Chair Stephanie Williams Ray

Governor Charlie Crist appointed Stephanie Williams Ray as Chair on September 29, 2008. Chair Ray worked at the Florida State University College of Law for approximately nine years prior to her appointment to PERC. During most of her tenure at the law school, she served as the Associate Dean for Administration. Before joining the administrative faculty at the law school, she was an associate attorney with the Tallahassee law firm of Ausley & McMullen where she handled a variety of complex civil, administrative and corporate legal matters.

In her fourteen years as an attorney, Chair Ray has worked diligently to serve and advance the principles and ideals of the legal profession. As a young attorney, she was recognized as Florida’s Most Productive Young Lawyer by the Young Lawyers Division of The Florida Bar. She has served as President of the Young Lawyers Section of the Tallahassee Bar Association and as a member of the Board of Directors for the Tallahassee Bar Association, the Tallahassee Women Lawyers, and the Legal Aid Foundation. She has been appointed twice to the Second Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission and served a term as Chair of the Commission. She is a member of the Executive Council of the Labor and Employment Law Section of The Florida Bar, and she has been privileged to serve on a number of committees of The Florida Bar, including the Committee on Professionalism, the Judicial Nominating Procedures Committee, the Continuing Legal Education Committee, and the Student Education and Admission to the Bar Committee (SEABC). She is past chair of SEABC and current vice chair of the Committee on Professionalism. She also currently serves as secretary and membership chair for the William H. Stafford American Inn of Court.

Chair Ray is an honors graduate from Vanderbilt University and the Florida State University College of Law, where she served on the Law Review.