Special to GwinnettForum
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. | The 2024 political season is beginning to warm up, as a candidate has announced for a retiring judge’s seat for Gwinnett Superior Court.
Tuwanda Rush Williams, who has served as a senior assistant county attorney and a deputy county attorney in the Gwinnett County Attorney’s Office for the past nearly 18 years, will run for the Gwinnett County Superior Court Judge seat being vacated by Judge Karen Beyers. Her last day as a county employee will be May 17, 2023.
In her previous position, she handled both transactional and litigation matters for Gwinnett County government elected officials, departments, offices, and the judicial system. She has lived in Gwinnett for 23 years, and is a native of Rochester, N.Y. She remembers spending summers and holidays in Orangeburg and Kingstree, S.C. with relatives.
She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Syracuse University and a Juris Doctorate degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Law. She has been a resident of Gwinnett County since December 2000 and is a longtime member of Friendship Baptist Church in Duluth, where she has co-taught Wednesday Night Bible Study to high school students and served on the Finance, Greeters and Marriage Ministries.
She is married to Dr. Anthony Williams, an Army veteran and retired educator. They have two adult children. Anthony is a youth and adult minister in Fairburn, and Autumn is a chemist with Prizere Corporation and will start pharmacy school in Chapel Hill, N.C. in August.
Ms. Williams has been a member of the Georgia Bar since 1992. Her legal experience is expansive, with over 25 areas of the law. She also is a long-time member of the Gwinnett County Indigent Defense Committee.
Prior to her employment with the Gwinnett County Department of Law, Ms. Williams was employed with the City of Atlanta Law Department. Her legal experience also includes four years in private practice.
The candidate served as an officer of the Gwinnett County Bar Association for five years, being president of the organization in June 2013. She was the first African American officer of the Gwinnett Bar Association in its 60-plus year history. She is also a 2015 graduate of the 30th Anniversary Class of Leadership Gwinnett, and she has served on various “learning day” committees, including Glance Gwinnett, since her graduation.
Since 2005, Tuwanda has performed dozens of hours of community service through nonprofit organizations such as Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Jack and Jill of America, Inc., Peachtree Rose Club, Family Promise of Gwinnett County, and the former Rotary Club of Gwinnett Tomorrow. She also received the Phoenix Award from the Gwinnett Chapter of the Georgia Association for Women Lawyers in November 2022. She has received recognition as a “Trailblazer” of the Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys and as a finalist for the “Pay It Forward Award” of the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce Moxie Awards.
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