Gov. Phil Murphy has nominated Anna Martinez, a former deputy political director of the Democratic National Committee and an Obama administration official, as the state Director of the Division on Women.
The post requires confirmation by the New Jersey State Senate.
Martinez worked at the Department of Justice from 2009 to 2017, serving as a senior policy advisor in the Office on Violence Against Women, as chief of staff of the Office for Victims of Crime, as senior advisor to the Associate Attorney General, as a policy specialist detailed to the White House in the office of Vice President Joe Biden, and as a senior policy advisor in the Office of Justice Programs.
She worked at the DNC from 2004 to 2009, after spending four years as a civil rights analyst in the Civil Rights Division Voting section at the Justice Department.
The Division on Women is part of the Department of Children and Families and administers state programs on domestic violence services, displaced homemaker programs, women’s shelter grants, and the Office of the Prevention of Violence Against Women. The division was downsized by Gov. Chris Christie.