Ann Luvera

Union County First Assistant Prosecutor Ann Luvera was named acting prosecutor, as the office experiences a third leadership change in the span of a few months.

She replaces former Acting Prosecutor Thomas Isenhour, who was nominated to become a Superior Court judge.

Isenhour had been named after Acting Prosecutor Grace Park announced in October that she was leaving to become deputy general counsel and chief litigation counsel at Public Service Enterprise Group, the energy utility better known as PSE&G.

Luvera will likely serve as acting prosecutor until incoming Gov. Philip Murphy makes a nomination for the position. Any nomination must be confirmed by the state Senate.

Luvera was sworn into office on Dec. 31, according to a release.

“Ann Luvera has an outstanding track record of leadership in the Union County Prosecutor's Office, where she has overseen the office's most significant units and has supervised and personally prosecuted numerous high-profile cases,” New Jersey Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino said in a Jan. 3 statement.

A career prosecutor, she launched the county's Homicide Task Force and developed new protocols and training for law enforcement for the proper handling of child abuse death cases, Porrino said.

Luvera joined the Union County Prosecutor's Office as an assistant prosecutor in 1990, after serving two years as a deputy attorney general in the appellate section in the Division of Criminal Justice.

With the exception of a few years in private practice in the late 1990s, Luvera has been a career prosecutor for the Union County Prosecutor's Office, holding numerous leadership positions, including first assistant prosecutor, deputy first assistant prosecutor, trial supervisor and supervisor of the Homicide Task Force and Special Prosecutions Units.

Luvera received her bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan in 1983, and her J.D. from Boston University School of Law in 1987.