Kirsten Gillibrand - Early Life and Education

Early Life and Education

Gillibrand was born in Albany, New York, on December 9, 1966, the daughter of Polly Noonan and Douglas Rutnik. The couple—both attorneys—practiced law at their own firm until divorcing in the late 1980s. Gillibrand's father also spent time as a lobbyist and was known for his close ties to Republican Party, although he himself is a registered Democrat. Gillibrand has an older brother, Doug Rutnik, and a younger sister, Erin Rutnik Tschantret. Her maternal grandmother was Dorothea "Polly" Noonan, founder of the Albany Democratic Women's Club, as well as a leader in Albany Mayor Erastus Corning's powerful political machine, which lasted for more than 40 years. Her ancestry includes Austrian, German, and Irish heritage.

For much of her early life, Gillibrand was known by the nickname Tina, a name adopted by her brother when he was not able to pronounce "Kirsten" as a child. In 1984 she graduated from Emma Willard School in Troy, New York and went on to Dartmouth College. As an Asian Studies major, she became functionally fluent in Mandarin Chinese; she studied in both Beijing and Taiwan and adopted a Chinese name, Lu Tian Na (陸天娜). She states that she considers herself conversationally fluent. Gillibrand graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in 1988. While at Dartmouth, she was a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority. During college, she interned at US Senator Alfonse D'Amato's Albany office. Following Dartmouth, Gillibrand attended UCLA Law School and graduated with a Juris Doctor in 1991; she passed the bar that same year.