Permanent link for Mentoring Mondays - January 18, 2021 on January 18, 2021

We salute our women leaders in Government today by looking at those nominated to hold US Presidential Cabinet Secretary positions. Michigan is well represented with former Governor Jennifer Granholm’s nomination as Secretary of Energy. Nominations are pending Senate confirmation.

Jennifer Mulhern Granholm is an American politician, lawyer, educator, author, and political commentator. A member of the Democratic Party, Granholm was Attorney General of Michigan from 1999 to 2003 and the 47th governor of Michigan from 2003 to 2011. In January 2017, she was hired as a CNN political contributor. Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Granholm moved from Canada to California at age four. She graduated from San Carlos High School and briefly attempted an acting career, then held a variety of jobs before attending the University of California, Berkeley. Granholm earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1984 and her Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School, where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. She ran for Governor in 2002 to succeed Republican John Engler, defeating Engler's Lieutenant Governor Dick Posthumus to become Michigan's first female governor on January 1, 2003. Granholm was re-elected to a second term in 2006 against Republican businessman Dick DeVos and served until January 1, 2011, when she left office due to state term-limits. She was a member of the presidential transition team for Barack Obama before he assumed office in January 2009. Biden picks Granholm for Secretary of Energy.    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Granholm

Debra Anne Haaland is an American politician who has been the U.S. Representative from New Mexico's 1st congressional district since 2019. The district includes most of Albuquerque, along with most of its suburbs. Haaland is a former chairwoman of the Democratic Party of New Mexico. Along with Sharice Davids, she is one of the first two Native American women elected to the U.S. Congress. Haaland is an enrolled member of the Laguna Pueblo and a 35th-generation New Mexican. A political progressive, Haaland supports the movements to abolish ICE and to implement the Green New Deal and Medicare For All. On December 17, 2020, President-elect Joe Biden announced that he would nominate Haaland to serve as United States Secretary of the Interior. If confirmed, she would become the first Native American to run the Department of the Interior, and the first Native American Cabinet secretary in U.S. history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deb_Haaland

Marcia Louise Fudg e has been the U.S. Representative for Ohio's 11th congressional district since 2008. A member of the Democratic Party, she won the 2008 special election uncontested, succeeding Stephanie Tubbs Jones who died in office. Fudge was chair of the Congressional Black Caucus in the 113th Congress. President-elect Joe Biden has nominated Fudge as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. A 1971 graduate of Shaker Heights High School, she earned her Bachelor of Science in business from Ohio State University in 1975.  In 1983, she earned a Juris Doctor from Cleveland State UniversityCleveland–Marshall College of Law. Immediately after college, Fudge worked as a law clerk and studied legal research. She also worked in the Cuyahoga County prosecutor's office as Director of Budget and Finance, as an auditor for the county's estate tax department, and has occasionally served as a visiting judge and chief referee for arbitration. Fudge was the first African American female mayor of Warrensville Heights, Ohio, from January 2000 until November 18, 2008. Her 1999 campaign was her first run for any elected office. Fudge served as chief of staff to U.S. Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones during Jones's first term in Congress. She has also served on the board of trustees for the Cleveland Public Library. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcia_Fudge

Janet Louise Yellen is an American economist who was the 15th chair of the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2018, the first woman to hold this role. She was vice-chair of the Reserve from 2010 to 2014. President-elect Joe Biden has announced that he will nominate Yellen to serve in his Cabinet as  Secretary of the Treasury. Yellen was a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors from 1994 to 1997 and again from 2010 to 2018. She chaired the Council of Economic Advisers under President Bill Clinton from 1997 to 1999 and was President of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco from 2004 to 2010. In 2014, Yellen was nominated by President Barack Obama to succeed Ben Bernanke as chair of the Federal Reserve. She served one term from 2014 to 2018 and was not re-appointed by President Donald Trump. As of November 2020, Yellen was a distinguished fellow at the Brookings Institution. She is a professor emerita at Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Yellen

Gina Marie Raimondo is an American politician and venture capitalist who is, since 2015, the 75th governor of Rhode Island. A member of the Democratic Party, she is the first woman to serve as governor of Rhode Island. Before her election, Raimondo served as general treasurer of Rhode Island from 2011 to 2015 and was the second woman to hold the office. She was selected as the Democratic candidate for Rhode Island's governorship in the 2014 election. Raimondo won the election on November 4, 2014, with 41% of the vote, in a three-way race, against the mayor of Cranston, Republican Allan Fung, and businessman Robert Healey. President-elect Biden picks Raimondo for Secretary of Commerce.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gina_Raimondo

If you are interested in reading more about these amazing women, links to their full biographies have been provided.

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Jennifer Mulhern Granholm

Debra Anne Haaland

Marcia Louise Fudge

Janet Louise Yellen

Gina Marie Raimondo

Posted on Permanent link for Mentoring Mondays - January 18, 2021 on January 18, 2021.