Roderick L. Ireland, Associate Justice, was born in Springfield, Massachusetts on December 3, 1944. He received a B.A. degree from Lincoln University, J.D. degree from Columbia University Law School , LL.M. degree from Harvard Law School., and Ph.D. from Northeastern University. From 1971 to 1973 Justice Ireland served with the Roxbury Defenders Committee. From 1975 to 1977 he served as Assistant Secretary and Chief Legal Counsel for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Administration and Finance. Since 1978 he has been an adjunct faculty member at the School of Law and College of Criminal Justice at Northeastern University. Justice Ireland served on the Boston Juvenile Court from 1977 to 1990; the Massachusetts Appeals Court from 1990-1997; and in 1997 was the first African-American appointed to the Supreme Judicial Court in its over-three hundred year history. Photo Courtesy of Vin Catania