Governor Christine Gregoire has appointed retired Judge Karen Seinfeld of Tacoma to the Board of Trustees of Bates Technical College effective immediately; her term will run through September 2007.

Seinfeld received her B.A. degree from Stanford University, and her JD degree from the University of Puget Sound Law School. Before assuming the bench, Seinfeld served as a deputy prosecutor, as the first legal counsel to the then newly created Pierce County Council, and as the first woman commissioner of Division II of the State Court of Appeals.

In 1987, Governor Booth Gardner appointed Seinfeld to the Pierce County Superior Court bench and in 1992 he selected her as the first woman judge of the Court of Appeals, Division II. Seinfeld served as the chief judge of the State Court of Appeals and on the State Board for Judicial Administration, retiring in May 2004.

Seinfeld is a past board member and president of the Tacoma Public Library Board. She has been active in numerous community organizations including as a founding member and president of Tacoma City Club; president of Puget Sound Inn of Court; and president of Tacoma Sunrise Rotary. She is a Senior Fellow of the American Leadership Forum and currently serves on its executive board and on the Board of the Tacoma Philharmonic.

Karen met her husband, Dennis, at Stanford, and their three children, all graduates of Tacoma’s Stadium High School, are also Stanford University grads.