Personal details
Official sites :
Born:
- Birthday: 1966-12-09
- Born Place: Albany, New York, USA
Also Known As:
Kirsten Elizabeth Rutnik, Kirsten Elizabeth Gillibrand
Kirsten Gillibrand
Kirsten Gillibrand is an American lawyer and Democratic politician who has served as the junior United States Senator for New York since January 2009. Born on December 9, 1966, in Albany, New York, she comes from a politically engaged family, graduated magna cum laude from Dartmouth College in 1988, and earned her Juris Doctor from the UCLA School of Law in 1991. After working as a lawyer in private practice and as Special Counsel to the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development during the Clinton administration, her political career began in 2006 when she was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for New York's 20th district. In 2009, she was appointed to the Senate seat vacated by Hillary Clinton's departure to become Secretary of State, and has since won multiple elections. In the Senate, Gillibrand transitioned from a centrist to a prominent progressive voice, becoming a leading advocate for issues such as the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," the successful fight for permanent health care and compensation for 9/11 first responders and survivors, and pioneering efforts to reform how the military handles sexual assault cases, notably through the creation of the Military Justice Improvement Act (MJIA). She also sponsored the STOCK Act to curb insider trading by members of Congress and briefly ran for the Democratic nomination for president in 2020. Currently, she serves on the Senate Committees on Appropriations, Armed Services, and Intelligence, and is the Ranking Member of the Special Committee on Aging.
