Category: U.S. Cabinet Member / page 2

Avril Haines
Avril Haines


Avril Haines served as director of national intelligence from 2021-2025. She is the first woman to serve in this role. Haines was born on August 27, 1969, in New York. She obtained a bachelor's degree in physics from the University of Chicago in 1992 and a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 2001. Upon graduating law school, Haines worked at the Hague Conference on Private International Law from 2001-2002 before working as a clerk on the sixth circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals from 2002-2003. Haines worked […]
Nikki Haley
Nikki Haley


Nimrata "Nikki" Randhawa Haley served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from January 2017 to December 2018. Previously, Haley served as governor of South Carolina from 2011 to 2017, the first non-European American and first female governor of South Carolina and the second Indian American governor to be elected in the United States. Haley was a Republican presidential candidate in the 2024 election, the first woman of color to be a major GOP presidential candidate and the first woman to win a state GOP presidential primary (D.C. and […]
Lisa P Jackson
Lisa P Jackson


Lisa Perez Jackson served as the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from January 2009 to February 2013, the first African American to serve in that position. Jackson was born February 8, 1962, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. She earned a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Tulane University in 1983 and a master's degree in chemical engineering from Princeton University in 1986. Jackson started with the EPA in 1987, spending 15 years working on Superfund remediation projects and developing hazardous waste clean-up regulations before […]
Jeane J Kirkpatrick
Jeane J Kirkpatrick


Jeane Kirkpatrick was a foreign policy advisor under President Ronald Reagan and the first woman to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, serving from 1981 to 1985. Kirkpatrick was born on November 19, 1926, in Duncan, Oklahoma. She received an associate’s degree from Stephens College in 1946, a bachelor's degree from Barnard College in 1948 and a master's and Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University in 1950 and 1968, respectively. Between her master's and Ph.D., Kirkpatrick was a research analyst with the Office of Intelligence Research at […]
Linda McMahon
Linda McMahon


Linda McMahon was the administrator of the Small Business Administration under the Trump administration from 2017 to 2019. She resigned to chair the America First Action PAC, a pro-Trump super PAC. McMahon was born October 4, 1948 in New Bern, North Carolina. She earned a bachelor's degree from East Carolina University in 1966. After graduation, McMahon worked as a paralegal at a corporate law firm. In 1980, McMahon and her husband co-founded Titan Sports, Inc. (now WWE, Inc.), and she served as president and later CEO until 2009. McMahon was […]
Janet A Napolitano
Janet A Napolitano


Janet Napolitano has served as president of the University of California system from 2013 to 2020. Previously, she served as U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security from 2009 to 2013, the first woman to hold that post. Napolitano was born in New York City on November 29, 1957, and grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She earned a Bachelor of Science in political science from Santa Clara University in 1979, where she was the university's first female valedictorian, and received her Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law […]
Kristi Noem
Kristi Noem


Kristi Noem assumed office as secretary of homeland security on January 25, 2025. She previously served as governor of South Dakota from 2019-2025, the first woman to serve of governor of that state. Noem served as the U.S. representative for South Dakota's at-large congressional district from 2011-2019. Noem was born November 30, 1971, in South Dakota. While she was attending college at Northern State University in Aberdeen, Noem's father's death in a farming accident forced her to return to home to run the family's ranch. While serving in Congress, Noem […]
Frances Perkins
Frances Perkins


Frances Perkins served as the U.S. secretary of labor from 1933-1945 and was the principal architect of the New Deal. She was the first woman to hold a U.S. cabinet position and the first woman to enter the presidential line of succession. As secretary of labor, she was largely responsible for the adoption of social security, unemployment insurance, federal laws regulating child labor and the federal minimum wage. Perkins was born on April 10, 1880, in Boston, Massachusetts. She earned a bachelor's degree in physics from Mount Holyoke College in […]
Mary E Peters
Mary E Peters


Mary E. Peters served as U.S. secretary of transportation from 2006-2009. Peters was born December 4, 1948, in Peoria, Arizona. She received a bachelor's degree from the University of Phoenix, and attended Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government Program for State and Local Government Executives. Prior to serving as U.S. secretary of transportation, Peters was a senior vice president and national director for Transportation Policy and Consulting for HDR, Inc., a major engineering company. In 2001, Peters was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as the […]
Samantha Power
Samantha Power


Samantha Jane Power served as the United States ambassador to the United Nations from August 5, 2013 to January 20, 2017. Power was born September 21, 1970. Her family emigrated from Ireland to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1979. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in history from Yale University in 1992. From 1993 to 1996, Power worked as a journalist, covering the Yugoslav Wars for U.S. News & World Report, The Boston Globe, The Economist, and The New Republic. She received her J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1999. From […]