Honorable Nancy L. Butts is currently the President Judge of Lycoming County.

Judge Butts graduated from Lehigh University and California Western School of Law. She began her career in Lycoming County serving as an Assistant Public Defender with the Lycoming County Public Defender’s Office. She next served as the Law Clerk for Judge Clinton W. Smith and after her clerkship joined the practice of Charles A. Szybist, Esq. After about a year in private practice she then became an Assistant District Attorney with the Lycoming County District Attorney’s Office.

Judge Butts was elected to her first term as Common Pleas Judge in 1995 and was retained both in 2005 and 2015. She completed the General Jurisdiction Course at the National Judicial College with distinction in 1996. She became President Judge in 2010.

She currently serves as the Lycoming County Drug Court Judge and has continuously since its formation in 1998. Additionally, she currently presides over DUI Court since 2008. She established the County’s Juvenile Drug Court and served as its judge from 2004- 2016. She established and worked with the Lycoming County Mental Health Court from 2008 to 2012 and returned to it in 2018. She also presides over the County’s newly created Veteran’s Court.

As President Judge, she is the Chairman of the County’s Criminal Justice Advisory Board (CJAB). She also serves on the CJAB’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Subcommittees. Since 2014 as a member of the Substance abuse subcommittee she considers it her responsibility to increase awareness and education of the public through presentations and community meetings and began that effort through the formation of the Heroin Task Force. She recently completed a training with the National Judicial College on “Drugs in America Today: what Every Judge Needs to Know.” Through her participation on the Reentry Coalition subcommittee she assists with programming and policy governing incarcerated individuals returning back to the community.

Judge Butts has represented the Courts on the Lycoming County Prison Board since 1999.

In 1998, Judge Butts contributed to the creation of a local American Inn of Court. She was the first President of the Charles F. Greevy, Jr. Chapter of the American Inn of Court and currently serves as its Secretary.

Judge Butts was appointed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to serve on the Criminal Procedural Rules Committee from 2007-2014. In her last year on the Committee she served as Chairperson.

Based upon an initiative from the PA Supreme Court examining the accessibility of the Courts of elder citizens, in 2015, Judge Butts called together an Elder Abuse Task Force to identify resources and examine obstacles which exist between the Courts and access of the Lycoming County Elder population. All future work will be a collaboration between the public, Courts and Lycoming College.

Judge Butts is an active member of the community. She has been a member of the Community Theatre League for more than 30 years. She currently serves as Vice President and as member of the Board of Directors. She has been an Emergency Medical Technician for more than 25 years and is a Life Member of Old Lycoming Township Volunteer Fire Company along with a former employee of the Susquehanna Health System. In addition, she currently teaches part-time at Pennsylvania College of Technology.

AgrAbility for Pennsylvanians

Pennsylvania HeroesBy Nick YostDec 21, 2020