1. Cathy Bissoon was born on May 16,1968 and is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
11 Facts About Cathy Bissoon
1. 2.
Cathy Bissoon was appointed a district judge by President Barack Obama and was confirmed by the United States Senate in October 2011.
3.
Cathy Bissoon's father was from Puerto Rico and her mother from Trinidad.
4.
When Cathy Bissoon was four years old, her father was killed in a stabbing close to the family home in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn.
5.
Cathy Bissoon earned her Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1993.
6.
In July 2008, Bissoon was selected to serve as a United States magistrate judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, replacing Judge Francis X Caiazza.
7.
Cathy Bissoon joined the bench on August 1,2008, and is the first woman of color to sit on the federal bench in Pittsburgh.
8.
Cathy Bissoon, who is Hispanic and Indian, is the first woman of Indian descent to sit on a federal court in the United States.
9.
On November 17,2010, President Barack Obama formally nominated Cathy Bissoon to be a United States district judge, to replace Judge Thomas Hardiman, who was elevated to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on April 2,2007.
10.
Cathy Bissoon was honored as one of five finalists for the 2010 Athena Award.
11.
In 2010, Cathy Bissoon was honored by Pittsburgh Professional Women as one of their 2010 Women of Integrity.