Judge Prost was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit by President George W. Bush in 2001. From 1992 until her appointment, Judge Prost served the Senate Judiciary Committee in a number of positions, including Majority and Minority Chief Counsel, after serving as Chief Labor Counsel for the Minority on the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources and as Acting Solicitor of the National Labor Relations Board. While working in the executive branch she earned three advanced degrees as a night student, including an MBA in finance, a JD from Washington College of Law at American University, and an LLM in tax law from George Washington University Law School. Judge Prost was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, grew up in Hartford, Connecticut, and attended Cornell University as an undergraduate.