LEWISTON – Years before she became Maine’s youngest chief justice and the first female to take the post, Leigh Saufley was a psychology major at the University of Maine with plans to pursue a banking career.

But she said her growing awareness of the plight of children and families in crisis pulled her attention in other directions. She turned to the study of law.

Saufley grew up in a South Portland home she says could have been a model for a Norman Rockwell painting depicting the idyllic American home.

“I grew up in a wonderful family,” said Saufley, 47, who took the oath of office as head of Maine’s judicial branch on Dec. 6.

As she got older, Saufley began to see how important family life could be in shaping children’s futures. The college activist in her took over at Orono and she reoriented her goals.

“I wanted to do more than just study. I wanted to be actively involved,” she recalled.

After graduating from the University of Maine School of Law, Saufley landed a job in the state Attorney General’s Office representing the Department of Human Services, working with families in crisis.

She rose to the level of deputy director, and in 1990 was appointed district judge by Gov. John McKernan. For the next three years, she traveled among the dozens of district courtrooms across the state, hearing cases ranging from petty crime to child protection.

The experience gave Saufley another first as chief justice; no one else has served on all three levels of Maine’s court system.

“The district courts get all matters that directly affect all people’s lives,” said Saufley.

While district courts mete out justice, they have a harder time getting at the root of problems confronting those who come before the bench, Saufley said.

As chief justice, Saufley intends to address that by shifting district courts away from just dealing with isolated incidents and toward considering the “whole picture,” the top justice said.

The new approach is called “relational judging” and means considering more than just the elements of the crime charged or complaint issued.

Saufley has watched as young mothers and fathers unprepared for the financial and emotional rigors of parenthood have been brought to court. In many cases, their children have been taken from them because they are unable to provide safe or healthy conditions.

An alternative to removing children from their birth parents might be something once called “granny houses,” which Saufley would like to reinstitute. “They were just an extraordinary resource,” she said.

Parents whose own children had grown and left were willing to take children from outside of their families into their homes. They “had room in their homes and hearts for these families,” Saufley said.

The young parents were invited into the setting as well, giving them an opportunity to learn how to take care of their children. Many of the new parents thrived.

Saufley also sees a need for translators for hearing-impaired people who use the courts, and for people for whom English is a second language.

She also said she hopes to consolidate the judiciary’s limited resources and press for additional judges and clerks.