Judge Jennifer L. Valencia was appointed to the Second District Court in May 2017 by Governor Gary R. Herbert. She took the bench in August 2017 and serves Weber, Davis and Morgan Counties. Judge Valencia attended Weber State University on a Presidential Scholarship, graduating magna cum laude with Departmental Honors in Political Science in 1994. She was awarded her Juris Doctorate in 1997 from the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law. After graduation, she served as an Assistant Utah Attorney General in the Northern Region of the Child and Family Support Division for 10 years and then as a Salt Lake County Deputy District Attorney in the Criminal Division beginning in 2008. She was appointed the Director of the Utah Sentencing Commission in 2013. Prior to her appointment to the bench, she served as a member of the University of Utah Criminal Justice Center Board; the Utah Judicial Council`s Pre-Trial Practices Committee; and the Executive Committee of the National Association of Sentencing Commissions. She also received the Governor`s Award of Excellence for Outstanding Public Service in 2016 and the Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice`s Award for her contributions to the Justice Reinvestment Initiative in 2017. 12/17