Cynthia Y. Cobbs, director of the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts, announced today that the Sixteenth Judicial Circuit judges voted to select Melissa S. Barnhart as an associate judge of the Sixteenth Judicial Circuit. Ms. Barnhart received her undergraduate degree in 1982 from Illinois State University and her J.D. in 1986 from the John Marshal Law School. Ms. Barnhart had been affiliated with Pilmer & Barnhart in Yorkville.