Judge April C. Wood joined the Court of Appeals after serving as a District Court Judge in the N.C. Judicial District 22B for eighteen years. She and her attorney husband, Jeffrey Berg, live in Lexington with their three children. Judge Wood was first elected to the district court bench in 2002 and to the Court of Appeals in 2020.

Although her family is from North Carolina, Judge Wood grew up in various places around the world, including Adak, Alaska and Okinawa, Japan, while her father served in the United States Marines Corps. Throughout the years and many military duty assignments, her mother held various employment, the most rewarding of which was as a schoolteacher. Retiring after twenty-three years of military service, the family returned home to Lexington, North Carolina. Her father became a Davidson County Deputy Sheriff, and after retirement, continued to work part-time as a bailiff, often in Judge Wood’s courtroom while she was a district court judge.

Judge Wood graduated from Pensacola Christian College, Summa Cum Laude. After earning her Juris Doctor degree from Regent University School of Law and passing the N.C. Bar in 1997, she opened a general practice law office in Thomasville. It was during this time that she became passionate about family law. She became a Certified Family Financial Mediator in 2001. She was sworn in as a District Court Judge in 2002 and became a Certified Juvenile Court Judge during her first term. She obtained her LL.M., with distinction, in Legal Studies from Campbell University Law School and England’s Nottingham University School of Law in 2021. In 2022, she was bestowed an honorary Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) by Pensacola Christian College.

The Honorable Doctor April Wood is a passionate and dedicated community leader. Believing our children are our future and desiring to positively impact as many children and young adults as possible, she has been a regular DARE graduation speaker since 2003. She has been actively involved in several civic and charitable organizations and currently serves on the Board of Cancer Services of Davidson County, Salvation Army of Davidson County, National Theological College and Graduate School, and the North Carolina Memorial Day and Celebration Committee.