Jan. 9, 2003

Contact: Todd Cohen, University Relations, (785) 864-8858.

Inaugural: KU, Harvard only universities in nation with 2 female governor alums

LAWRENCE -- Only 23 women in U.S. history have been called "governor," but KU can proudly claim two as graduates.

Kathleen Sebelius, who earned a master's degree in public administration at KU in 1977, will be sworn in Monday as Kansas' 44th governor. In Arizona, outgoing Gov. Jane Dee Hull received a bachelor's degree in elementary education at KU in 1957.

For now, KU and Harvard University are the only universities in the nation to each have two alumnae elected governor. (Harvard's alums are Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who earned a law degree, and former Oregon Gov. Barbara Roberts, who completed a one-year professional program.)

Sebelius, elected governor last fall after serving eight years as state insurance commissioner, succeeds Gov. Bill Graves, who attended graduate school at KU from 1978 to 1979.

Notably, Kansas is one of only three states to have elected two women as governor, the others being Arizona and Texas. Kansas' first female governor was Joan Finney, elected to one term in 1990.

Former Kansas Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker, a 1954 KU graduate, was the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate without being preceded in office by her husband. She also was the first woman to chair a major Senate committee: Labor and Human Resources.

Kansas City, Mo.'s first female mayor, Kay Waldo Barnes, earned a degree in secondary education from KU as well. She was elected in 1999.

Kansas is also in the top 10 for states with the highest percentages of female state legislators. The state of Washington is first at 38.8 percent; Kansas is sixth at 32.1 percent.