Rhonda Wood (1969–)

Rhonda Wood is an Arkansas attorney and judge who began serving on the Arkansas Supreme Court in 2015.

Rhonda Sissel was born on December 10, 1969, in Ottumwa, Iowa, to Ron and Sharon Sissel. The family later moved to Wisconsin. At Onalaska High School in Wisconsin, she played tennis, was a cheerleader, participated in concert choir and debate club, and was a member of the National Honor Society while also serving as a class officer.

Soon after graduation in 1988, she married Michael Wood, and they had four children. The family moved to Conway (Faulkner County) in 1994, and her husband, an obstetrician-gynecologist, became affiliated with Conway Regional Medical Center. Meanwhile, Rhonda Wood began attending Hendrix College, majoring in politics and graduating magna cum laude in 1996. She went on to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law, where, despite sometimes having to bring her children to class, and frequently highlighting her law school textbooks on the sidelines at soccer games, she received her degree with highest honors in 1999. She earned that year’s highest score on the state bar exam.

She opened her own practice, the Wood Law Firm, in Conway while also serving as an adjunct instructor at the law school. In 2001, she joined the firm Williams and Anderson, PLC, where she remained until 2003, when she became an assistant dean at the law school and sold her interest in the practice. She remained at the law school until 2007, when she assumed a seat on the Arkansas Circuit Court, for the Twentieth Judicial District, appointed by Governor Mike Beebe to fill the position vacated by the retiring Linda Collier. She was then elected to a full term in 2008.

In 2010, frustrated by a decision of the Arkansas Court of Appeals, she decided to run for a place on that body but was defeated in a close race, 52–48 percent. Two years later, she ran again and won handily with 63 percent of the vote. Two years later, she was again on the ballot, running unopposed for Position 7 on the Arkansas Supreme Court.

In 2022, she was reelected to another eight-year term on the court. Then, in 2024—with the support of Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the state’s Republican Party, and Republican senator Tom Cotton—Wood ran for chief justice in a four-candidate, non-partisan race. Amid controversy over the handling of a case involving emails and the Freedom of Information Act, Wood finished second to her Supreme Court colleague Karen Baker, forcing a run-off that Baker won.

An avid reader and a competitive March Madness participant, Wood earned a reputation on the court as the “technology judge,” an offshoot, she said, of the fact that her father worked with computers when they were in their infancy. She noted that not only was he one of the first to install scanners in grocery stores in the United States, but her family had a home computer in the 1970s when few people did. But she said that all of that early exposure made her more attuned to the things technology can do in helping to make the judicial process more efficient, more accessible, and more transparent. At the same time, as a judge, Wood said that she loves the complexity of civil cases, but that she finds juvenile cases to be the most satisfying.

During her tenure on the court, Wood has revealed herself to be a reliable vote for the conservative agenda offered by the Republican administration, including being important in the court’s decision to block an amendment to expand abortion access in the state from going before voters in 2024.

Wood was a contributing author to two texts on health law: the Arkansas Bar Association’s HIPAA Preemption Analysis for the State of Arkansas (2003) and Arkansas Public Health Bench Book (2009). In 2012, Wood began serving as a judicial educator for the National Center for State Courts. In 2008, she began training all new Arkansas trial judges.

A member of the Arkansas Bar Association, she is also a member of the organization’s law school committee, as well as the Arkansas Judicial Council and its committees for Education, Long-Range Planning, and Racial and Gender Equality. Wood has also served as the co-chair of the Arkansas Bar Association’s Committee for Health as well as the Law School Committee’s six-year delegate to the Arkansas Bar Association and the Legislative Liaison for Health Law.

Wood has on multiple occasions received the Arkansas Bar Association Outstanding Service Award, while also being named Arkansas Elected Official of the Year by Arkansas Federation of Business and Professional Women. She also received the Conway Rotary Club’s Community Leader of the Year award.

Wood and her retired husband reside in Conway.

For additional information:
Albarado, Sonny. “At Odds over Email and Abortion Rulings, Supreme Court Justices Seek Chief Justice Post.” Arkansas Advocate, October 21, 2024. https://arkansasadvocate.com/2024/10/21/at-odds-over-email-and-abortion-rulings-arkansas-supreme-court-justices-seek-chief-justice-post/ (accessed March 5, 2026).

“Associate Justice Rhonda K. Wood, Position 7.” Supreme Court, Arkansas Judiciary. https://arcourts.gov/courts/supreme-court/justices/justice-rhonda-wood-position-7 (accessed March 5, 2026).

Keith, Tammy. “Rhonda Wood: Technology Judge Headed to Court of Appeals.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, June 24, 2012. https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2012/jun/24/rhonda-wood-20120624/?f=rivervalley (accessed March 5, 2026).

Portia Project, Episode 55: Rhonda K. Wood. https://www.portiaprojectpodcast.com/episodes/episode55-rhonda-k-wood (accessed March 5, 2026).

“Rhonda (Sissel) Wood.” Wall of Excellence, Onalaska High School Alumni Association. https://onalaskaalumni.com/avada_portfolio/rhonda-sissel-wood/ (accessed March 5, 2026).

William H. Pruden III
Raleigh, North Carolina