Judge Ronald B. Ramsey, Sr., began serving as a Regional Judicial Outreach Liaison, serving Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina and Florida, effective March 1, 2022. He is the presiding judge of the DeKalb County State Court Division – B, where he has served as a member of that bench since June 2015 presiding over one of the largest misdemeanor traffic caseloads in the State of Georgia. He has organized a series of “lunch and learn” sessions on the important issue of “masking” for members of the bench and bar in his judicial circuit, to ensure that commercial drivers cases are properly evaluated in accordance with regulations. Judge Ramsey was instrumental in the development of important access to justice initiatives during the pandemic via technology, which helped to yield the court’s administrator being honored with the ABA’s prestigious McMahon Award for court technology in 2020.
Prior to taking the State Court bench, Ramsey served as Georgia State Senator for District 43 and was elected as Chair of the DeKalb Senate Delegation, and appointed as Chair of the Urban Affairs Committee, and Vice-Chair of the Special Judiciary Committee by the Lt. Governor. As a senator, Ramsey authored and passed into law Senate Bill 419 on behalf of veterans suffering post-traumatic stress disorder who were concerned with difficulty with law enforcement during traffic stops due to their condition, which reportedly in several instances had been misinterpreted as reasonable suspicion of misconduct. The legislation was the first of its kind nationwide to place a health-related designation such as PTSD on the back of a driver’s license other than the designation for eye glasses. Ramsey was honored for his passage of the legislation by Veterans For Christ, Inc. and awarded an honorary life membership in the organization. Senator Ramsey was also twice honored as “Legislator of The Year”, along with numerous other honors.
Ramsey is also the former Chief Legal Officer of the DeKalb County School District, the fourth largest school district in the State of Georgia.
Judge Ramsey began his judicial career as the first African-American to appointed to serve on the Municipal Court of Stone Mountain, GA, where he presided for seven years, over thousands of traffic related cases prior to being elected to the State Senate.
Judge Ramsey was elected to serve as Executive Committee Member on the Georgia Council of State Court Judges, as District 7 Representative educating and representing the interests of judges in DeKalb, Fulton and Rockdale Counties, from October 2018 – October 2021. Since 2015, he has served that same body as a member of the Legislative Task Force and was appointed Co-Chair in 2020, to vet court-related legislation such as safety ignition interlock bills and others being considered by the Georgia General Assembly.
Judge Ramsey is a member of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals. He is also the immediate past Chair of the American Bar Association – Judicial Division – National Conference of Specialized Court Judges, after having been elected as District 4 Representative mentoring and educating judges in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Puerto Rico. He was subsequently elected to the offices of Secretary and Chair-Elect.
Judge Ramsey is also the former elected Chair of Atlanta’s historic Gate City Bar Association–Judicial Section. He is the recipient of the John Marshall Law School “Distinguished Alumni” award and recently celebrated 30 years as a member of the State Bar of Georgia. He has served the State Bar as a “Mentor” to new lawyers and as a “Group Leader” on the Chief Justice’s Commission on Professionalism. Judge Ramsey is the recipient of the prestigious “Thurgood Marshall Award” for exemplary legal leadership from the DeKalb County Branch of the NAACP and has been honored as “Mr. Alumni” by his alma mater North Carolina Central University. Judge Ramsey was also honored as a “Distinguished Alumni” by John Marshall Law School. Judge Ramsey is a past Board of Directors member of the DeKalb History Center and a member of the 2017 class of Leadership DeKalb. He is the organizer of the “Angel Wings” initiative which supports homeless students during the holidays.
Judge Ramsey has been married to his wife Doris for nearly 37 years and they are the parents of a son and a daughter, both graduates of the University System of Georgia and enjoy spending time in the mountains and at the beach with their granddaughter.