Jeanne Shaheen is a current senior Senator from New Hampshire.  As a former three-term governor of New Hampshire, Ms. Shaheen is the only woman in U.S. history to be elected both a Governor and a United States Senator. She has been an outspoken leader on women’s issues, including equal pay and the fight to stop sexual assault in the military. As a member of the Armed Services Committee, she successfully ended a policy that banned women in the military from using their health insurance for abortion care in cases of rape or incest. As a member of the Foreign Relations Committee and the Appropriations Committee, she has fought to ensure that foreign aid packages support the inclusion and advancement of women and girls in the recipient countries.

Ms. Shaheen was also a leader in the most recent effort to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act. Her leadership has extended to the rights of LGBT Americans. In 1997, as governor, she enacted protections making New Hampshire the tenth state to include sexual orientation in its anti-discrimination laws. In 2012, as co-chair of President Obama’s reelection campaign, Ms. Shaheen broke ranks and publicly pressured the Democratic Party and the President to endorse marriage equality as part of the party’s platform. She has repeatedly championed legislation to ban employment discrimination and discrimination in schools on the basis of LGBT status.

In the words of the HLS Community member who nominated her, Ms. Shaheen’s “daily efforts on behalf of women, girls, and sexual minorities truly embody the spirit of International Women’s Day.”

Ms. Shaheen earned her B.A. from Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania and a Master’s from the University of Mississippi.