Former two-term governor of Michigan, Jennifer M. Granholm, was the first woman to be elected as governor of that state, in 2002.

In 2006 she was re-elected with the largest number of votes ever cast for governor in Michigan. She is credited with leading the state though a period of unprecedented economic challenge and change.

As governor, Granholm championed clean energy policies, working with business and labour, Republicans and Democrats, to create new economic opportunities and jobs in Michigan. She led an aggressive strategy to make Michigan the hub of clean-energy development in North America, with a plan that targeted battery manufacturing, bio-energy, solar and wind power.

Granholm also focused on creating jobs, attracting international investment, improving education and training Michigan’s workers to promote the state’s long-term economic health. She advocated for doubling the number of college graduates in Michigan and signed into law a college prep curriculum for every high school student in the state.

Prior to her tenure as governor, Granholm served as Michigan’s attorney general, from 1998 to 2002. After her last term as governor, Granholm began teaching law and public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, where she continues to serve as faculty. Granholm is also a senior research fellow at the Berkeley Energy and Climate Institute, a project scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, an ABC News contributor and the co-author of the political bestseller A Governor’s Story: The Fight for Jobs and America’s Economic Future. Granholm is also an avid supporter of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, where she is a senior partner on energy policy, and a senior advisor to Correct the Record – a research and response organization created to defend Clinton from erroneous attacks.

Granholm is an honours graduate of University of California, Berkeley, and Harvard Law School. She and her husband have three children.

“At a moment when we need someone to heal, to bring people together, Trump has alienated women, he has alienated Mexicans, he has alienated Muslims, he has alienated Jewish-Americans, you name it.”