SCHOLARSHIP & AWARDS GALA

Judge Vanessa Gilmore is a legal trailblazer, renowned author, and coveted public speaker. She is a graduate of Hampton University ‘77 and University of Houston Law Center ‘81. In 1982, Gilmore began a 13-year tenure at a Houston law firm known as Vickery, Kilbride, Gilmore and Vickery where she specialized in civil litigation. In 1991, Texas Governor Ann Richards appointed Gilmore to the Texas Department of Commerce Policy Board. Gilmore was the first African American to serve as chairperson of that department from 1992 to 1994. On March 22, 1994, President Bill Clinton appointed her as a federal judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. At the time, Gilmore became the first and only African American woman on the federal bench in Texas, the youngest sitting federal judge in the United States (age 37), and the first graduate of the University of Houston to be appointed to the federal bench! Read more…