In Movement: 7 Questions with Lou Anna Red Corn, JD
December 9, 2025
Welcome to In Movement! In this segment of our blog, we interview thought leaders from within our own organizations – from CACs and MDTs and partner agencies – to gain insight into how they have furthered the movement, and how the movement has changed them. We look forward to benefiting from the lessons they’ve learned, the challenges they’ve faced, and the future they envision for themselves, our centers and teams, and the children and families we serve.
If you haven’t met Lou Anna Red Corn, the first thing you learn about her is that the people who do know her speak of her with reverence – and marvel at her expertise and the deep commitment with which she approaches everything she does. Once you meet her, you understand the reverence.
Red Corn is a retired Kentucky Commonwealth Attorney (District Attorney) who tried over 232 felony jury trials, including 56 homicide trials. Much of her work focused on the protection of children through prosecution. She is a founding and current board member of the Children’s Advocacy Center of the Bluegrass in Lexington, Kentucky.
During her time as a prosecutor, she helped write Kentucky’s first Model Protocol for child sexual abuse multidisciplinary review. Red Corn is the recipient of numerous professional awards including the KY Attorney General’s Outstanding Prosecutor Award, the KY Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Attorney of the Year Award, the University of Kentucky College of Law Alumni Professional Achievement Award, and the Kentucky Association of Children’s Advocacy Centers Legendary Partners Award.
Following her retirement and through the summer of 2023, Red Corn volunteered with the Osage Nation Attorney General in Pawhuska, Oklahoma. In the fall of 2023, she joined the adjunct faculty of the J. David Rosenberg College of Law at the University of Kentucky, where she co-teaches the capital punishment course. Red Corn continues to train prosecutors on trial practice. Additionally, she is a past president and current board member of National Children’s Alliance.
Red Corn is an enrolled citizen of the Osage Nation and is the treasurer of the Osage Women’s Dance Committee. Her family is from the Pawhuska Waxakoli District.
Given the breadth and depth of Red Corn’s experience, we asked her to reflect on our seven interview questions. Here are her responses:
Why did you choose this as a career?
Like many future lawyers, I was often told “you’d make a good lawyer, you like to argue.” Fortunately, I outgrew the desire to argue for the sake of argument and grew into my role as a prosecutor helping crime victims. I discovered my passion for helping abused children by holding abusers accountable. And along with way I learned a lot about the value of child advocacy centers and gained a greater understanding of the dynamics of child sexual abuse.
What’s something interesting you’ve learned recently?
I recently read the book “Reading the Forested Landscape: A Natural History of New England.” It has changed the way I walk through the woods, and I am excited to learn to “read a landscape”.
What is a challenge you and your colleagues feel proud of solving?
Gaining a better understanding about how to talk to potential jurors during the jury selection process. I wouldn’t say the challenge has been solved, but we have a better idea about the characteristics of the person who makes a good juror and the characteristics of the person to be avoided if possible.
What about your work inspires you and keeps you going?
Seeing young prosecutors grow in their understanding about what it means to be a good prosecutor. Not just the skills but realizing that they have the power to affect a victim’s experience on their path to justice and healing and they must use that power wisely.
What’s the biggest need for kids you think we can meet in the next five years?
Making sure every professional engaged in intervention provides trauma-informed care and support, especially access to mental health services. As a prosecutor I learned a long time ago that very few cases result in charges and convictions, but that every case has a child that needs some form of mental health intervention.
What do you think the ideal future looks like for kids?
A future where every child feels safe and nurtured. A future where communities (families, schools, mental health and medical service providers, government and more) work together to make sure every child grows into an adult with a healthy mind and healthy body.
What’s next for you?
I retired as a prosecutor in 2022 but have continued to train young prosecutors, work on crime victim rights and services issues and Native American child abuse issues.
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Learn more about Children’s Advocacy Center of the Bluegrass
