HON. AMANDA ADE-HARLOW
HON. AMANDA ADE-HARLOW was raised in Christian County, Illinois. She is a graduate of Pana High School, Lakeland Community College, University of Illinois-Springfield, and Thomas M. Cooley Law School (now known as Western Michigan University-Cooley Law School). Before being appointed an Associate Judge in 2016, Judge Ade-Harlow worked as the Shelby County Public Defender, Fayette County Assistant State’s Attorney, Shelby County Assistant State’s Attorney, Conflict Public Defender for Christian County, and as a general practice attorney in Taylorville, Illinois. In 2018, she was elected the Resident Circuit Judge of Shelby County located in the Fourth Judicial Circuit. Since becoming a judge, Judge Ade-Harlow has presided over civil, criminal, juvenile, and/or problem-solving courts throughout the Fourth Judicial Circuit, which includes Christian, Clay, Clinton, Effingham, Fayette, Jasper, Marion, Montgomery, and Shelby counties. She currently serves as Vice-Chair of the Illinois Supreme Court Judicial Performance Evaluation Committee, member of the Illinois Supreme Court e-Business Policy Board, Co-Chair of the Illinois Judges Association Working Group for Retention, member of the IJA Security Committee, and one of the topic editors for the Illinois Judicial Benchbook on Civil Law and Procedure.
Judge Ade-Harlow further serves the Fourth Circuit as Chair of the Judicial Representative on Child Welfare Issues Core Team and a member of the Fourth Circuit Technology Committee. She is a member of the Illinois Judges Association, Illinois State Bar Association, American Bar Association, and the Shelby County Bar Association.
HON. CHARLES BURCH
HON. CHARLES BURCH, Resident Circuit Judge, 8th Judicial Circuit, Calhoun County, Illinois. Judge Charles Henry Wittmond Burch serves as the Resident Circuit Judge for Calhoun County in the 8th Judicial Circuit of Illinois. He was appointed to the bench by the Illinois Supreme Court on July 7, 2014, filling the vacancy created by the retirement of the Honorable Richard D. Greenlief.
A lifelong resident of Calhoun County, Judge Burch graduated from Chaminade College Preparatory School in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1996. He earned his bachelor’s degree from St. Louis University in 2000 and received his Juris Doctor from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in January 2004. He was admitted to practice law in Illinois on May 6, 2004.
Before his judicial appointment, Judge Burch practiced law in Hardin, Illinois, and served as Assistant State’s Attorney in Pike County from 2005 to 2013. Since 2020, he has also served as a Judicial Performance Evaluator, contributing to the improvement and accountability of the Illinois judiciary through the evaluation and mentoring of fellow judges.
Judge Burch and his wife, Gwen, reside in rural Kampsville with their daughters, Charlee and Greta. He remains committed to serving the people of Calhoun County with compassion, impartiality, and respect for the law.
HON. JOY V. CUNNINGHAM
HON. JOY V. CUNNINGHAM, Supreme Court Justice, First District, attended the City University of New York where she obtained a Bachelor of Science degree. She later attended John Marshall Law School in Chicago where she earned a law degree in 1982. Before joining the Illinois Appellate Court, she served as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for the Northwestern Memorial System, which includes Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Northwestern Memorial Foundation. Prior to joining Northwestern Memorial in 2000, she served as a Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County, where she had a diverse assignment, including jury trials. She is admitted to practice law before the Illinois, New York, Federal and the Federal Trial Bars.
Over the course of her legal career, she served as Associate General Counsel for Loyola University of Chicago and Loyola University Health System, and as a litigator with the law firm of French, Rogers, Kezelis & Kominiarek. She also served as an Assistant Illinois Attorney General and as a Judicial Clerk to Illinois Appellate Justice Glenn Johnson. Ms. Cunningham was elected President of the Chicago Bar Association (2004-05), where she became the first African American Woman to lead the nation's largest municipal Bar Association. She has also served on the Board of Directors for the Chicago Bar Foundation, the Center for Conflict Resolution and the Center for Disability and Elder Law, and the Chicago Legal Clinic.
She has authored professional publications and is a member of a number of professional and civic associations, including the American Bar Association, Chicago Bar Association, Cook County Bar Association, Illinois State Bar Association and Women's Bar Association of Illinois. She has been recognized for her volunteer service to several community and civic organizations including the Chicago Volunteer Legal Services, the Constitutional Rights Foundation, Chicago Association for the Education of Young Children and the March of Dimes. She is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago and the Chicago Network. In December of 2006, she became a Justice of the Illinois Appellate Court. She and her family live in Chicago.
MIRIAM HAMILTON, M.S.
MIRIAM HAMILTON, M.S., serves as a Senior Court Research Analyst in the Research & Design Group of the National Center for State Courts. Her diverse project portfolio encompasses contributions to the Just Horizons Initiative, Illinois Judicial Performance Evaluations, Master Jury List analyses, Civil Rules Reform Evaluations, and the Court Statistics Project, where she serves as a state liaison. Miriam's multifaceted role extends to various areas, including guardianship and conservatorship, jury system management, and equity and representativeness. Her research incorporates innovative methods for assessing racial equity and utilizes GIS techniques to integrate geographic data into analyses related to access to justice and other critical areas. She holds an M.S. in political science from the University of Nebraska in Omaha and a B.A. in political science from Freie Universität Berlin in Germany.
NATHAN (NATE) JENSEN, M.P.A.
NATHAN (NATE) JENSEN, M.P.A., is the Director of Court Services with the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts. Prior to joining AOIC, Nate worked as Director of Court Administration (a TCA type position) for Montgomery County, Texas from 2013-2019. He also served as Chief of Staff role to Presiding Judge Olen Underwood with the Second Administrative Judicial Region of Texas from 2006-2013.
Nate has been published in Trends in State Courts twice, for "Balancing Transparency with Judicial Ethics" in 2015 and "Using Court Data to Inform Pandemic Planning" in 2021. He has also been published in state and international journals on various court administration topics.
He typically teaches Legislative Updates for the biennial Court Administration Leadership Academy, and has served as a panelist for several state and national conferences on court management. He has a Master's in Public Administration from Sam Houston State University and is also a Certified Court Manager through the National Center for State Courts' Institute for Court Management. Nathan is a member of the National Association for Court Management. He and his wife have six children.
SUZANNE K. TALLARICO, M.A.
SUZANNE K. TALLARICO, M.A., has been a full time Principal Court Management Consultant with the NCSC since 2005. She focuses on criminal and juvenile justice entities in areas related to criminal justice system functioning, workload, policy analysis, data analysis, program evaluation and performance, judicial performance, strategic planning and other court and criminal justice related projects. Areas of expertise include workload analysis and staff need, system performance assessment, judicial performance evaluation, criminal and juvenile justice system studies, adult and juvenile probation issues, and probation case processing, evidence-based practices and management.
Prior to joining the NCSC, she was the Director of Research and Evaluation for the Colorado State Court Administrator's Office of Probation Services. Preceding her employment with the Colorado Judicial Branch, she served for twelve years as a senior research analyst for the Colorado Department of Public Safety, Division of Criminal Justice. In these positions, she has had extensive experience in program evaluation, policy analysis, judicial and probation staffing and workload assessment, correctional population forecasting, program and performance review, and collection and dissemination of statistics and statistical reports.
In addition to her responsibilities at the Colorado State Court Administrator's Office, Ms. Tallarico has served as a consultant, trainer and meeting facilitator for the Center for Sex Offender Management in Silver Spring, Maryland. Ms. Tallarico has facilitated several strategic planning retreats and meetings for state agencies, boards and commissions. Ms. Tallarico is an active member of the American Probation and Parole Association and is an ongoing member of the ongoing Effective Facilitator e-learning group.
LINDSAY SOVA, MSW, LCSW
LINDSAY SOVA, MSW, LCSW, is a licensed social worker in the State of Colorado with over 13 years of clinical experience. She began her career as a mental health therapist, specializing in the treatment of sexual violence and trauma, and has advanced training in attachment, mindfulness, and somatic interventions.
In the private sector, she provided specialized, community-based sex-offense specific group therapy, and individual psychotherapeutic and case management services for adults convicted of a sexual offense. She worked alongside parole and probation officers in cooperation with offender management boards and supervised Associate Level Treatment Providers in the safe management and monitoring of individuals convicted of a sexual offense.
She provided individual psychotherapeutic services to adults seeking support for their mental and emotional well-being in an outpatient community mental health setting, as well as crisis intervention and assessment for individuals experiencing complex trauma and/or thoughts of wanting to harm themselves. Ms. Sova supervised both Bachelor and Master-level students as an LCSW off-site for field placement/internship, where she instilled social work ethics, principles and values, and supported students in integrating theory into practice.
She has been trained in EMDR since 2015 and is dedicated to supporting trauma resolution and resilience through culturally responsive treatment. Ms. Sova's current role primarily consists of supporting individuals who are voluntarily seeking psychotherapeutic services in a private practice setting.