Pamela Harris

Maryland State Court Administrator

Ms. Harris retired as the Maryland State Court Administrator in June 2023. She was appointed by Chief Judge Barbera as the first female Maryland State Court Administrator in August 2013 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 has 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.

Her international experience includes serving as President of the Maryland International Coordinating Council, Inc. as well as serving on various board positions on the International Association for Court Administration (IACA) and was recently nominated as its President-Elect.  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 the Office of the Secretary of State.  

She has been active internationally with various rule of law initiatives in Argentina, Brazil, El Salvador, India, Morocco, Russia, Sri Lanka, Ukraine and has spoken internationally on strategic planning, court and case management, specialized courts, and association development. She also serves on the Board of the International Institute of Justice Excellence (The Hague).

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 through 2021; and served on the CCJ/COSCA Security Committee through 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. Thereafter, she also participated the update of the competencies; The Core; 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.