28 Facts About Jane Swift

Jane Maria Swift was born on February 24,1965 and is an American politician and nonprofit executive who served as the 69th lieutenant governor of Massachusetts from 1999 to 2003 and, concurrently, as acting governor from April 2001 to January 2003.

Jane Swift was the first woman to perform the duties of governor of Massachusetts.

At the time she became acting governor, Swift was 36 years old, making her the youngest female governor or acting governor in US history.

Jane Swift grew up in a large extended family in North Adams, Massachusetts.

Jane Swift's mother, a graduate of North Adams State College, was a teacher in area public and parochial schools.

Jane Swift attended North Adams public schools, and in 1987 graduated from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, with a degree in American studies.

In 1990, at the age of 25, Jane Swift was the youngest woman ever elected to the Massachusetts Senate.

Jane Swift served the Berkshire, Hampshire, Franklin, and Hampden Massachusetts Senate district from 1991 to 1997 and was active in education reform.

Jane Swift was instrumental in the passage of the Education Reform Act of 1993, which created the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, one of the nation's first statewide programs for quantifying academic performance.

In 1996, rather than seek re-election to the Senate, Jane Swift was the Republican nominee for United States Congress in Massachusetts's 1st congressional district.

Jane Swift lost to a popular two-term incumbent Democratic Congressman, John Olver, by four points.

Jane Swift went on to serve as an executive with the Massachusetts Port Authority, and was later appointed by Governor Weld as Massachusetts' consumer affairs secretary in 1997.

Jane Swift served in that post until she was elected lieutenant governor in 1998, in a campaign that was notable not only for her relative youth but for the fact that she was pregnant with her first child, Elizabeth, whom she gave birth to just a few weeks before election day.

Jane Swift was especially criticized for using staff members to watch her daughter, and for her Massachusetts State Police detail's use of a helicopter to avoid Thanksgiving traffic en route to her home in The Berkshires when her baby was sick.

Jane Swift was pregnant with twins at the time, and became the first sitting governor in US history to give birth when her twin daughters, Lauren and Sarah Hunt, were born one month into her term of office.

Jane Swift made national headlines when she continued to exercise executive authority during her maternity leave, including chairing a meeting of the Massachusetts Governor's Council by teleconference while on bed rest for preterm labor.

Jane Swift won widespread praise for her response to the September 11 attacks in 2001 and for her management of the fiscal crisis that followed in Massachusetts.

Jane Swift has had her finest hour during this crisis.

Jane Swift received high praise from the Massachusetts High Tech Council for her response to the budget crisis without resorting to massive tax increases.

In October 2001, Jane Swift announced that she would run for a full term as governor in the 2002 election.

Jane Swift endorsed Senator John McCain for president in February 2007 and campaigned on his behalf throughout 2008.

Jane Swift has received six honorary doctorates, served as a fellow at Harvard University's John F Kennedy School of Government, is a frequent speaker on the role of women in public service and the challenges of integrating work and family, is a contributor to Working Mother Magazine, and was a lecturer in Leadership Studies at Williams College.

Jane Swift became CEO of Middlebury Interactive Languages from August 2011 until April 2017.

On July 1,2019 Jane Swift became the president and executive director of LearnLaunch, a nonprofit education innovation organization.

Jane Swift has held trustee positions, board memberships, and advisory roles both domestically and abroad, for organizations including:.

Jane Swift completed the Boston Marathon in 2008, running as part of the fundraising team for Boston Children's Hospital.

In 2015, Jane Swift signed an amicus brief to the United States Supreme Court in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage.

Jane Swift and Hunt have three daughters, two of whom were born during her tenure as acting governor, thus making her the first sitting governor to give birth while in office.