Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez

Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez
Secretary of State of New York
In office January 1, 2007 – September 1, 2010
Preceded by	Christopher Jacobs
Succeeded by	Ruth Noemí Colón
Personal details
Born	East Harlem, New York
Political party	Democratic
Alma mater	Hunter College, New York University

Lorraine A. Cortés-Vázquez was the 65th Secretary of State of New York, serving in the Cabinet of Governor David Paterson. She originally served in the Cabinet of former Governor Eliot Spitzer and remained in office following Paterson's taking over the governorship on March 17, 2008. A former Vice President for Government and Public Affairs with Cablevision, she was Chief of staff to former New York Assemblyman Roberto Ramirez. From 2001 to 2007, she served on the New York State Board of Regents.

As Secretary of State, she was formally responsible with accepting Spitzer's resignation from the governorship on March 17, 2008 due to a sex scandal. She also accepted the resignation of U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton when she resigned as New York's Senator to the United States Senate after she accepted the position of United States Secretary of State in President Barack Obama's newly formed cabinet. Lorraine is of Puerto Rican and Dominican descent and is the second person of Puerto Rican ancestry to serve as Secretary of State in a state of the Union, preceded only by Pedro Cortés, of Pennsylvania.

Cortés obtained her undergraduate degree at Hunter College in New York City, and a master's degree at the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University. She has pursued further studies at Columbia University's School of Non-Profit Management, as well as at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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