NAWJ ANNOUNCES THE HONORABLE CHERYL GONZALES A 2016 RECIPIENT OF MATTIE BELLE DAVIS AWARD

NAWJ announces the Honorable Cheryl Gonzales a 2016 recipient of the Mattie Belle Davis Award. The Award recognizes an NAWJ member who has gone above and beyond his or her role as member and volunteer to help make a difference in the organization and furthered its mission, as the Honorable Mattie Belle Davis once did.

The Honorable Cheryl Gonzales is the Housing Court’s Supervising Judge for the Civil Court of the City of New York, Kings County.  Judge Gonzales is currently NAWJ’s District Two’s Director, but she has long served as a key force in the New York Women in Prison Committee, many  years acting as its chair, organizing programs in many of New York’s major detention center for women, including successfully moving the highly regarded inmate education program, Bard Prison Initiative from Bayview to Taconic, driving an annual Beyond the Bars holiday gift effort for children and grandchildren of women inmates, and her current leadership among the team fighting to improve the condition and programs that support women moved from Danbury, CT federal facility to Brooklyn you read about in last month’s Update.

Judge Gonzales was appointed by Chief Administrative Judge Jonathan Lippman for the 2005 to 2010 term, re-appointed by Chief Administrative Judge Ann Pfau for the 2010 to 2015 term; and re-appointed by Chief Administrative Judge A. Gail Prudenti for the 2015 to 2020 term. She is a member of the New York State, Appellate Division, Second Department Bar. Judge Gonzales is a law school graduate (J.D.) of City University of New York, Queens College.

Judge Gonzales shares this award with New York Supreme Court Judge, the Honorable Betty J. Williams and with Federal Administrative Law Judge, the Honorable Brenda Murray.