She became a paralegal in 1993, and enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin in 1994, earning a Master of Public Affairs and Juris Doctor.

In 2013 she resigned her position on the Court in order to be eligible to run to succeed retiring long time County Judge Sam T. Biscoe.

In March, 2014 she defeated Andy Brown in the Democratic primary, and that Fall she was elected Travis County Judge.

[6] Her predecessor, Sam T. Biscoe, served as interim county judge until the swearing in of Andy Brown, who was elected to succeed Eckhardt in November 2020.

[1] On December 4, 2020, Eckhardt was sanctioned by the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct (CJC) for remarks that she had made on January 24, 2017, while presiding over a meeting of the Travis County Commissioners Court, and on September 27, 2019, at the Texas Tribune Festival, during a panel discussion, recorded as:[7] publicly admonished for engaging in willful conduct that cast public discredit upon the judiciary in violation of Article V, Section 1-a(6) of the Texas Constitution when she; (i) wore a pink knitted beanie with cat ears referred to as a “pussy hat” during a public meeting of the Travis County Commissioners Court, an action that could be perceived as undignified, offensive and inappropriate; and, (ii) made the public remark that Governor Abbott “hates trees because one fell on him,” a comment which could be perceived as offensive, demeaning, and derogatory towards the governor and others with physical disabilities.Eckhardt apologized for the joke the following day [9] and was later cleared by a special court of review, which noted that the CJC "overreached in rebuking her.