Administrative Office of Courts
Judge Drungole-Ellis to take oath Dec. 28 in Starkville December 19, 2018 New 14th District Chancellor Paula Drungole-Ellis will take the oath of office Dec. 28 at 11 a.m. at the Oktibbeha County Chancery Courthouse in Starkville. Senior Chancellor Dorothy W. Colom will administer the oath of office. Judge Colom, who has served since January 1995, will retire Dec. 31. Judge Drungole-Ellis will become senior chancellor of the district which includes Chickasaw, Clay, Lowndes, Noxubee, Oktibbeha and Webster counties. The guest speaker at the investiture will be nationally known entrepreneur Valerie Daniels-Carter, co-founder, president and CEO of V&J Holding Companies of Milwaukee. She heads the nation’s largest female-owned food service franchise, is board chair of AAA, is on the board of the Green Bay Packers, and owns a minority share in the Milwaukee Bucks. Judge Drungole-Ellis has served by appointment as Oktibbeha County Youth Court Referee for the past nine and one-half years. She has practiced law in the Golden Triangle area for 32 years. She is a former part-time professor at Mississippi State University. She currently serves on the Judicial Task Force for Excellence in Education, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges and the Methodist Senior Services Board of Directors. Judge Drungole-Ellis is a native of Oktibbeha County. She was valedictorian of Maben High School. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Rust College, graduating summa cum laude. She earned a law degree from the University of Kansas Law School in Lawrence, Kansas. Across the state, 42 new judges will take their oaths of office in ceremonies scheduled during the next three weeks. New trial court judges’ terms begin on Jan. 1, 2019. New judges include three new Court of Appeals judges, 20 new Chancery Court judges, nine new Circuit Court judges and 10 new County Court judges. A list of investiture ceremonies around the state is at this link: https://courts.ms.gov/Ceremonies.php. #### |
