Janet Napolitano

**Janet Ann Napolitano** (born November 29, 1957) is an American politician who served as the 3rd Secreatry of Homeland Security from 2009 to 2013 under President Barack Obama. She became the first woman to serve in the position. Before becoming Secretary of Homeland Security, she was the Governor of Arizona and Attorney General of Arizona. She announced her resignation of Homeland Security in July 2013 to become president of the University of California. She assumed presidency of the University of California on September 30, 2013, and is the first woman in the post. She served as president of the University of California from September 2013 until her resignation on August 1, 2020

## Early life

Janet Napolitano was born on November 29, 1957, in New York City. She is the daughter of Jane Marie (née Winer) and Leonard Michael Napolitano, who was the dean of the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. Her father was of Italian ancestry and her mother had German and Austrian ancestry. Napolitano is a Methodist. She was the eldest of three children; she has a younger brother and sister.  She was raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she graduated from Sandia High School in Albuquerque in 1975 and was voted Most Likely to Succeed. She graduated from Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California, where she won a Truman Scholarship, and was valedictorian. In 1978, she studied for a term at the London School of Economics as part of Santa Clara's exchange programme through IES Abroad. She then received her Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the University of Virginia School of Law. After law school she served as a law clerk for Judge Mary M. Schroeder of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and then joined Schroeder's former firm, Lewis and Roca located in Phoenix.

## Health

Napolitano has been undergoing cancer-related treatment since August 2016. On January 17, 2017, Napolitano was hospitalized in Oakland for complications from the cancer treatment. She was released from the hospital on January 23, 2017.

## Infobox (officeholder)

- **name**: Janet Napolitano
- **image**: Janet Napolitano official portrait.jpg
- **office**: 20th President of the University of California
- **term start**: September 30, 2013
- **term end**: August 1, 2020
- **predecessor**: Mark Yudof
- **successor**: Michael V. Drake
- **office1**: 3rd United States Secretary of Homeland Security
- **president1**: Barack Obama
- **deputy1**: Jane Holl Lute, Jane Lute
Rand Beers
- **term start1**: January 21, 2009
- **term end1**: September 6, 2013
- **predecessor1**: Michael Chertoff
- **successor1**: Jeh Johnson
- **office2**: 21st List of Governors of Arizona, Governor of Arizona
- **term start2**: January 6, 2003
- **term end2**: January 21, 2009
- **predecessor2**: Jane Dee Hull
- **successor2**: Jan Brewer
- **office3**: 23rd Arizona Attorney General, Attorney General of Arizona
- **governor3**: Jane Dee Hull
- **term start3**: January 4, 1999
- **term end3**: January 6, 2003
- **predecessor3**: Grant Woods
- **successor3**: Terry Goddard
- **birth place**: New York City, New York (state), New York, United States, U.S.
- **party**: Democratic Party (United States), Democratic
- **alma mater**: Santa Clara University
University of Virginia School of Law, University of Virginia