Referee Carol Chrisman has served as a judicial officer with the Superior Court of California for Sacramento County for almost 15 years. Referee Chrisman has been assigned about equally to adjudicating dependency and delinquency cases. She was the lead judicial officer spearheading the dependency and delinquency drug court programs, which she presided over for a number of years. Referee Chrisman has served as chair of various Court and community collaborative committees. Referee Chrisman, since her appointment has served as Chair of the Court’s Medical and Mental Health issues Committee for dependency and delinquency overseeing the creation of a number of innovative programs and system reforms to better serve children and families that are mental health and/or Alta Regional Center consumers. Prior to serving as a judicial officer she was employed as the founding executive director of Sacramento Child Advocates, Inc, a nonprofit law firm representing children in dependency proceedings and as an associate attorney with Orrick, Herrington and Sutcliffe.
In her life before law, Referee Chrisman served as the program manager of a community mental health clinic in rural Oregon providing substance abuse evaluation and treatment, individual, group, and family counseling and court ordered evaluations. She served as an expert witness in a variety of cases and as an involuntary commitment investigator. She also worked in Seattle as a social worker and as an independent living project coordinator with regional center clients.
Referee Chrisman received her law degree from UC Davis, her Masters Degree from the University of Oregon in counseling psychology and her BA degree from Seattle Pacific University.