Deanell Reece Tacha acquired her B.A. at the University of Kansas in 1968 and taught in the Law School from 1974-1985. Tacha recalls growing up in Scandia, Kansas, and attending KU in the mid-1960s. She acquired her law degree from Michigan and describes the student protests there during the late 1960s and early 1970s. She was appointed as US Circuit Judge of the US Court of Appeals in 1986 and recounts raising a family in Lawrence, KS while serving as a judge in Denver, CO.