Jennifer M. Granholm was elected governor in 2002 and re-elected in 2006. She began her career in public service as a judicial clerk for Michigan's 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. She became a federal prosecutor in Detroit in 1990, and in 1994, she was appointed Wayne County Corporation Counsel. Granholm was elected Michigan's first female attorney general in 1998.

Since becoming governor, she has worked to grow and diversify Michigan's economy, create jobs, ensure world-class educational opportunities for every Michigan student, create universal access to affordable health care, and stand up for Michigan workers and families during tough economic times. While aggressively pursuing her top priority of putting Michigan families first, she has also worked to ensure that state government spends every penny efficiently and has successfully resolved more than $6 billion in budget deficits.

Granholm's comprehensive economic agenda includes growing a new alternative energy sector that will help end our nation's dependence on foreign oil and help train unemployed and under-employed citizens for high-demand jobs through the No Worker Left Behind initiative.

Granholm has championed universal access to higher education, increased spending to record levels for Michigan's public schools, and implemented some of the most rigorous high school graduation requirements in the nation. She also signed legislation establishing the Michigan Promise scholarship, a program that awards $4,000 to every Michigan student who successfully completes two years of post-secondary education.

The Pew Center on the States recognized Michigan as one of the best-managed states in the nation in the Government Performance Project report entitled, "Grading the States 2008."

Granholm serves as chair of the Health and Human Services Committee and is co-chair of the Health Care Task Force of the National Governors Association, and is chair of the Midwestern Governors Association.

Granholm was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, and is an honors graduate of both the University of California at Berkeley and Harvard Law School. She and her husband, Daniel G. Mulhern, have three children.

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