Millicent Tidwell Biography

portrait of Millicent Tidwell

Millicent Tidwell is the Judicial Council's Acting Administrative Director. She previously served as the council's Chief Deputy Director, overseeing the Judicial Council's Leadership Services Division. Prior to that, she served for two years as the Judicial Council's Chief Operating Officer, directing the Operations and Programs Division.

With more than 20 years of experience in the criminal justice field, she previously served as Director of the Division of Rehabilitative Programs for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation where she managed an annual budget of more than $450 million. Ms. Tidwell’s breadth of career experience includes policy making, strategic planning, partnership building, research, and evaluation and process improvement for complex and diverse organizations.

Ms. Tidwell practiced law in Sacramento before turning to public service in 1999, when she went to work as a public safety policy analyst for the Office of Governor Gray Davis. A year later, she became Chief of Mentally Ill Offender Services at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. In 2005, Ms. Tidwell became Deputy Director of the Office of Criminal Justice Collaboration at the California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs, during which time she served on the Judicial Council’s Collaborative Justice Courts Advisory Committee. In 2013, she became the Director for the Division of Rehabilitative Programs at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, where she served until joining the Judicial Council.

Ms. Tidwell holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Sacramento State University, with a major in criminal law. She earned her juris doctorate from Lincoln Law School of Sacramento, and was admitted to the State Bar of California in 1997.