Biography
Judge Zayas graduated, cum laude, from the University of Miami with a B.A. in Sociology in 1986. She received her J.D., cum laude, from the University of Miami in 1989. Judge Zayas was a Board Certified Criminal Appellate Lawyer for 20 years.
Judge Zayas was appointed to the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court in December 2011. She served in the Juvenile Division, now the Unified Children’s Division, presiding over delinquency matters for six years. Judge Zayas transferred to the Family Division in 2018 where she presided over dissolutions of marriage, paternity actions, adoptions, child support, and other family matters. In June 2019, Judge Zayas returned to the Unified Children’s Division where she serves as an Associate Administrative Judge and presides over the G.R.A.C.E Court, a specialized division created to address the needs of juvenile victims of human trafficking.
Judge Zayas currently serves on the Executive Council of the Criminal Law Section, the Florida Supreme Court Mediator Qualifications Board – Southern Division, the Education Committee of the Florida Conference of Circuit Judges. Judge Zayas has served as an adjunct professor at FIU College of Law and an instructor at the Conference of Circuit Court Judges. Judge Zayas has served on the Florida Supreme Court Criminal Court Steering Committee Subcommittee on Post Conviction Relief, assisting in the revision of Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850, the Florida Supreme Court Committee on Standard Jury Instructions in Criminal Cases, the Florida Bar Criminal Procedures Rules Committee, the Florida Bar Criminal Law Certification Committee, and the Board of the Third District Court Historical Society.
Before joining the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court, Judge Zayas was an Assistant Attorney General with the State of Florida Department of Legal Affairs, Office of the Attorney General, and an Assistant State Attorney in the Legal Division of the Office of the State Attorney of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit.