Sheila Polk

Yavapai County Attorney, Yavapai County Attorney’s Office, Prescott, AZ

Sheila Polk, County Attorney for Yavapai County, is a native Arizonan who received her Bachelor’s Degree and Law Degree from Arizona State University. After clerking for Arizona Supreme Court Justice Jack Hays, Polk served in the Arizona Attorney General’s Office for eleven years before moving to Yavapai County in 1994. There, she joined the Yavapai County Attorney’s Office where she specialized in the prosecution of felony crimes, including elder abuse, sexual offenses and repeat felony offenders.

In November of 2000, Polk became the first woman to be elected to the position of Yavapai County Attorney, and is currently serving her fifth term in that position. In addition to overseeing a staff of 90 employees, a budget of $7 million, and active prosecutions, Polk has found time to be at the forefront of change. She assists as faculty with the CWAG Alliance Partnership, a cooperative initiative to strengthen the legal system in Mexico by training in programs that promote the consistent application of the rule of law disciplines, including oral advocacy. She serves on the Governor’s Arizona Human Trafficking Council as chair of the Policy Committee.

In 2016, she worked on the Governor’s Sexual Assault Evidence Collection Kit Task Force. Polk is the state chairperson for both the Arizona Prosecuting Attorneys’ Advisory Council (APAAC), and the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission (ACJC). Polk is Co-Chair and founding member of MATFORCE, the Yavapai County substance abuse coalition, nationally awarded the 2013 Outstanding Coalition of the Year. She is the driving stimulus behind the nationally renowned law enforcement course, What You Do Matters: Lessons from the Holocaust. In 2018, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum recognized Polk as an “agent of change” for her accomplishments at a national tribute dinner in Washington D.C.