Chief Justice Debra Todd was born on October 15, 1957 in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania. The daughter of a steelworker and homemaker, Todd knew she wanted to be a lawyer by the age of 12.
Chief Justice Todd graduated from Lincoln High School (1975), where she sang in the school choir. In 1979, she graduated with honors from Chatham College (now University), an institution she still remains connected to, and a place where she has received an Honorary Doctorate in Public Service in 2008. She earned her Juris Doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh in 1982. For the next 17 years she fulfilled her dream by working as a lawyer in her adopted hometown of Pittsburgh.
In 1999, she successfully ran for the Superior Court of Pennsylvania. She received her Master of Laws in 2004, from the University of Virginia, sitting along with classmate Chief Justice Emeritus Thomas G. Saylor. Chief Justice Todd was elevated to the Supreme Court in 2007.
On October 1, 2022, she became the first woman to don the Chief Justice’s attire—a first in the Court’s 300+ years of existence. Chief Justice Todd’s work has focused on the formalization of Elder Law and the promotion of pro bono service by attorneys for all of Pennsylvania’s citizenry. According to Todd, the favorite part of her job is listening to oral argument during the Court’s sessions.