Janet Napolitano

Janet Napolitano (1957-) is U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security in the Obama administration. Prior to her appointment, she was governor of the state of Arizona, during which she chaired the National Governors Association (NGA) and Western Governors Association. In the NGA, she was involved in establishing the Homeland Security Advisors Council and Public Safety Task Force.

She is a lawyer, and has considerable law enforcement background. After the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, as U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona, she conducted the Federal investigation.

As Arizona's Attorney general, she created legislation to deal with human smuggling. When she became governor, she opened the first state counterterrorism center and an early state-level homeland security organization. She was involved in both planning and execution of emergency operations from local to Federal level.