Gov. Jay Inslee has appointed Cadine Ferguson-Brown to the Kitsap County Superior Court beginning Jan. 1, 2024, a news release says.

The appointment will fill the seat held by Judge Sally Olsen, who is retiring. She was appointed in 2004. She had practiced law for 18 years prior to her service as a judge.

Inslee appointed Ferguson-Brown as a judge in the Mason County Superior Court in May, 2022, and she was a court commissioner in the year before that. She is now the first judge to be appointed to the Superior Court since Judge Michelle Adams in 2018 according to the county.

“Cadine Ferguson-Brown is an extraordinary judge and is well-prepared to serve the Kitsap County community in this role,” Inslee says in the Dec. 27 release. “I’m pleased that she will bring her integrity, work ethic, courage and judicial skills to the Kitsap County Superior Court bench.”

A Kitsap resident, Ferguson-Brown obtained her law degree from the School of Legal Studies at the University of Wolverhampton in the United Kingdom, and was said to be “known for her fair, even-handed and well-considered decisions.” She presided over four departments during her tenure and worked to streamline processes to avoid delays and create a people-friendly courtroom, the release says.

The release does not note that Ferguson-Brown lost her seat after voters cast their ballots in favor of former senior deputy felony prosecutor David Stevens in the Mason County General Election this past November. Her new seat will be among those up for election again in 2024.