Past President of the National Council of Youth and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ), New Orleans, Louis

Hon. Judge Dr. Ernestine Gray , born 1946, studied Law at Spelman College, Atlanta (Georgia) and Louisiana State University School of Law, Doctorate Degree and admittance to the Louisiana Bar in 1976.

Past President of the National Council of Youth and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ), National CASA, the YWCA, YMCA and Volunteers of America Boards of Directors.

Dr. Gray has received national recognition for her work. .She. regularly appears before the State Legislature and has been invited to several Committees of the United States Congress to provide information regarding youth in the Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice Systems.

Dr. Gray was first elected to the Orleans Parish Juvenile Court in 1984 and re-elected in 1986, 1994, 2002 and 2014 without opposition. She frequently trains judges and other stakeholders on various topics, such as: Disproportunate Minority Contact in the Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice Systems, Implicit Bias, Multi-System Involved Youth, Domestic Violence a. o.

She received many awards, such as

-American Bar Association Franklin D. Flaschner Judicial Award (1995)

-OJJDP Award for Achievements for children and families in America’s Communities (2000)

-Lousiana Association of Black Women Attorney’s Trailblazer Leadership Award for blazing new trails in the Louisiana legal community (2011);

-City of New Orleans Business “Leadership in Law Award” (2013)