Mia Wortham Spells

Professional career

• Dayton, Ohio native and elected judge of the Dayton Municipal Court, serving since 2015 and currently through December 31, 2027
• Current Role: Elected Dayton Municipal Court Judge (nonpartisan, six-year term)

Education

Additional information

• In 2002, she produced the award-winning documentary Brown at 50, chronicling Dayton’s school desegregation
• In 1993, she successfully used the “battered woman defense” in the State v.
• She also held the role of a law clerk for the Legal Aid Society and has been active in public service, including as President of the Mercy Manor Board in the early 1990s, helping formerly incarcerated women reintegrate into society
• Among the few female attorneys in Montgomery County, Ohio
• handling death penalty cases.
• handling criminal, traffic, civil, and domestic cases.
• She later opened a community-based law office
• Judge Spells has received multiple awards, including the Legal Advocacy Award from the Montgomery County Common Pleas Court, the National NAACP Foot Soldiers in the Sand Award, and alumni honors from the United Negro College Fund and Wilberforce University
• She has been involved with numerous organizations, including the NAACP, National Bar Association, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, and the Thurgood Marshall Law Society.