Hon. Sheila R. Tillerson Adams is the County Administrative Judge for the Prince George’s County Circuit Court in the Seventh Judicial Circuit of Maryland. She was appointed to the bench by former Governor Parris Glendening in 1996.
During her judicial tenure, Tillerson Adams was named County Administrative Judge of the Prince George’s County Circuit Court and the Circuit Administrative Judge of the Seventh Judicial Circuit on September 4, 2010. The Seventh Judicial Circuit includes Calvert, Charles, Prince George’s, and St. Mary’s Counties. Tillerson Adams has also served as chief judge of the Seventh Judicial Circuit since 2019.
Prior to serving as an associate judge for the Circuit Court (1996 to 2010), she presided as an associate judge for the Prince George’s County District Court in the Fifth District, a position to which she was appointed by former Governor William Donald Schaefer in 1993. At that time, Tillerson Adams held the distinction of being the first African-American woman appointed to sit on the county’s District Court bench.
In another first, she was the first African-American person to be appointed to serve as a deputy county attorney in Prince George’s County, a position she was appointed to in 1988. Tillerson Adams remained in that capacity until her appointment to the District Court in 1993. Before that, she spent four years as an assistant state’s attorney with the Prince George’s County State’s Attorney’s Office (1984 to 1988). During her tenure there, Tillerson Adams held an assignment as Chief of the Sexual Assualt/Child Abuse Unit (1987 to 1988).
She received a B.S. in psychology from Morgan State University in 1979. Tillerson Adams went on to complete a J.D. at Howard University School of Law (1982) and an LL.M. in taxation from Georgetown University Law Center (1987). She was admitted to the Maryland Bar in 1983.
After graduating from law school, Tillerson Adams began her legal career as a staff attorney in the Domestic Law Unit of the Legal Aid Bureau, Inc. in Baltimore (1982 to 1984).
She has sat on various committees with the Maryland Judicial Council and Judicial Conference. Tillerson Adams was also a member of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Forensic Services Work Group and the Prince George’s Forward Task Force.
Her other memberships have included the National Bar Association, the American Bar Association, the Maryland State Bar Association, the Prince George’s County Bar Association, the J. Franklyn Bourne Bar Association (past president), the Women’s Bar Association of Maryland, and the National Association of Women Judges.
Tillerson Adams was also a Reginald Heber Smith Fellow.
She has received the Outstanding Regional Award from the National Bar Association, the Outstanding Achievements in Government and Politics Award from the Washington, D.C., Chapter of the National Urban League, the Maryland Leadership in Law Lifetime Achievement Award from the Daily Record, and a Certificate of Recognition from the Charles County Commissioners.
Tillerson Adams was born in Washington, D.C., and attended Menchville High School in Newport News, Virginia.