Indiana Chief Justice Rush to headline next Presidential Lecture event

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Indiana Chief Justice Loretta Rush, a Purdue University alumna and longtime Tippecanoe County resident, will return to campus March 25 to join Purdue President Mung Chiang for a conversation as part of the Presidential Lecture Series.

Rush’s Presidential Lecture appearance, titled “State Courts as Engines of Economic Development, Public Safety and Access to Justice,” is at 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 25, in the Purdue Memorial Union’s North Ballroom. The event is free and open to the public, but a general admission ticket will be required.

“With a bachelor’s degree in history from Purdue in hand, Loretta Rush has gone on to become a leader in the world of jurisprudence, rising to the role of chief justice of Indiana,” Chiang said. “That was after an impressive career as an attorney, a Tippecanoe County judge and a reform advocate in the juvenile court system while contributing to the creation of the county’s Court Appointed Special Advocate program, which looks out for the interests of abused and neglected children. We look forward to her return to the Purdue campus for this special Presidential Lecture appearance.”

As chief justice, Rush supervises Indiana’s judicial branch, a role that includes working with the state legislature to secure funding and allocate resources appropriately. Rush also oversees a multiagency central administrative office that handles everything from caseload measures and technology updates to the admission and discipline of lawyers.

The Judicial Nominating Commission selected Rush as the first female chief justice of Indiana in August 2014, and she was reappointed in 2019 and 2024. She was first named Indiana’s 108th Supreme Court justice in November 2012 after being appointed by then-Gov. Mitch Daniels. Voters retained her in 2014 and again in 2024.

Rush received the Purdue University Distinguished Alumni Award in 2015 with induction into the Boiler Business Exchange Hall of Fame. She also gave the commencement address at Purdue’s winter graduation ceremonies in December 2013.

She is past president of the Conference of Chief Justices and was named the 2018 Indiana Chamber of Commerce Government Leader of the Year. She also served as co-chair of the National Judicial Opioid Task Force and as an executive committee member on the National Judicial Task Force to Examine State Courts’ Response to Mental Illness.

In 2019, Rush was appointed by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to the Judicial Conference Committee on Federal-State Jurisdiction and continues to serve in that role. Rush also was recently elected as a member of the American Law Institute.

In addition to being a member of local, state and national bar associations, Rush is a Life Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and an Academy of Law Alumni Fellow for the Maurer School of Law. She is a member of the Indiana Girl Advisory Council and chairs or is a member of several commissions, including the Indiana Judicial Conference Board of Directors and the Indiana Judicial Nominating/Qualifications Commission.

She also has received the American Legion of Indiana Distinguished Public Service Award, the Indianapolis Bar Association’s Antoinette Dakin Leach Award, the Indiana Civil Rights Commission Spirit of Justice Award, the Indianapolis Business Journal Women of Influence Award, the Addiction Policy Forum Pillar of Excellence Award and the National Association of Women Judges Lady Justice Award.

IBJ Media has included Rush on each of its annual Indiana 250 lists, which includes the state’s most influential and impactful leaders.

Prior to joining the high court, Rush was elected three times as Tippecanoe Superior Court 3 judge. In that role, she assisted with the creation of the county’s Court Appointed Special Advocate, or CASA, program. She also implemented a certified juvenile drug treatment court and initiated a 24-hour assessment center for youth. During her tenure, she helped initiate, develop and sustain more than 25 youth programs.

Prior to that, she spent 15 years in general legal practice and eventually became a partner at a Lafayette firm.

Rush earned an undergraduate degree in history from Purdue’s College of Liberal Arts and a law degree from Indiana University Maurer School of Law, both with honors. She was born in Pennsylvania and moved frequently as a child before settling in Indiana in 1972.

About the Presidential Lecture Series

Launched in 2014 by then-Purdue President Mitch Daniels and continued by President Mung Chiang, the Presidential Lecture Series exposes Purdue students and the broader community to inspiring ideas, courageous leadership and models of civic engagement and civil discourse. The Presidential Lecture Series has had over 40 guests of many viewpoints and perspectives and hosted some of the great intellectual, business and civic leaders of our time. As one of the world’s premier centers of scholarly leadership, Purdue is — appropriately and necessarily — a regular venue for great thinkers across a wide variety of disciplines.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a public research university leading with excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities in the United States, Purdue discovers, disseminates and deploys knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 107,000 students study at Purdue across multiple campuses, locations and modalities, including more than 58,000 at our main campus in West Lafayette and Indianapolis. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue’s main campus has frozen tuition 13 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap — including its comprehensive urban expansion, the Mitch Daniels School of Business, Purdue Computes and the One Health initiative — at https://www.purdue.edu/president/strategic-initiatives.