Working as an assistant attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., for over two decades, Julieanne Himelstein has handled some of the most notorious terrorism cases in modern history. In one, for instance, she acted as co-lead prosecutor in U.S. v. Abu Khatallah involving the 2012 attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya.

But Himelstein has also made a name for herself being a skilled prosecutor of sex crimes. As deputy chief in the Sex Offense and Domestic Violence Section at the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office, she broke new ground with changing the way sex crime cases are tried in court.