FORA.tv Speaker - Janet Napolitano

Janet Napolitano is the third United States Secretary of Homeland Security. She assumed the job on January 21, 2009, and is the first woman to serve in that office.

An American politician from the Democratic Party, Napolitano was serving as governor of the state of Arizona when designated by then-President-elect Barack Obama to be his Secretary of Homeland Security. She was confirmed by the Senate and sworn in one day after Obama's inauguration. She was chair of two state governors' associations and was named by Time as one of the top five governors in 2005. Prior to the governorship, she served as Arizona attorney general from 1999 to 2002.

Napolitano was first elected governor in 2002, and was re-elected in 2006. She was Arizona's third female governor, and the first woman to win re-election. Napolitano was succeeded by Arizona's secretary of state, Jan Brewer, who became Arizona's fourth female governor and third consecutive female governor.