Dora Irizarry

Dora Lizette Irizarry (born January 26, 1955) is a senior United States District Court Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Early life and education Irizarry was born on January 26, 1955, in San Sebastian, Puerto Rico, and was raised in the Bronx in New York City. She attended the Bronx High School of Science and went on to graduate from Yale University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1976 and Columbia Law School with a Juris Doctor in 1979. After law school, she worked as an assistant district attorney in the Bronx and Manhattan from 1979 to 1981. Irizarry said she wanted to improve the quality of life in the neighborhoods in which she grew up, and specialized in drug and narcotics cases. Career New York state court judge She was appointed a New York City Criminal Court judge by former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and then a judge of the New York Court of Claims by Governor George Pataki. As a Court of Claims judge, she served as an Acting Justice of the New York State Supreme Court, sitting in Brooklyn and Manhattan. She was the first Hispanic woman to serve as a state judge in New York.