Kathleen Blanco - Newcomb College Institute Leadership Summit "Power Lines"

Newcomb College Institute Leadership Summit: Power Lines: Women Transform the Grid.

As a long-term public servant in Louisiana, Kathleen Babineaux Blancos political career has been marked by a series of firsts. On January 12, 2004, Blanco became the first woman to serve as governor of Louisiana. She had been in office less than two years when Hurricane Katrina, one of the most devastating hurricanes ever to make landfall in the United States, struck the Louisiana Gulf Coast. In March 2007, she decided not to seek re-election, saying that she would focus her time and energy for the rest of her term on the people's work, not on politics." Before being elected governor, Blanco served two terms as lieutenant governor (1996-2004). In 1984, she became the first women elected to represent Lafayette, La., in the state legislature. Five years later, she was elected to the Public Service Commission, and became the first woman to chair the commission in 1993. A 1964 graduate of the University of Southwestern Louisiana, Blanco started her career as a high school business teacher.

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