New CEO Takes Charge at Shasta County’s Superior Court
Effective today, Cody Stenderup has begun serving as the Court Executive Officer at the six-story courthouse in Redding. She was previously the Assistant CEO under Melissa Fowler-Bradley, who announced her retirement Friday, May 2.
The Court Executive Officer (CEO) of each California superior court is responsible for managing the administrative operations that support county caseloads. Here in Shasta, that’s a huge undertaking. Since her appointment in 2008, Melissa Fowler-Bradley has served as the CEO of Shasta County’s Superior Court, overseeing nonjudicial operations under the direction of the presiding judge.
Fowler-Bradly has been working in public service for 50 years, and joined the County’s court system in 1995. During her time in leadership, construction of a new Shasta County courthouse was completed in 2024. Fowler-Bradley was awarded the California Judicial Branch’s Distinguished Service Award later the same year.
Today, May 5, Cody Stenderup takes up the reins as the Shasta County Superior Court’s new CEO. She was selected and appointed by the judges of the Shasta County Superior Court as required by the California Rules of Court. The appointment came after a nationwide recruitment for the position, Stenderup told Shasta Scout today.
Like her predecessor, Stenderup served as Assistant CEO before assuming the top administrative position in the Court. She was a prosecutor for 15 years before joining the Shasta County Superior Court in 2019. Since then, she’s served as a legal research attorney and, as aforementioned, second in command to Fowler-Bradley.
Stenderup’s duties as CEO will include supervising the employees of the court, making recommendations on the budget, managing the jury system, and above all, ensuring the public’s access to justice.
It’s a huge job. For its size, Shasta’s Superior Court handles a remarkable number of case filings — almost 45,000 in 2023/2024 — ranking the County fourth in California for the number of filings per judicial position, at just under 3,500 court filings per judge each year.
In the past decade, the number of filings and dispositions handled by the Superior Court has fluctuated. The County hit an all time high 2016, then dipped dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic, before increasing steadily since 2021. Rebounding from the dip, local court activity is somewhat inconsistent with state-wide trends, which show an overall decrease in filings and trials across California.
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