Category: Governor / page 3

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 […]
Linda Lingle
Linda Lingle


Linda Lingle was Hawaii's first female governor, serving from 2002-2010. Lingle was born on June 4, 1953, in St. Louis, Missouri. When she was 12 years old, her family moved to Southern California. She received her bachelor's degree in journalism from California State University, Northridge in 1975. After college, Lingle followed her father to Hawaii where she worked as a public information officer for Hawaii Teamsters and Hotel Workers Union in Honolulu, then moved to Molokai and founded Molokai Free Press, a community newspaper. Lingle served on the Maui County […]
Susana Martinez
Susana Martinez


Susana Martinez served as New Mexico's governor from 2011-2019, the state's first female governor. She was also the first Latina governor elected in the United States. Martinez was born July 14, 1959, and grew up in El Paso, Texas. After completing her bachelor's degree at the University of Texas at El Paso, Martinez earned her law degree from the University of Oklahoma College of Law. Before serving as governor, Martinez served as the district attorney for the 3rd Judicial District in Doña Ana County in southern New Mexico from 1996-2010. […]
Judy Martz
Judy Martz


Judy Martz served as governor of Montana from 2001-2005, Montana's first female governor. Martz was born in Big Timber, Montana, on July 28, 1943. She was a speed skater at the 1964 Olympics and the 1962 Miss Rodeo Montana. She and her husband owned and operated a garbage disposal service in Butte, Montana. Martz was a field representative for Senator Conrad Burns from 1989-1995. She served as lieutenant governor of Montana from 1996-2001. Martz died on October 30, 2017. Sources: Miss Rodeo Montana, Inc. (n.d.) Miss Rodeo Montana History. Retrieved […]
Janet Mills
Janet Mills


Janet Mills assumed office as governor of Maine on Jan. 2, 2019, the first woman elected governor of that state. Mills was born on December 30, 1947, in Farmington, Maine. She earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and a Juris Doctor from the University of Maine School of Law. Mills served as an assistant attorney from 1976-1980, and then as a district attorney from 1980-1995. She served in Maine's House of Representatives from 2002-2009. She served as Maine's attorney general from 2009-2011 and from 2013-2019, […]
Ruth Ann Minner
Ruth Ann Minner


Ruth Ann Minner served as governor of Delaware from 2001-2009, the state's first female governor. She was also the first woman elected as Delaware's lieutenant governor, in 1993. Minner was born January 17, 1935, in Delaware. Following the death of her first husband, she earned her GED in 1968 and later attended Delaware Technical and Community College. Prior to serving as governor, Minner served as Delaware's lieutenant governor from 1993-2001. She also served in the Delaware state Senate (1983-1993) and state House of Representatives (1975-1983). Minner died on Nov. 4, […]
Rose Mofford
Rose Mofford


Rose Mofford served as the governor of Arizona from 1988-1991, the first female governor of Arizona. Mofford had a 51-year career in state government, from her first position as a secretary to her term as governor. Mofford was born in Globe, Arizona, on June 10, 1922. After high school, she worked as a secretary, first in the Arizona state treasurer's office and then the Tax Commission, and then was the business manager for Arizona Highways magazine for several years. She became assistant secretary of state in 1953, a position she […]
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 […]
Kay A. Orr
Kay A. Orr


Kay A. Orr served as governor of Nebraska from 1987-1991, Nebraska's first female governor and the first female Republican governor. Orr was born in Burlington, Iowa, on January 2, 1939. She began her political career as a volunteer for the Republican Party after moving to Nebraska, in 1963, and was elected as a delegate to the national conventions of 1976, 1980, 1984 and 1988. In 1981, she was appointed Nebraska state treasurer to fill a midterm vacancy and served until 1987, when she assumed office as governor. She was defeated […]