bachelor of Science degree in the administration of criminal justice and psychology in 1990, and a Juris Doctor degree in 1993 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law.
Judge Walker has always been dedicated to the idea of public service and in 1994, she took a position with Carolina Legal Assistance where she helped draft pleadings in the Thomas S. class-action lawsuit. She also served for three years as a judicial clerk at the North Carolina Court of Appeals. In this capacity, she provided legal research and writing for Judge James A. Wynn (now an appellate judge on the United States 4th Circuit Court of Appeals), the late Judge Clifton E. Johnson, and Justice Patricia Timmons-Goodson (the first African-American female to serve on the North Carolina Supreme Court now on the US Civil Rights Commission).
Early in her career, Judge Walker served as an assistant district attorney in the Durham County District Attorney’s Office for thirteen and a half years where she supervised the Property and Fraud Team and was able to spearhead an increased emphasis on aggressively prosecuting elder abuse, identity theft, and fraud cases. Additionally, Judge Walker served as an adjunct instructor at Durham Technical Community College in the Criminal Justice Program teaching court procedure and evidence, introduction to criminal justice, constitutional law, and ethics from 2002 – 2016.
She has also served on several boards, including but not limited to the George H. White Bar Association as Treasurer, the Fourteenth Judicial Bar and Durham County Bar Association as Board Member and as First Vice President, a Board Member of the Triangle Champions Track Team and Durham Raiders, as correspondence secretary of the National Sorority of Phi Delta Kappa, Incorporated (a professional organization of educators founded in 1923), a member of the District Court Education Committee of the NC Association of District Court Judges, a mentor with Partners for Youth (now Partners for Youth Opportunity) for over a decade since the program’s inception, and also a member of SALT (Seniors and Law Enforcement Together) where she provided education to seniors on various issues in order to lessen the chances of our seniors being victimized.
Judge Walker takes great pleasure in mentoring youth and attorneys to make a difference in the lives of others. Family and her community mean everything to her. For more information about the Ebonettes Service Club, Inc., contact Tania Green-Clark, President, at mrstclark@gmail.com or call (919) 622-3355.