12.03.08
Napolitano Tapped by Obama for Homeland Security Secretary
In today’s show, adapted from an article written by Mary Wood, Director of Communications for the School of Law at the University of Virginia, we discuss UVa Graduate, Janet Napolitano, who was named as the next secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, a Cabinet-level post, by President-elect Barack Obama.
Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, a 1983 graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, has been nominated as the next secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Dean Paul G. Mahoney said, “Governor Napolitano has dedicated her career to public service, fulfilling an ideal that the University of Virginia Law School holds dear. The nation is fortunate that President-elect Obama has chosen to bring her wide-ranging talents to a vitally important position.”
Napolitano Tapped by Obama for Homeland Security Secretary [5:26m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadChosen by Time magazine in 2005 as one of America’s top five governors, Napolitano recently concluded her term as the first woman and first Arizonan chosen to chair the National Governors Association. Elected governor of Arizona in 2002 and re-elected in 2006, she is the first woman in the nation’s history to serve as U.S. attorney, state attorney general and governor in immediate succession.
In a 2007 interview with UVA Lawyer magazine, Napolitano stressed the importance of bipartisan governance and said neither party has a monopoly on good ideas.
Napolitano said, “It is necessary for us to reach across the aisle to build consensus. In the end, the voters don’t care whether you’re a ‘D’ or an ‘R’ — they want results… What did you do in education, in health care, on job development, to protect the environment? They want to know what you produced besides a fight. Excessive partisanship is troublesome because it’s an artificial limitation on thinking about what’s the best idea. And sometimes the best idea requires a compromise to get any of it done.”
After Napolitano took office, she erased a billion-dollar deficit without raising taxes or cutting funds for public schools. She made education one of the key issues in her administration, and started a voluntary full-day kindergarten program. She has also reformed the state’s Child Protective Services.
Napolitano helped create the Arizona Counter-Terrorism Information Center, a multi-agency intelligence fusion center that tracks and shares critical data. She created a prescription-discount plan for Arizona seniors and her administration expanded the state’s group health insurance plan to include more individuals and small businesses.
Prior to taking elected office, she served for four years as a U.S. attorney for the District of Arizona. Born in New York City and raised in Albuquerque, N.M., Napolitano is a graduate of Santa Clara University. She has lived in Arizona since 1983, when she moved to Phoenix to clerk for a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judge and then practice law.
Napolitano joins several other Law School graduates with high-ranking national security posts. Kip Hawley, a 1980 alumnus, is the director of the Transportation Security Administration. Robert Mueller, a 1973 graduate, is the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, and 1989 graduate Patrick Rowan is the assistant attorney general for national security.
Speaking at the Law School’s 2007 commencement, Napolitano challenged graduating students to make sense of the transformative nature of technology, international law and the rule of law.
Napolitano said, “Your job will be to sort out where to alter the law and where to leave it alone. To know the law is to know how to make this world better through its proper application and to practice law properly is to engage in public service of the highest order. Never forget that being an attorney is not just a job, it is a calling — it is a way of life.”
You’ve been listening to the Oscar Show, I’m Jacob Canon. Join us next week when we will look at the Commonwealth’s first ever, Doctor of Nursing Practice Degree. The UVa Nursing School granted the historic first ever achievement, on November 14, 2008.