CONNECT . MOTIVATE . INSPIRE .
her laurels. Part of being a community servant and advocate is ensuring just and qualified leadership is in place. And so going back to that same warm circle, she remembered a conversation she had with a younger attorney years before expressing the desire to be a judge. This was an attorney who she had met and worked with through GABWA, who had distinguished herself with her community work on behalf of those who required assistance in communications, needed bilingual translators, and those defendants who came to court without English as a first language. That young attorney is now Judge Jana J. Edmondson-Cooper. Judge Brown reached out to then- Attorney Edmondson-Cooper to ensure that she was still interested in serving; and, of course, the answer was yes! Judge Edmondson-Cooper applied to and interviewed for the position on the Magistrate Court that Judge Brown was vacating due to her election to the Superior Court.
Jana J. Edmondson-Cooper is a native of Long Island, New York. However, her father often told her growing up, “You may be a New Yorker, but you have Southern roots,” as both of her parents were from South Carolina. So it was no surprise when Judge Edmondson- Cooper decided to earn her bachelor’s degree from Spelman College, nestled in the heart of the South. “To this day, attending Spelman College was one of the best decisions I ever made. The sign on the front of the school states, ‘Spelman women enter to lead so they may exit to serve.’” Judge Edmondson-Cooper was raised in a family of servant leaders. “Mom was a public school teacher, then later an entrepreneur. She was later elected as a Village Trustee (the equivalent of a city council member). Dad worked with at-risk youth, then founded [what would become the] second largest human service center in the state providing services for at-risk youth, adult and child
care, and substance abuse counseling.” Watching her parents and extended family of educators instilled in Judge Edmondson-Cooper the importance of serving one’s community. Even when one has the opportunity to go off and make good on one’s own, there is still responsibility to the collective whole.
“When God blesses you, it is seldom about you, but what you can do for others.”
Judge Edmondson-Cooper took that knowledge with her to Spelman College, and it grew from there. With Spelman’s focus on making a strong local impact so that it can be felt on an international scale, Judge Edmondson-Cooper was right at home with her sisters. She took that charge seriously, going on to the Mississippi School of Law. She was on Moot Court, a highly competitive mock trial team, had good grades—all of the credentials and benchmarks that employers look for when hiring. However, Judge Edmondson-Cooper
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