ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The National Association of Drug Court Professionals (NADCP) announced President Judge Michael J. Barrasse of the Lackawanna County Court of Common Pleas has been unanimously chosen by the board of directors to serve as its chairman. Judge Barrasse will serve a term of two years.

Judge Barrasse has been a leader in the treatment court field for nearly two decades. As president judge of the 45th Judicial District, he oversees adult drug court, family dependency treatment court, driving under the influence (DUI) court, veterans treatment court and co-occurring disorders court. He has been a leading advocate for treatment courts in Pennsylvania, which is now home to more than 100 programs.

Judge Barrasse has served on the NADCP board of directors since 2011, most recently chairing the DUI court and veterans treatment court committees. As an NADCP board member, he has been instrumental in helping to establish, grow and sustain a movement that now includes more than 3,000 treatment courts serving over 150,000 people each year.

Judge Barrasse was first elected to the Lackawanna County Common Pleas Court in 1999. He was elected president in January 2016.

He serves as the judicial outreach liaison for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and is chairman of the DUI Oversight Committee. He is a member of the Pennsylvania Joint State Government Commission Advisory Committee on Addiction Treatment Services and has been the chairman of the Child Advocacy Center for 19 years.

Judge Barrasse was appointed to serve on the Court of Judicial Discipline by Gov. Tom Wolf on Nov. 29, 2016.

Prior to taking the bench, he was elected to three terms as district attorney for Lackawanna County. He also has served as a special assistant United States attorney, special attorney general for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and senior trial assistant district attorney in Philadelphia.

Judge Barrasse has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Pennsylvania Trial Judges Award for Efficient Caseload Management (Golden Crow Bar Award), the 2006 Pennsylvania Psychological Association Public Service Award, the 2007 John J. Baldi Award for excellence in program evaluation and review, the Women’s Resource Center Public Service Award, the 2016 Kevin Quinlan Award for Excellence in Traffic Safety, and the National Alliance on Mental Illness Pennsylvania Public Servant of the Year Award.

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For Abington Journal

Information provided by the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts.