Karla Smith

In 2012, she became the first African American female to serve on Maryland's Montgomery County District Court.

After university, she served two years as a staff assistant for U.S. representative Major R. Owens of New York's 11th Congressional District.

In 2009, she was a member on the Children's Justice Act Committee for Maryland's State Council on Child Abuse and Neglect, and from 2010 to 2012, she served on the Sexual Offender Advisory Board.

[1] In 2011, Smith was a driver behind a law that would criminalize child neglect in Maryland, punishable up to five years in prison.

[5] In 2012, Governor Martin O’Malley appointed Smith as an Associate Judge for Maryland's District 6, serving Montgomery County.