Soraya has a heart to help others and to educate our communities on the importance of childhood literacy. 

She is a native of St. Thomas, U. S. Virgin Islands. 

Her parents both spoke English as a second language and profoundly believed that English is the language of opportunity. They had their 5 daughters speak only English at home. Understanding the importance of the ability to read, her mother taught her to read at a very early age and Soraya started first grade at the age of 4, already more advanced than the other students in her class.  

Her parents mentored the importance of reading regularly as they always had newspapers and magazines at home to read and had her and her siblings constantly visiting and checking out books to read from the library. 

Soraya profoundly believes that it is this foundation of reading that enabled her to excel as a student and then be accomplished in her professions. 

She ultimately graduated as valedictorian of her high school class.

She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of Texas at Austin and a Juris Doctorate degree from Cornell Law School.  

After returning home to St. Thomas, Soraya worked for the local courts as a law clerk and then established her private law office.  She was later appointed as a general jurisdiction judge and served in that position for 6 ½ years, presiding over a diverse number of cases from simple traffic charges and small claims cases to multimillion-dollar civil cases and felony criminal cases.

She later obtained a degree of Master of Judicial Studies -Trial Judges Major from the University of Nevada at Reno in conjunction with the National Judicial College. Her Master’s thesis, advocating the establishment of a Supreme Court of the Virgin Islands, was used as a guideline by lawmakers who created the court.

Soraya and her late husband Gordon established and successfully operated a number of small businesses in the U. S. Virgin Islands.

She has two sons who were born and raised on St. Thomas: Zachary, who followed his mother’s footsteps and is a lawyer; and James who has MBA and MS in medical physiology and biophysics.

Soraya has a natural gift of working with children.  Her personal experiences of learning to read from an early age and serving as a judge presiding over many juvenile delinquent and juvenile criminal cases inspired her to be a children’s author, establish a nonprofit foundation As the Stars of the Sky Foundation,  and promote the critical importance of childhood literacy. All proceeds from the sale of her books go to the Foundation to help promote literacy.