SANTA FE – Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has appointed Shammara Haley Henderson to fill a vacancy on the New Mexico Court of Appeals.

Henderson is a former assistant U.S. attorney who has been in private practice in Albuquerque since 2017. She is a 2007 graduate of the University of New Mexico School of Law and has an undergraduate degree from American University in Washington, D.C.

She is the first African-American to be appointed to the New Mexico Court of Appeals, according to Aja Brooks, president of the New Mexico Black Lawyers Association.

Henderson also served as an assistant district attorney in Albuquerque and once clerked for the late New Mexico Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Daniels.

She replaces Judge M. Monica Zamora, who retired effective Jan. 31.