Amy H Lewis

Question 1

List your judicial experience (courts and years)

Greene County Juvenile Court Magistrate - March, 2000 to March, 2021

Greene County Juvenile Court Judge - March, 2021 to present

---

Question 2

What non-judicial legal experience qualifies you to be a judge?

In law school I worked for the National Commission on Children in Washington, D.C. My first job as a lawyer was with the Child Support Enforcement Division of the Greene County Prosecutor's Office.  I also served as the Court Administrator in Greene County Juvenile Court which allowed me to develop the following skills necessary to operate a juvenile court: personnel oversight; program development; grant writing; budgeting; oversight of the Greene County Juvenile Detention Center and the Miami Valley Juvenile Rehabilitation Center, a Community Correctional Facility; supervision of the Probation, Diversion and the Court Appointed Special Advocate departments; and oversight of the day to day operations of the Clerk's Office, Assessment and Intervention Centers.  As the Court Administrator, I wrote the grants to secure funding to create and then developed the Greene County Juvenile Court Assessment and Intervention Centers.  I also worked with the Greene County Educational Service Center to develop and implement the Handle With Care initiative in all Greene County Schools and Law Enforcement agencies.  I recognize the importance of being present in the community and developing and maintaining community partners in order to collaborate in an effort to provide the best and most intentional services to families and children.  While the Court Administrator, a Magistrate and now Judge, I continue to work to develop a team of community partners that weekly join with our Assessment Center to wrap comprehensive services around both court involved youth and those referred to the Court from schools, law enforcement and self referrals. 

---

Question 3

Why are you running for this particular court seat?

A Juvenile Court Judge must know not only the intricacies of juvenile law but also understand how unique each case and each person is that appears before the Court.  Over the last twenty-four years, twenty-one as a Magistrate and three years as a Judge, I have kept up with changes in juvenile law and have the ability to understand the complexity of cases that appear before me.  I am also grateful to have the experience of working with community partners to develop programming and resources to meet the needs of the youth and families that appear before the Court giving me the opportunity to order and provide services to meet their specific needs.  Through the years I have been fortunate to work with and develop a team of individuals that work together to safeguard the children appearing before the Court while protecting society and holding juveniles accountable for their actions.  I believe I have the ability to understand the needs of these youth, have experience developing dispositional alternatives in hearings to improve the lives of these children and understand how trauma impacts a child's life, including their mental health needs and childhood development.  I want to provide a service to my community in a role that gives me the ability to address critical juvenile legal issues while performing administrative court functions and developing collaborative community partners.