Ms. Edwina M. Charles

State Board of Workers' Compensation

The Honorable Edwina M. Charles is the Division Director of the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Division of the State Board of Workers’ Compensation (SBWC). She was promoted to this position effective November 1, 2023, after serving as the ADR Division’s Deputy Division Director for approximately four (4) years. In addition to managing the ADR Division, she also serves as an Administrative Law Judge—having been appointed by the Directors of the SBWC in June 2019. Judge Charles rules on motions and requests for attorney fee approval in non-litigated workers’ compensation claims pending across the state. Her role also includes serving as a mediator in litigated and non-litigated claims—assisting parties to resolve myriad issues and facilitating the settlement of workers’ compensation claims. Since 2015, Judge Charles has been a registered neutral through the Georgia Office of Dispute Resolution.

Early in her career, Judge Charles worked as a judicial clerk in the State Court of Cobb County and as an Assistant Attorney General. She began her workers’ compensation career in 2007 as an associate at a midsized, Atlanta law firm, where she practiced workers’ compensation defense for almost six years, before becoming workers’ compensation staff counsel for a major insurance company. In August 2015, she began her tenure at the SBWC and assumed the role of Deputy Division Director of the Settlement Division. Immediately prior to her appointment as an administrative law judge, she devoted three years to serving as an administrative attorney in the Appellate Division, where she assisted the Directors and Appellate Division Judges with deciding workers’ compensation cases on appeal.

Judge Charles is a proud and loyal “Double Dawg.” Judge Charles earned her B.B.A. in Risk Management & Insurance from the University of Georgia’s prestigious Terry College of Business and her J.D. from the UGA School of Law. She is currently pursuing a Public Manager Certificate through the Certified Public Manager® program at the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at UGA.

Judge Charles enjoys watching UGA football, traveling, long walks, and practicing yoga. She and her husband (Erik) serve and worship at Eagle’s Landing First Baptist Church in McDonough, where Judge Charles sings on the choir.