Celebrating our Founders
Founders' Day Convocation is a key part of Founders' week, the week where we celebrate the founding of our University.
Sunday, April 6, 2025
Jane M. Smith Memorial Church
2 p.m
Founders' Day Convocation
Photos from Founders' Day Convocation
Speaker
Judge Tyyawdi Hands
Judge Ty Hands is a devoted mother, committed community servant and race equity change agent. Born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada, she made history as the first in her family to pursue higher education in the eastern United States. She graduated magna cum laude from Winston-Salem State University and received her Juris Doctor from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law.
Judge Hands began her legal career clerking on the NC and Nevada Supreme Courts. She thereafter practiced complex commercial litigation for a large law firm in Charlotte; then stepped out on faith and built a thriving law firm from the ground up. She was appointed to the District Court bench by the Governor in 2009 and was re-elected to a sixth term in November 2025.
Judge Hands enjoys the pleasure of being the primary Domestic Violence trainer for North Carolina’s new judges, magistrates, prosecutors and clerks. She also trains in race equity, implicit bias and vicarious trauma.
Judge Hands enjoys playing competitive tennis, reading and empowering others to live life in alignment with their greatest potential. Fluent in Spanish and active in her community, Judge Hands has served on numerous boards and has been recognized with various accolades and awards including being an inductee of the Negro and Professional Women’s Hall of Fame, Charlotte's 50 most Influential Women, Winston-Salem State's 40 under 40, Lawyers Weekly Women of Justice and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Woman of the Year. Yet, if you ask her, she would say that her greatest honor, by far, is being a Mother to her thirteen and fifteen year old sons.