Deanell Reece Tacha

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Deanell Reece Tacha (born 1946 in Goodland, Kansas) is the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. She was nominated by President Ronald Reagan on October 31, 1985, to a new seat created by 98 Stat. 333 and was confirmed by the Senate on December 16, 1985. She has served as the chief judge of the circuit since 2001. She also served as a member of the U.S. Sentencing Commission from 1994-1998.

She received her B.A. from the University of Kansas in 1968, and her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 1971. She was a White House fellow, special assistant to the Secretary of Labor at the U.S. Department of Labor from 1971-1972. She was in private practice in Washington, DC and Concordia, Kansas from 1973-1974. She was the Director of the Douglas County Legal Aid Clinic, Lawrence, Kansas from 1974-1977. She was on the faculty of the University of Kansas School of Law from 1974-1985.

Today, Judge Tacha lives in and operates out of Lawrence, Kansas.