Judge Stephanie Potter Barrett is a resident of Texarkana, Arkansas where she was born and raised, graduating from Arkansas High School in 1991. She graduated from the University of Arkansas in 1995 with a degree in Political Science and graduated from the Robert A. Leflar School of Law at the University of Arkansas in December 1997. She started her career serving as a law clerk to the Honorable Judge Terry Crabtree before returning to Texarkana to begin a private law practice in 2000. In 2007, she began working as a deputy prosecuting attorney until she was elected prosecutor in 2014. She was elected to the Arkansas Court of Appeals and took office on January 1, 2021.
Judge Barrett enjoys involvement in her community and has served on Teen Court Board, Boys and Girls Club Board, chairman of the Junior League of Texarkana, Board of Governors of the Texarkana Country Club, Chairman of Planning and Zoning, officer of the Texarkana Bar Association, South-East representative to the Arkansas Bar Association, served on the Board of the Arkansas Prosecuting Attorney Association, and has served on the Board of Trustees at the United Methodist Church in Texarkana, Arkansas.
She is married to Shorty Barrett and has two children, Mary Elizabeth and Lawson.