The University of California Regents’ presidential search committee has nominated U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano to serve as the 20th president of the system. If approved by the full Board of Regents on July 18, Napolitano will lead a university system with 10 campuses, five medical centers, three affiliated national laboratories, and a statewide agriculture and natural resources program. The UC system has more than 234,000 students, about 208,000 faculty and staff, more than 1.6 million living alumni and an annual operating budget of more than $24 billion.Napolitano has led the Department of Homeland Security since January 2009. She served as Governor of Arizona from 2003 to 2009, as Attorney General of Arizona from 1998 to 2003, and as U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona from 1993 to 1997. Before that, she practiced at the law firm of Lewis & Roca in Phoenix, where she became a partner in 1989. She began her career in 1983 as a clerk for Judge Mary M. Schroeder of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Napolitano is a distinguished public servant with a record of leading large, complex organizations at the federal and state levels. As the nation’s third Secretary of Homeland Security, Napolitano heads a department comprised of 22 agencies and directorates, and whose missions include counterterrorism, border security, immigration, cybersecurity and disaster response and recovery. The Department supports 12 Centers of Excellence through a consortium of hundreds of universities generating ideas for new security technologies.
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