Appointed by President Barack Obama in 2012, Gleason is the first woman to serve as a federal judge in the District of Alaska.

She graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 1979 with a Bachelor of Arts degree magna cum laude.

She then attended the UC Davis School of Law, graduating in 1983 with a Juris Doctor degree and Order of the Coif honors.

She was in private practice at the Alaska law firm Reese, Rice & Volland from 1984 to 1995,[4] and as a sole legal practitioner from 1995 to 2001.

[6] On April 6, 2011, President Barack Obama nominated Gleason to the United States District Court for the District of Alaska to a vacancy that had been created by Judge John W. Sedwick, who assumed senior status on March 13, 2011.