Karen Peters.

Chief Judge Janet DiFiore on Wednesday named Karen Peters as the chair of New York's Commission on Justice for Children.

Peters, a former presiding justice of New York's Appellate Division, Third Department, will replace A. Gail Prudenti, the dean of Hofstra University Maurice A. Deane School of Law and former chief administrative judge for New York courts. Prudenti had been serving as the commission's chair since February 2016.

“Judge Peters is a trailblazer in New York's legal community whose broad experience, including as a former Family Court judge, demonstrated commitment to juvenile justice reform and charismatic leadership will be a strong asset to the commission in its mission to better the lives of our state's most vulnerable youngsters,” DiFiore said in a statement.

“I look forward to working with Judge Peters as we build on the commission's achievements under Judge Prudenti and her predecessor, the late Hon. Judith S. Kaye.”

The Commission on Justice for Children was formed in 1988 to “improve the life chances of justice-involved children and adolescents.” Peters, who in 1983 became the first woman elected to Ulster County Family Court Bench and the first woman elected to state Supreme Court in the Third Judicial Department in 1992, has been a member of the Commission on Justice for Children since January 2015.

Peters was the first woman to be named president justice of the Appellate Division, Third Department, in 2012. She retired from the position in December 2017 upon reaching the mandatory retirement age.