Ramona "Mona" Villagomez Mangloña () (née Ramona Emma Pangelinan Villagomez; born February 26, 1967) is the Chief United States district judge of the

District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands The District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands (in case citations, D. N. Mar. I.) is a federal territorial court whose jurisdiction comprises the United States-affiliated Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). It was establi ...

. Her term ended on July 28, 2021 (unless reappointed), and she may serve thereafter until a successor is chosen and qualified.

Early life and education

Judge Mangloña was born February 26, 1967 on

Saipan Saipan ( ch, Sa’ipan, cal, Seipél, formerly in es, Saipán, and in ja, 彩帆島, Saipan-tō) is the largest island of the Northern Mariana Islands, a Commonwealth (U.S. insular area), commonwealth of the United States in the western Pa ...

in the

Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands The Northern Mariana Islands, officially the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI; ch, Sankattan Siha Na Islas Mariånas; cal, Commonwealth Téél Falúw kka Efáng llól Marianas), is an unincorporated territory and commonwea ...

. She graduated from the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

in 1990 with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in Economics and Japanese. She received her

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

from the

University of New Mexico School of Law The University of New Mexico School of Law (UNM Law or New Mexico Law) is the law school of the University of New Mexico, a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded in 1947, it is the first and only law school in the state. ...

in 1996.

Career

Prior to attending law school, Judge Mangloña worked in her family's real estate management business. After graduating from law school, she served as a law clerk for two of the judges of the

Superior Court of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Superior may refer to: *Superior (hierarchy), something which is higher in a hierarchical structure of any kind Places *Superior (proposed U.S. state), an unsuccessful proposal for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to form a separate state *Lake ...

. She then joined the Office of the Attorney General, serving first in the criminal division and later in the civil division. She became Deputy Attorney General of the Northern Mariana Islands early in 2002 and became the first female Attorney General of the Northern Mariana Islands in November 2002. She was appointed to the Superior Court in May 2003 and resigned from that post in June 2011 to take up her current post in the District Court.

District court service

On January 26, 2011, President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

nominated Judge Mangloña to the District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands. This is considered an Article I judicial appointment, with a term of ten years, rather than life tenure. The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on her nomination on March 16, 2011 and reported her nomination favorably on April 7, 2011. On July 26, 2011, the Senate confirmed her nomination by voice vote. She received her commission on July 29, 2011 and took her oath of office on July 30, 2011. Unless reappointed, her commission expired on July 28, 2021, at which time her term would have ended, although it will continue thereafter until her successor is chosen and qualified.

Personal

Judge Mangloña is married to John A. Mangloña, an associate justice of the

Supreme Court of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands The Supreme Court of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, 1 CMC § 3101, is the highest court of the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), exercising civil and criminal appellate jurisdiction over commonw ...

. They have two children, Den and Savana.

References

External links