Caroline A. Stephens Ryker currently serves as an Administrative Judge for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (Indianapolis Office). She also served as an Administrative Law Judge for Indiana’s Central Panel (the Indiana Office of Administrative Law Proceedings) and as an agency-embedded Administrative Law Judge with the Indiana Civil Rights Commission. Judge Ryker is deeply passionate about administrative law and civil rights, and she is excited to help support NAHO’s mission to make great education available to hearing officials and has served two terms as NAHO’s Central Region Representative.

Judge Ryker graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Robert H. McKinney School of Law in Indianapolis, Indiana. She obtained her BA in English and her BA in Communications from Indiana University, Bloomington, along with a certificate in Political and Civil Engagement. Judge Ryker attended her first NAHO conference in September of 2018, after which she became a NAHO member, and in 2021, she completed NAHO’s certification program.