Swift, Jane, 1965-

<p>Jane Maria Swift (born February 24, 1965) is an American politician who served as the 69th lieutenant governor of Massachusetts from 1999 to 2003 and, concurrently, as acting governor from April 2001 to January 2003. She is the only 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 U.S. history. Since leaving elected office she has worked in the private sector as a Chief Executive Officer, board member and consultant for education technology companies, as well as serving on corporate and non-profit boards, teaching and lecturing on topics pertaining to women and leadership, and supporting philanthropies that address issues of importance to women and girls. She was CEO of Middlebury Interactive Languages from 2011 to 2017.</p>

<p>Swift grew up in a large extended family in North Adams, Massachusetts. Her maternal grandmother immigrated to the United States from northern Italy after World War I, and her paternal grandfather was a Plymouth, Massachusetts native with roots in Ireland as well as on the Mayflower. She learned politics from her father, Jack Swift who ran the family HVAC business and was active in the Berkshire County Republican Party. Swift's mother, a graduate of North Adams State College, was a teacher in area public and parochial schools. Swift attended North Adams public schools, and in 1987 graduated from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, with a degree in American studies. During her college years, Swift held work-study jobs in the college dining hall and with the Religion & Philosophy Department, played on the women's rugby team, and was a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority.</p>

<p>In 1990, at the age of 25, Swift was the youngest woman ever elected to the Massachusetts Senate. She served the Berkshire, Hampshire, Franklin, and Hampden Massachusetts Senate district from 1991 to 1997 and was active in education reform. She 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.</p>

JANE SWIFT was born in North Adams, Massachusetts. She received a bachelor’s degree in American Studies from Trinity College in 1987. Swift’s career as an elected official began in 1991 at age 25 when she was the youngest woman ever elected to the Massachusetts State Senate. She quickly became the youngest woman in senate history to hold a leadership position, rising to assistant minority leader. Governor Cellucci appointed her as director of the Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation in 1997. She became governor on April 10, 2001, when Governor Cellucci resigned to become the U.S. Ambassador to Canada. Elected lieutenant governor in 1998, she worked as “co-governor” with Cellucci to stimulate economic growth, impose fiscal discipline, improve public education, and enhance the quality of life for working families. She led the Cellucci-Swift administration’s effort to improve the state’s public education system through strong accountability and high standards for schools, teachers, and students. As lieutenant governor, she instituted meaningful remediation programs for struggling students and helped parents access more information regarding their children’s schools. She worked hard to provide tax relief to Massachusetts families, reducing the state income tax through a ballot initiative overwhelmingly approved by voters. In one of her first official acts as governor, she signed the “No-New-Taxes Pledge” and filed legislation to expand the state’s earned income tax credit to help low-income families keep more of their hard-earned paychecks. She championed solutions that provide a guaranteed college education for foster children and enable state employees to better balance the demands of work and family.

<p>Jane Swift, the only woman to have served as Governor in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and former Lieutenant Governor and State Senator, is the spring 2020 semester’s Jerome Lyle Rappaport Visiting Professor for BC Law’s Rappaport Center for Law and Public Policy.</p>

<p>Swift brings a wealth of knowledge in public service and consulting with special emphasis on education technology. She is currently the president and executive director of an education nonprofit, LearnLaunch, Inc., and a senior advisor at Whiteboard Advisors in Washington, DC. She also served as CEO of education company Middlebury Interactive Languages from 2011-2017.</p>

<p>In 1990, at the age of 25, Swift was the youngest woman ever to be elected to the Massachusetts Senate. She was an active advocate for education reform and funding priorities and was instrumental in the passage of the Education Reform Act of 1993.</p>