Pacific Names Judge Callahan to Board of Regents

October 13, 2004

For Immediate Release - October 13, 2004
Contact: Joe Brennan, 209.946.2745

(STOCKTON, CA) - University of Pacific President Donald DeRosa and Board of Regents Chair Diane Philibosian announce that federal judge Consuelo “Connie” M. Callahan has been elected a Regent of University of the Pacific. The Board of Regents is the University’s governing board.

“We are delighted to welcome Connie Callahan to the Board of Regents,” DeRosa said. “Her professional accomplishments, commitment to higher learning, and distinguished record of public service make her a model for all Pacific graduates.”

Judge Callahan earned her J.D. degree from Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento in 1975. She also holds a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and a master’s in law (LL.M.) from University of Virginia.

Callahan began her law career in Stockton as a deputy city attorney. She then joined the San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office in 1976 as a deputy district attorney, where she specialized in prosecution of child abuse and sexual assault cases and established the office's first specialized prosecution unit for those crimes.

In 1986, she was appointed commissioner of Stockton Municipal Court. In 1992, she became the first female and first Hispanic to serve as a judge of the Superior Court of San Joaquin County. In 1996, Gov. Pete Wilson appointed her to serve on California’s Third District Court of Appeal in Sacramento, the first San Joaquin County resident to serve in that capacity in 73 years.

President Bush nominated Callahan to serve on the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed her appointment in 2003.

Callahan has long been involved with University of the Pacific. She serves on the board of the Pacific McGeorge Alumni Association and in 2003 was its president. From 2000 to 2003, she was president of the Anthony M. Kennedy American Inn of Court, an organization that brings attorneys, judges, law professors and students together monthly to discuss issues of interest to the legal profession. The Kennedy Inn has been consistently recognized as one of the 10 best programs of its kind among more than 300 Inns of Court in the United States.

Her numerous awards and honors include the Governor's Award for Criminal Justice Programs (Victim-Witness), the Susan B. Anthony Award for Women of Achievement, and the Stockton Peacemaker of the Year award. In 1999 she was inducted into the San Joaquin County Mexican-American Hall of Fame.

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