Category: Governor

Kathleen Blanco
Kathleen B Blanco


Kathleen Babineaux Blanco served as the first female governor of Louisiana from 2004 to 2008. Blanco was born on December 15, 1942, in New Iberia, Louisiana. She received her bachelor's degree in business education at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 1964, after which she taught high school business for a year before becoming a stay-at-home mother. In 1982, she and her husband started Coteau Consultants, a political and marketing research firm. Blanco also worked as a district manager for the US Department of Commerce . Before being elected […]
Jan Brewer
Jan Brewer


Janice K. Brewer assumed office as Arizona governor in January of 2009, after Governor Janet Napolitano resigned to accept an appointment as secretary of homeland security, and served as governor until 2015. Because Arizona state law limits office holders to two consecutive terms, regardless of whether they serve full or partial terms, she was ineligible to run for governor in 2014. Brewer was born on September 26, 1944, in Hollywood, California. She received her radiological technologist certification from Glendale Community College in Glendale, California. She moved to Arizona in 1970 […]
Katherine "Kate" Brown
Katherine "Kate" Brown


Katherine "Kate" Brown served as governor of Oregon from 2015-2023. She assumed office on Feb. 18, 2015, following the resignation of her predecessor due to a public corruption scandal. She won the election to serve the remaining two years of her predecessor's four-year term in November 2016 and was re-elected in November 2018. Because of term limits, she was not eligible to run in 2022. Brown was the state's second female governor and the first openly bisexual governor in the United States. Brown was born on June 21, 1960, in […]
Martha Collins
Martha Layne Collins


Martha Layne Collins served as governor of Kentucky from 1983-1987, the only woman to hold this position. Collins was born on December 7, 1936, in Shelby County, Kentucky. She graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1959 with a bachelor of science in home economics. After graduation, she worked as a school teacher. Collins became active in gubernatorial and congressional campaigns in 1971. In 1975, she was elected clerk of the Kentucky Supreme Court. In 1979, she was elected lieutenant governor of Kentucky. In 1983, Collins was elected governor, and […]
Mary Fallin
Mary Fallin


Mary Fallin served as Oklahoma's governor from 2011-2019, the state's first female governor. Fallin was born on December 9, 1954, in Warrensburg, Missouri. Both her mother and father served terms as mayor of Tecumseh, Oklahoma, where she was raised. Fallin graduated in 1977 from Oklahoma State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in human and environmental sciences, and family relations and child development. Fallin served in the Oklahoma House of Representatives from 1991 to 1995, then as lieutenant governor of Oklahoma from 1995-2007, the state's first female lieutenant governor. […]
Jennifer M Granholm
Jennifer M Granholm


Jennifer Granholm was confirmed as U.S. secretary of energy on Feb. 25, 2021. Granholm was the first female governor of Michigan, serving from 2003-2011. She was also Michigan's first female attorney general, serving from 1999-2003. Granholm was born February 5, 1959, in Canada. Her family moved to California when she was four years old; she became a U.S. citizen in 1980. She graduated with honors from the University of California-Berkeley in 1984 with a bachelor of arts degree in political science and French. She then graduated with honors from Harvard […]
Ella T. Grasso
Ella T. Grasso


Ella T. Grasso served as governor of Connecticut from 1975 to 1980. She was the first woman governor of Connecticut and the first woman to be elected governor of a U.S. state without having been the spouse or widow of a former governor. Grasso was born on May 10, 1919, in Windsor Locks, Connecticut. She earned a bachelor's degree in economics and sociology in 1940 and master's degree in 1942, both from Mount Holyoke College. During World War II, she served as assistant director of research for the War Manpower […]
Christine Gregoire
Christine Gregoire


Christine Gregoire served as Washington's governor from 2005-2013. Gregoire was born on March 24, 1947, and raised in Auburn, Washington. She earned a bachelor's degree in speech and sociology from the University of Washington in 1969. She worked at Washington's Department of Social and Health Service before returning to law school as Gonzaga University, where she earned a Juris Doctorate degree in 1977. After law school, Gregoire clerked for the Spokane attorney general and then was an assistant attorney general. From 1988-1992, she served as the director of the Washington […]
Michelle Lujan Grisham
Michelle Lujan Grisham


Michelle Lujan Grisham assumed office as governor of New Mexico on Jan. 1, 2019. Previously, Lujan Grisham served as the U.S. representative for New Mexico's 1st District from 2012 to 2019. Lujan Grisham was born in Los Alamos, New Mexico, on October 24, 1959, and raised in Santa Fe. She received both a Bachelor of Arts and Juris Doctor from the University of New Mexico. Lujan Grisham served as director of New Mexico's Agency on Aging from 1991-2002. From 2004-2007, she served as New Mexico's secretary of health. In 2010, […]
Lourdes “Lou” Leon Guerrero
Lourdes "Lou" Leon Guerrero


Lourdes "Lou" Leon Guerrero assumed office as governor of Guam on Jan. 7, 2019, Guam's first female governor and the first Pacific Islander woman to serve as a state or territorial governor in the United States. Leon Guerrero was born in Guam. She earned a Bachelor of Science in nursing from California State University, Los Angeles in 1973 and a Master of Public Health from UCLA in 1979. Prior to her political career, Leon Guerrero worked in healthcare as a nurse, nursing director and director of operations, and then served […]