Tari S. Eitzen
Judge Eitzen graduated from Fisher High School in 1967. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology and a Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Illinois. After working as a social worker for several years in Denver and Boulder, Colorado, she moved to Spokane, Washington to attend law school. She earned her Juris Doctor from Gonzaga University Law School in 1982.
In 1982, she established a private law practice as an attorney. In 1987, she was invited to join the Gonzaga Law School faculty and taught there until 1994 when she was appointed to the Spokane County Superior Court bench by Governor Michael Lowry.
Judge Eitzen has served as Presiding Judge, Presiding Juvenile Court Judge, Chief Criminal Judge, Drug Court Judge, and Presiding Family Law Judge of Spokane County Superior Court. She is nationally published in the area of Constitutional Rights, and taught Comparative Criminal Procedure in Florence, Italy, 2005. She taught an undergraduate criminal justice class for Gonzaga University from 2003-2010. Judge Eitzen has served on a number of professional boards, commissions, councils and workgroups. She has been appointed by two Washington Governors to serve on the Sentencing Guidelines Commission.
Judge Eitzen received Gonzaga Law School’s Myra Bradwell Outstanding Alumni Award in 2001 and was the Girl Scouts Woman of Distinction in 2000. She has served on the Board of Directors for VOA Spokane, Children’s Home Society Board, Gonzaga Law Board of Advisors, the Renn Rice Scholarship committee.
Judge Eitzen is married to attorney Tim J. Macklin. They have three sons, Ben, David, and Tim and one grandson, Damien.
- 1967 Fisher High School graduate
- 1973 Bachelor of the Arts in Sociology – University of Illinois
- 1975 Master’s of Social Work – University of Illinois
- 1975-1978 Social Worker, Colorado DSS
- 1982 Juris Doctorate – Gonzaga Law School
- 1987-1994 – Gonzaga Law School Faculty
- 1994 – Superior Court Judge appointed, then elected
- 2009-2010 President, Washington State Superior Court Judges’ Association
- 2010 Washington State Bar Association Judge of the Year