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After 20 years, Priscilla Skillman retires but stays close to CCE

“The Council of the District of Columbia recognizes and honors Priscilla S. Skillman for her contributions regarding the system of justice and especially child welfare reform in the District of Columbia.”

This sentence is part of the decree recognizing Priscilla’s twenty years of work improving local justice with the Council for Court Excellence. Not just anyone receives a Ceremonial Resolution upon her retirement. But friends and colleagues who have worked with Priscilla know that her work has made a deep and lasting impact in so many ways.

“While I’m happy to retire, CCE has been a dream job for me,” Priscilla said. “I have been eager to come to work every day, and that is a rare gift.”

December 28, 2012 marked Priscilla’s last official day with CCE, where she was the Assistant Director. But she is still close to the CCE family: Because January is a busy month for the CCE School Jury Education Program, Priscilla continues to be in our office every day, as a consultant, to coordinate judges, schools, and teachers for those classroom visits. She will soon cut back to very limited hours, principally to support Hillary Evans' transition.

In most of her time with CCE, Priscilla led our work in all areas related to Children in the Courts, such as child welfare, foster care and adoption, custody, and juvenile justice. She helped create educational publications to engage the general public in the probate process, victims’ rights, jury duty, and the court system.

In addition to this program work, Priscilla has always been very active in team projects such as helping at CCE special events, creating content for our newsletters, and participating in fundraising and financial management. Colleagues could always count on her editor’s eye and her enthusiastic exchange of news clips and research briefs.

Priscilla and her husband Lewis Smith are active volunteers and community leaders. They support a number of local charities, and are frequently in the audience at local arts performances. Since 1996, Priscilla has served as the Board Chair of the Chevy Chase Presbyterian Church Transition Assistance Program, which assists homeless and working poor DC residents, including those seeking employment or training after returning from prison. 

As she enters into life after CCE, Priscilla hopes to have more time to visit with family. Her daughter Julia works for a settlement house in New York City, and her daughter Jennifer and son-in-law Nate, who own an organic vegetable farm in Massachusetts, are expecting the family’s first grandchild this spring.

Please join us in wishing Priscilla the very best!

 

 
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