FMJA Congratulates 2023 Founder and Diversity Committee Awardees

The FMJA Founders Award is the most prestigious honor the FMJA bestows and is presented to those who have made valuable and lasting contributions to the Magistrate Judges system of the United States Courts. Please join us in congratulating our 2023 honorees: Thomas E. Davis and Hon. James M. Hopkins.

The FMJA established the Diversity Award to recognize outstanding deserving individuals or entities who promote diversity and inclusion within the federal judiciary and the legal profession. The FMJA is pleased to honor Hon. Brian Tsuchida with the FMJA 2023 Diversity Award.

Below is a sample of the accolades we received in support of these wonderful judges and organization and their many contributions to the magistrate judges as a whole. We hope to see you at the awards celebration! The Awards Luncheon will be held in Atlanta on Tuesday, July 11 to give them the round of applause they all deserve. There is no fee for the luncheon, but please RSVP below for our planning.

Thomas E. Davis, “He spent decades working to enhance the roles and responsibilities of magistrate judges [in his role at the AO’s office]. He is always willing to provide his unlimited expertise to help solve conflicts and has provided tireless help to magistrate judges.

Hon. James M. Hopkins, “Jim has served as a member of the FMJA International Committee for more than 19 years. During that time, he has arranged and curated trips to 13 countries for groups of 19-30 judges (each trip) and their companions.

In each country, Jim has single-handedly arranged meetings with Supreme Court justices or other judges and government officials, to establish a dialogue between FMJA members and judges throughout the world. He has served on these trips with great diplomacy and burnished the reputation of the FMJA with foreign judges and international nongovernmental organizations.”

Hon. Brian Tsuchida, “Judge Tsuchida exemplifies service to the Courts and the community through his many decades of work in striving for diversity, equity and inclusion. In December 2021 I attended the swearing-in ceremony for District Judge Lauren King. She is the first Native American District Judge in the Western District of Washington and only the fifth nationally. Strikingly, her very first comments were to thank Judge Tsuchida for his role in her pathway to the bench.”

“Similarly, when I was an Assistant United States Attorney, Judge Tsuchida reached out to me to encourage me to consider service as a Magistrate Judge. Once I had decided to apply, he called me regularly to offer advice and support, as I know he did for many of the diverse candidates. Since I joined Judge Tsuchida on the bench in Seattle, I have become even more familiar with his unwavering dedication to diversity.”

We hope to see you in Atlanta to honor all of our awardees!

Get-Togethers in San Diego

Diversity Committee

Hon. Sunil Harjani (NDIL), Hon. Kate Vaughan (WDWA), Hon. Sonja Bivins (SDAL), Hon. Sanket Bulsara (EDNY), and Hon. Diana Song Quiroga (SDTX).

Diversity Committee Get-Together

Baby Judge Class of 2015

Stephen Jackson, David Christel, Elizabeth Stafford, Mark Ford, and Stacie Beckerman.

Baby Judge Class of 2016

Erin Wilder-Doomes, Jake

Larkins, Elizabeth Stafford, Dena Palermo, Omar

Aboulhosn, Justin Anand, Dan Stewart, and Christina Bryan. Not pictured: Peggy Kuo and her husband.

The Diversity Committee arranged a gettogether in San Diego. Pictured in the photo counterclockwise from bottom left are: LaKeysha Isaac (SDMS), Lisette Reid (SDFL);,Emile Henderson (DVI), Carmen Henderson (NDOH), Erin Wilder-Doomes (MDLA), and Elizabeth Stafford (EDMI) and from top right: Herman “Rusty” Johnson (NDAL), Noelle Collins (EDMO), John England (NDAL), and Sonja Bivins (SDAL).

Baby Judge Class of 2017

Herman Johnson, Sanket Bulsara, Susan Bazis, and Michael Nelson.

Baby Judge Class of 2019

Maria Aguilera, Jennifer Hall, Cecilia Romero, Leslie Hoffman Price, Katie DeSoto, and Embry Kidd.

Baby Judge Class of 2020

Dan Butcher, Jared Strauss, Sally Berens, Beth Jantz, Dustin Howell, Kelly Pate, Jill Morris, Brian Gaddy, Stephen Welby, Alex Tse, Kate Vaughan, Donna Currault, LaKeysha Green

Isaac

Baby Judge Class of 2021

Kate Vaughan, Alex Tse, Deb Grasham, and Sally Berens.