Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez


Lorraine A. Cortés-Vázquez was the 65th Secretary of State of New York, appointed by Governor Eliot Spitzer and serving in the cabinets of both Spitzer and his successor, David Paterson. A former Vice President for Government and Public Affairs with Cablevision, she was Chief of staff to former New York Assemblyman Roberto Ramirez. From 2001–07, she served on the New York State Board of Regents. Since April 2019, she has been serving as Commissioner for the Department for the Aging under New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.
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.

Education

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.

Private sector

She serves as Executive Vice President for Multicultural Markets and Engagement for the AARP, resuming employment in the non-profit sector which included previous stints as Executive Director of ASPIRA of New York during the 1990s and president of the Hispanic Federation.