Dr. Amelia Thorn

Biography

Amelia Ashton Thorn serves as the Assistant Director of the Bolch Judicial Institute and is a senior lecturing fellow at Duke University School of Law. She designs educational programming for state and federal judges and serves as the articles editor for Judicature, the Institute’s scholarly journal focused on the administration of justice. Professor Thorn leads the Institute’s trauma-informed courts project and lectures nationally and internationally for court personnel on improving judicial systems. She has served as the principal investigator for court observation studies examining the use of a wide range of trauma-informed practices that relate to youth outcomes. Her judicial experience includes clerking for Justice Don R. Willett of the Texas Supreme Court and Judge Harry T. Edwards of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Prior to law school, she worked as a writer and editor, serving as the acting editor-in-chief of a magazine with a circulation of over 70,000. Professor Thorn graduated magna cum laude from Duke Law and received a Bachelor of Arts from Stanford University, where she earned university distinction and departmental honors. Her work has been published in law reviews, magazines, and poetry journals.

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