Honorable Nan Waller, JD '79 to deliver address at 2025 Oregon Law Commencement

University of Oregon School of Law graduate Honorable Nan Waller JD '79, recipient of the 2024 Minoru Yasui Justice Award, will be the distinguished speaker for the Oregon Law Juris Doctorate and Master of Laws commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 17, 2025.

Judge Nan Waller, JD ‘79, was appointed to the Multnomah County Circuit Court bench in 2001. She served as Presiding Judge for six years and before that as Chief Family Court Judge. Currently, she serves as the Mental Health Court Judge and manages the competency docket for the court. She also co-chairs the Chief Justice’s Behavioral Health Advisory Council, serves on CCJ/COSA Behavioral Health Committee Competency Workgroup, and on the Board of Lines for Life, a non-profit dedicated to preventing substance abuse and suicide and promoting mental health. She also serves on the Advisory Board for the Council of State Governments Justice Center.

Judge Waller has served on numerous work groups and committees to improve the justice system, including as one of four Executive Sponsor’s for Oregon eCourt, as a leader in the planning for a new central courthouse in Multnomah County, and was on Governor Brown’s Children’s Cabinet.  She also served as a member of the Criminal Justice Workgroup of the National Judicial Task Force to Examine State Courts’ Response to Mental Illness and has received numerous awards for her work on the bench and in the community including, the National CASA Judge of the Year award, the Classroom Law Project’s Legal Citizen of the Year award, NAMI Oregon’s Gordon and Sharon Smith New Freedom Award, the Frohnmayer Award for Public Service, the William H. Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence, and the FORA Health Spirit of Recovery Advocacy Award and the Minoru Yasui Justice Award. 

 Judge Waller received her BA from Stanford University and JD from the University of Oregon. Judge Waller and her husband, Paul, have 3 children.