Judge Jacqueline Hong-Ngoc Thi Nguyen

A 2010 portrait of Judge Jacqueline Nguyen released by the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California | AP

A 2010 portrait of Judge Jacqueline Nguyen released by the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California | AP

Judge Jacqueline Hong-Ngoc Thi Nguyen immigrated to the U.S. in 1975.

Appointed by President Obama, she currently serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, making her the first Asian American female on the federal appellate level.

Prior to that, she served on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (the first Vietnamese American federal judge).