
Judge Vaudt, Polk County, was appointed to the bench in 2014. She received her undergraduate degree from Upper Iowa University in 1976 and an MA in Public Administration from Drake University before graduating from Drake University Law School with honors in 1991, where she was a member of the Drake Law Review. Prior to her appointment to the bench, Judge Vaudt served as a graduate law clerk to Justice Louis A. Lavorato on the Iowa Supreme Court, was a litigation associate at the Davis Brown law firm, and for the last fifteen years of her practice she was an Assistant Attorney General in the Iowa Department of Justice.
She is a member of the Polk County and Iowa State Bar Associations. She is a member of the Jack Levin Inn of Court and the C. Edwin Moore Inn of Court and is a past president of the latter. She currently serves on the Board of the Iowa Judge's Association.