Politics / Law
Jennifer Granholm
born 1959 · lawyer, governor of Michigan, U.S. energy secretary
Canadian-born lawyer who launched her career in Detroit as a clerk for Judge Damon Keith and Wayne County's top lawyer, then became Michigan's first woman attorney general and governor (2003–2011).
- Born
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
age 67- Birth name
- Jennifer Mulhern Granholm
- Detroit years
- 1987–2011
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Jennifer Granholm was born in Vancouver in 1959 and grew up in California, where she briefly tried acting before studying at Berkeley and Harvard Law School. In 1987 she moved to Detroit to clerk for federal appeals judge Damon Keith, then worked in the Wayne County executive's office, served as an assistant U.S. attorney in Detroit from 1991 and in 1995 became Wayne County corporation counsel, the youngest ever to hold the post. She settled with her family in Northville. In 1998 she was elected Michigan's first woman attorney general, succeeding Frank Kelley after 37 years, and in 2002 became the state's first woman governor. Her two terms were dominated by the collapse of manufacturing jobs and the 2008–09 crisis, when she lobbied Washington for the rescue of General Motors and Chrysler and sought to draw battery and clean-energy plants to Michigan. After leaving office she taught at Berkeley and served as President Biden's secretary of energy from 2021 to 2025.
Highlights
- 47th governor of Michigan, 2003–2011 – the first woman in the post
- Michigan's first woman attorney general, 1999–2003
- Wayne County corporation counsel (1995)
- U.S. secretary of energy, 2021–2025
- Law clerk to Judge Damon Keith in Detroit