Dean Smitherman grew up in Birmingham and graduated from Spellman College in Atlanta in 1973. She went on to earn her J.D. at Miles Law School, graduating first in her class in 1979.  Dean Smitherman was first elected to the Birmingham City Council in 2001 and has been re-elected twice. She campaigned unsuccessfully for the mayor's office in 2003, 2007, and 2009. As President of the Birmingham City Council she assumed the office of mayor when Larry Langford was convicted in 2009. A month later, she then lost the position when the new council convened on November 24, 2009, and elected Roderick Royal as council president on a 5–4 vote, thus automatically making Royal the acting mayor. Smitherman later lost her election bid as mayor in a special election following Langford's conviction.  Carole Smitherman was Birmingham's first African-American female mayor. She also was the first African-American woman hired as a deputy district attorney in Jefferson County and first African American female Municipal and Circuit Court Judge in Birmingham. Smitherman also served as a municipal prosecutor for the city of Irondale.  She was elected to her current judicial office in 2012, after beating attorney Pat Thetford. The seat handles civil matters and controversy over $10,000.