Chief Judge Donna Stroud was born and raised in Kinston, North Carolina.  She is a 1988 graduate of the Campbell University School of Law where she was ranked first in her class, and she also obtained an LLM in Judicial Studies from the Duke University School of Law in 2014. As an attorney in private practice for 16 years, she represented individuals, businesses, and municipalities in a broad range of cases in many counties. In 2004, she was elected as District Court judge in Wake County. She was first elected to the Court of Appeals in 2006 and began serving as Chief Judge in 2021. Since 2008, she has served as an adjunct law professor at Campbell Law School, teaching judicial process.  

Chief Judge Stroud has worked to improve North Carolina’s courts at all levels by serving on many commissions and committees, including as a member of the Chief Justice’s Commission on Professionalism, the Family Court Advisory Commission, the NCBA Appellate Rules Committee, and as Chair of the Chief Justice’s Rules Advisory Commission.  She is honored to have wide bipartisan support, including endorsement by the two previous Chief Judges of the Court of Appeals.