US Attorney Carmen Ortiz announces she will resign in January

Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz announced Wednesday that she will step down from her role as the top federal law enforcement official in the Commonwealth.

Ortiz has served as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for 19 years and as U.S. Attorney for seven. In that role, she convicted infamous Boston mobster Whitey Bulger as well as Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

The first woman and the first Hispanic to serve as the U.S. Attorney in the District of Massachusetts, Ortiz will leave the position on Jan. 13, 2017.

Ortiz was nominated to the post by Obama in 2009. When Donald Trump steps into the presidency Jan. 20, he will pick Ortiz’s replacement.

In 2010, Ortiz put the office’s first civil rights initiative into action, which helped lead to the Civil Rights Unit in 2016. Through that unit, Ortiz has helped protect the rights of service members, fight against employment and housing discrimination as well as combat hate crimes and human trafficking.

Ortiz also oversaw an investigation into Boston Latin School after allegations of civil rights violations. Evidence of discrimination was found and resulted in a resolution with Boston Public Schools.

“As I look ahead, I hope that my time in this office will reflect the many challenges and the vast and diverse caseload that I have overseen during the past seven years, from prosecuting violent crime and public corruption, to enforcing civil rights, to our broad reach into local faith communities, schools and neighborhoods,” she said in a statement.