Kathleen Kennedy Townsend

The eldest child of Robert and Ethel Kennedy, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend served two terms as Maryland's lieutenant governor from 1995 to 2003. She narrowly lost a bid to become Maryland's first woman governor in 2002.

Born in Greenwich, Connecticut, on July 4, 1951, she is a cum laude graduate of Harvard University and a graduate of the University of New Mexico Law School.

Before becoming lieutenant governor, Townsend served as deputy assistant attorney general in the U.S. Department of Justice, during which time she worked to establish community-policing programs across the country. Upon taking office in 1995, Townsend made a national name for herself as an advocate of victims' rights and an innovator in the fight against crime. She served as chair of the Maryland Cabinet Council on Criminal and Juvenile Justice, and in that capacity, developed the first statewide initiative in the nation that targets crime hotspots, which was praised by former Attorney General Reno as a national model.

She is the founder of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, the former chair of the board of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Foundation, and serves on the board of directors of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. She is author of the book "Failing America's Faithful: How Today's Churches Are Mixing God with Politics and Losing Their Way" (2007) and contributes to The Recovering Politician website started by Jonathan Miller. She is an adjunct professor at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute, a visiting fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, and senior Nitze fellow at St. Mary's College of Maryland. In 2010 Townsend became the chair of the non-profit American Bridge, a political action committee that raises funds for Democratic candidates and causes.

Sources:

Maryland Manual On-Line (n.d.). KATHLEEN KENNEDY TOWNSEND. Retrieved on November 21 2022, from https://msa.maryland.gov/msa/mdmanual/08conoff/ltgov/former/html/msa12084.html