Superior Court Judge Correale Stevens, of Sugarloaf, has been elected to a five-year term as President Judge of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania and will succeed President Judge Kate Ford Elliott when her term of office ends in January.

Every five years the 15 elected judges of the statewide intermediate appellate court choose a president judge, who will be the administrator for the court in addition to his judicial duties.

Judge Stevens graduated from Pennsylvania State University where he was inducted into the National Political Science Honorary. He was an Associate Editor of the Dickinson Law Review and upon graduation engaged in the private practice of law.

A former Hazleton City Solicitor, he was named Outstanding Young Pennsylvanian by the state Jaycee organization and served on the executive board of the Wilkes-Barre Law and Library Association as well as on the boards of numerous charitable organizations.

Judge Stevens was elected to four successive terms in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, and in 1987 he was elected District Attorney of Luzerne County. He won both nominations to the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas and served as a trial judge for seven years until his election to the Superior Court in 1997. He was retained in 2007 for another ten year term.

“I look forward to working with the Supreme Court, Commonwealth Court, state trial judges, legislators and bar associations to continue the Superior Court tradition of public service,” Stevens said.

“We will hold court in various communities across the state so that more people have access to seeing how their appellate court works. There will also be a special session at Temple Law School and Dickinson Law School in 2011.”