Justice Dustin P. Rowe is a lifelong resident of Tishomingo and a graduate of Tishomingo High School. At the age of 18, while still a senior in high school, he won election to the Tishomingo City Council, where he served two terms as the youngest mayor in the state. Justice Rowe earned his bachelor’s degree with honors from East Central University and his J.D. from the OU College of Law, where his graduating class awarded him the Professional Responsibility Award, and the faculty awarded him the Joseph Rarick Award. He was named a Lee B. Thompson scholar while at OU. He is an alumnus of the National Judicial College in Reno, Nevada. 

Justice Rowe practiced law in Tishomingo from 2001 to 2019, where he served as Tishomingo city attorney for 18 years. He served as special judge of the Chickasaw Nation District Court from 2005 to 2011 and as district judge of the Chickasaw Nation District Court from 2011 to 2019. He was appointed to the Supreme Court of Oklahoma by Gov. J. Kevin Stitt on Nov. 20, 2019. He assumed office on Dec. 20, 2019. 

Justice Rowe is an enrolled member of the Chickasaw Nation. He and his wife are the proud parents of two children. Justice Rowe can be reached at Oklahoma Judicial Center, 2100 N. Lincoln Blvd., Oklahoma City, 73105 or dustin.rowe@oscn.net. 

Justice James R. Winchester was appointed as a member of the Supreme Court of Oklahoma by Gov. Frank Keating in 2000. He served as chief justice of the court from January 2007 to December 2008. 

A native of Clinton, he received his bachelor's degree from OU and his J.D. from the OCU School of Law.  

After graduating from law school, Justice Winchester practiced law in western Oklahoma before being named associate district judge for Caddo County in January 1983. In December 1983, at age 30, he became one of the youngest district judges in the state when he was appointed by Gov. George Nigh as district judge for the 6th Judicial District of Oklahoma. 

He was named Outstanding State Trial Court Judge and is a past president of the Oklahoma Judicial Conference. 

For two years, Justice Winchester served as a U.S. administrative law judge in Oklahoma City and New Orleans. 

Justice Winchester is a graduate of Leadership Oklahoma and a recipient of the Boy Scouts of America Silver Beaver Award. He resides in Chickasha with his wife, Susan Winchester, and their son, Davis. 

Justice Dana Kuehn was appointed to the Supreme Court by Gov. Kevin Stitt on July 26, 2021. Before being appointed, she was serving a two-year term as presiding judge of the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, to which she was appointed in 2017 by Gov. Mary Fallin. She is the first woman in Oklahoma history to serve on both courts of last resort. 

A native of Tulsa, she attended OSU, receiving a bachelor’s degree in political science. Justice Kuehn was a top-10 graduate of the OSU College of Arts and Sciences and a member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, of which she served as president. She received her J.D. from the TU College of Law in 1996. 

After graduating from law school, Justice Kuehn was a felony prosecutor for 10 years with the Tulsa County District Attorney’s Office. She headed the Crimes Against Children Unit and served as chief of the Juvenile Division. She was an associate with the law firm of Steidley & Neal from 1999 until 2000. 

In 2006, Justice Kuehn was elected associate district judge of Tulsa County. She served as chief of the Civil Division at Tulsa County from 2010 through 2012. She teaches the Evidence Workshop at the TU College of Law. In May 2017, she was inducted into the TU College of Law Hall of Fame and received the Thomas Coffman Community Service Award. 

Justice Kuehn is an active member of the Tulsa County Bar Association and Oklahoma Bar Association. She is a recipient of the 2016 Mona Salyer Lambird Spotlight Award. In 2017, the American Board of Trial Advocates recognized her as Judge of the Year for the state of Oklahoma. 

She is a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. 

Justice Douglas L. Combs was born Oct. 17, 1951, in Shawnee and graduated from Shawnee High School in 1969. He attended St. Gregory’s Junior College for one year on an athletic scholarship and then transferred to OU, receiving his bachelor’s degree in political science in 1973. He received his J.D. from the OCU School of Law in 1976. While in law school, Justice Combs worked as a deputy court clerk for the Oklahoma Supreme Court. Following admission to the Oklahoma Bar Association in 1976, he served as an assistant attorney general for the state of Oklahoma under Attorney General Larry Derryberry. In 1977, he returned to his hometown, Shawnee, and entered private practice as an associate with the law firm of Henry, West & Sill. He remained in private practice as an associate and then a partner in the firm of Henry, West, Sill, Combs & Henry until 1982, when he opened his own law office in Shawnee. 

Justice Combs began his judicial career in January 1995 as a special judge for the 23rd Judicial District, serving both Pottawatomie and Lincoln counties. In November 2002, he began serving as district judge for the 23rd Judicial District, being elected to that post twice without opposition. While serving as a special judge, Justice Combs was responsible for the establishment of the first drug court in the 23rd Judicial District – a docket over which he presided as both special judge and district judge until his appointment to the Supreme Court. Combs also served as chief judge of the 23rd Judicial District and as presiding judge of the North Central Judicial Administrative District, which encompasses Kay, Lincoln, Logan, Noble, Payne and Pottawatomie counties. He was active in the Oklahoma Judicial Conference, serving on the Executive Board as both a special judge and district judge. He has served on the Legislative Committee for the Judicial Conference for more than 15 years. He served as president of the Judicial Conference in 2009. He also served as a member of the Oklahoma Court on the Judiciary, Trial Division, while he was a district judge. 

On Jan. 1, 2011, Gov. Brad Henry appointed Justice Combs to serve as Supreme Court justice for District 8, following the retirement of Justice Rudolph Hargrave of Wewoka. Justice Hargrave had served the state of Oklahoma as a justice since 1974. Justice Combs served as the vice chief justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court from 2015 to 2016 and as chief justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court from Dec. 1, 2016, to Dec. 31, 2018. During a portion of his tenure as justice, he also served as a member of the Oklahoma Court on the Judiciary, Appellate Division. 

Justice Combs has been married to his wife, Janet, for 48 years. Prior to her retirement in 2010, she owned and operated the Shawnee Academy of Ballet for 34 years. The couple has two sons, Christopher and Eric – both members of the OBA. Justice Combs is a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation. He and Janet are members of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Shawnee. 

Judge Stacie L. Hixon, District 1, Office 1. Gov. Kevin Stitt appointed Stacie Hixon to the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals in March 2020 to replace retired Judge Jerry Goodman. Judge Hixon grew up in Tulsa and attended OSU, where she earned a bachelor's degree in German in 1996 and a master’s degree in political science in 1997. She earned her J.D. from the TU College of Law in 2002. Prior to her appointment, she was a partner at Steidley & Neal PLLC, which has offices in Tulsa and McAlester. As a private practice attorney, she focused on insurance defense, insurance coverage and bad faith litigation, major casualty, products liability, employment law and general civil litigation in state and federal court, with an emphasis on legal research, writing and appellate work. Judge Hixon is a member of the Tulsa County Bar Association and the Oklahoma Bar Association. She was admitted to practice in all Oklahoma state courts, the United States District Courts for the Northern, Eastern and Western Districts of Oklahoma, the Western District of Arkansas, the United States Court of Appeals for the 2nd and 10th Circuits and the United States Supreme Court. Judge Hixon is married to attorney Philip D. Hixon, and they have one son. 

Judge Gregory C. Blackwell has served on the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals in Tulsa since he was sworn into office Aug. 9, 2021.  

Judge Blackwell graduated from OU in 1999 with a bachelor’s degree in letters and a minor in linguistics. He received his J.D. from the OU College of Law, graduating with honors in 2004. Immediately upon graduation, Judge Blackwell served a one-year federal clerkship with Judge Michael Mihm in the Central District of Illinois. Judge Blackwell then joined the United States Department of Justice as a trial attorney in Washington, D.C., where he defended the United States and numerous federal agencies in complex environmental litigation. 

In 2008, Judge Blackwell returned to Oklahoma, where he served in the land department of a local oil and gas company and then as head of appellate litigation at a mid-sized law firm in the Oklahoma City metro. Immediately prior to his appointment, Judge Blackwell was honored to serve on the staff of Judge Bay Mitchell, who sits on the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals in Oklahoma City. 

More than 22 years ago, Judge Blackwell realized his greatest achievement, marrying the love of his life (and high school sweetheart), Joanna. Together, they are raising two delightful children, James and Penelope. 

Judge John F. Fischer was appointed as a judge on the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals in May 2006. He was retained by the people of Oklahoma as a judge of that court at the 2008, 2010 and 2016 general elections. He was twice elected by his fellow judges to serve as the court’s vice chief and chief judge, and he is currently serving as the court’s chief judge.   

Judge Fischer received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from OU and was awarded his J.D. by the OU College of Law in 1975. After graduation, he served as an assistant attorney general for the state of Oklahoma.   

He was in private law practice from 1980 until 2006. While in private practice, Judge Fischer was selected by his peers as one of The Best Lawyers in America in commercial litigation.   

He is a master of the bench and past president of the William J. Holloway American Inn of Court. He is a member of the Oklahoma and American Bar Associations, the Oklahoma Judicial Conference, a Fellow of the American and Oklahoma Bar Foundations and a former Oklahoma representative to the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit Advisory Committee.   

In 2011, Judge Fischer was named Appellate Judge of the Year by the Oklahoma Association for Justice. In 2019, he was elected to membership in the American Law Institute. “The American Law Institute is a private, independent, nonprofit organization that publishes Restatements of the Law, Principles of the Law, and Model Codes to further its mission to clarify, modernize, or otherwise improve the law to promote the better administration of justice.” 

Judge Fischer and his wife have two daughters and four grandsons.  

Gov. Mary Fallin appointed Judge Swinton to serve on the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals on Sept. 16, 2016. She was elected as district judge for Oklahoma County in November 2002 and served in that capacity until 2016. Prior to her election as district judge, Barbara Swinton served as a special judge from 1996 to 2002.

Hometowns include Oklahoma City, Okmulgee and Tulsa – where she graduated from Nathan Hale High School. She graduated with a B.S. with honors in political science from OSU in 1982 and from Georgia State University School of Law in 1991. Other cities of residence include Manhattan, Kansas; Kansas City, Missouri; and Atlanta, Georgia.

During her legal career, she practiced general civil and family law with Riggs, Abney, Neal, Turpen, Orbison and Lewis for four years. She also served as a trial attorney with David W. Lee and Associates for one year, where she handled family law and federal civil rights cases.

She has served as vice chief and chief judge of the Court of Civil Appeals, president of the Oklahoma County Bar Association; president of the Oklahoma Judicial Conference Executive Board, past chairman of the Oklahoma Judges Association; the Oklahoma Bar Association Professionalism Committee; past co-chair of the OBA Bench and Bar Committee; and was awarded the Leadership in Law award from the Journal Record in 2007. In 2015 she was awarded the Mona Salyer Lambird Spotlight Award. The Young Lawyers Division of the OCBA presented her with the Beacon Award in 2017 and the OCBA awarded the Bobby G. Knapp Leadership Award in 2021.

Judge Swinton also serves as an adjunct professor at OCU School of Law in the areas of pretrial litigation and trial practice. She currently serves on the Oklahoma Bar Association Access to Justice and Bench and Bar committees, and the OBA Women in Law Section.

Judge Swinton has served on the Board of Elders for Crown Heights Christian Church and is past district president of the National Exchange Club. She is active in the Greater Oklahoma City Panhellenic Alumnae Association and the Zeta Tau Alpha OKC alumnae group and is a life member of the OSU Alumni Association. Judge Swinton is a graduate of Class 18 of Leadership Oklahoma City and Class 22 of Leadership Oklahoma. Judge Swinton and her husband, Charles, have three adult children and two perfect grandchildren.

Gov. Kevin Stitt appointed Judge Thomas E. Prince to the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals on Dec. 18, 2020. Judge Prince had served as a District Judge for Oklahoma County from 2012 to 2020. During his tenure as a district judge, the Oklahoma Supreme Court appointed him as the presiding judge of the State Multi-County Grand Jury, serving in that position from 2016 to 2018. He also was elected by his district court colleagues in Oklahoma and Canadian counties to serve as the vice presiding administrative judge for the 7th Judicial Administrative District from 2016 to 2018. He was then elected to serve as the presiding administrative judge for the year 2019. Prior to becoming a judge, he was in private law practice for 29 years.  

 Born in Idabel, Judge Prince earned a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1979 from Southern Arkansas University and, in 1982, a J.D. from the OCU School of Law. Judge Prince was appointed by three prior governors to the Oklahoma State Election Board, where he served as a member from 1999 to 2012. He also was a member of the Standards Board of the United States Election Assistance Commission from 2009 to 2012.   

 While in private law practice, Judge Prince served on a part-time basis as an Administrative Law Judge for the Oklahoma Merit Protection Commission, the Oklahoma State Department of Health and the Construction Industries Board. He has served as president of the Oklahoma Judges’ Association, holding that position from 2013 to 2015, and is a former member of the Oklahoma County Law Library Board of Trustees. He is a member of the American, Oklahoma and Oklahoma County Bar Associations. He is a current member of the Oklahoma Judicial Conference Legislative Committee. In addition, he is a master member and past president of the Luther Bohanon American Inn of Court. Judge Prince and his wife, Sherry, have five children and eight grandchildren.