Janet Napolitano is the president of the University of California (UC), the nation’s largest public research university, which consists of ten campuses, five medical centers, three affiliated national laboratories, and a statewide agriculture and natural resources program. She is the twentieth to hold the position. President Napolitano has launched initiatives to achieve financial stability for the university, achieve carbon neutrality across the UC system by 2025, accelerate the translation of UC research into products and services, focus UC resources on global food security, and create a system-wide program with Mexico. In 2014, she was appointed a tenured faculty member of UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy.
Prior to joining the University of California, President Napolitano served as U.S. secretary of homeland security from 2009 to 2013. Previously, she was governor of Arizona for two terms, attorney general of Arizona, and U.S. attorney for the district of Arizona.
Napolitano is the author of the book How Safe Are We?: Homeland Security Since 9/11. In 2015 she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She earned her BS in political science from Santa Clara University and her JD from the University of Virginia.