About Colleen

Colleen Ball, wearing jeans and a blue cardigan sits behind a large, fluffy, brown and white dog

While earning my master’s degree in history, I hoped to write a biography. Life took a detour. I went to law school instead. But I still love history.

When I graduated from the University of Wisconsin Law School, Justice Shirley Abrahamson swore me in as a lawyer. I never dreamed that I would one day write a picture book biography about her.

First, I had a career to build. I became an appellate lawyer, arguing many cases before the Wisconsin Supreme Court and working on committees and projects administered by Shirley and her staff. I admired her fierce intellect, her sharp questions from the bench, her clear majority opinions, and her zesty dissents. Most of all, I loved her commitment to pulling back the curtain on the judicial branch so ordinary people could understand how courts work and why the judges we choose matter.

One day, I took my two daughters to a meeting at the Wisconsin Supreme Court. They were intrigued and wanted to return to see a live oral argument. At the time, three of the seven justices were women. I asked my daughters what they thought of all the women justices. They shrugged. They were used to being around women lawyers. But they did have a lot to say about the one in the middle—the Chief. She seemed, they said, really, really smart.

Colleen Ball in a red top and black blazer stands behind two young girls who are sitting behind a nameplate that reads "C. J. Abrahamson" — Colleen Ball and her daughters behind Chief Justice Abrahamson's nameplate in the Wisconsin Supreme Court chambers

After Shirley passed in 2020, I did research and writing for a traveling exhibit and website honoring her legacy, which you can explore here. The traveling exhibit was unveiled in the Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson Reading Room at the Wisconsin Historical Society—the room Governor Tony Evers named in her honor.

Colleen Ball and her husband stand on either side of a tall banner that features a portrait of Shirley Abrahamson above the title Justice for All: The Legacy of Chief Justice Shirley S. Abrahamson — Colleen Ball and her husband with one of the banners from the traveling exhibit about Shirley Abrahamson

Meanwhile, another piece of legal history was reaching a major milestone. In 2024, Nancy Kopp and I helped organize programs commemorating the 150th anniversary of Lavinia Goodell's admission to practice law, making her Wisconsin’s first woman lawyer. The programs included staging historical reenactments of Lavinia’s battle to become a lawyer at the Rock County Courthouse and Old World Wisconsin. For that work, the Wisconsin Historical Society Board of Curators presented us with its 2025 Public Program Award.

Nancy Kopp and Colleen Ball pose for a picture with two members of the Board of Curators while each holding a plaque that says Public Program Award — Nancy Kopp (center left) and Colleen Ball (center right) receiving the 2025 Public Program Award from the Wisconsin Historical Society Board of Curators

Today I am a research consultant for a documentary about Shirley Abrahamson that is in pre-production.

I live in Wisconsin with my husband and our big, fluffy dog Bob, adopted from the Wisconsin Humane Society. As you can tell, shy Laika, our other rescue pup, is more comfortable with heinie shots than headshots!

Two fluffy brown and white dogs stand with their front paws on a low window sill looking outside — Bob and Laika