BUFFALO, NY – Former two-term governor of Michigan Jennifer Granholm spoke at Canisius University on Tuesday, November 1 in the Montante Cultural Center. Her lecture, entitled “The Mother of All Markets: Creating Clean Energy Jobs in America," was presented by The William H. Fitzpatrick Chair of Political Science Lecture Series.
Click here to watch the lecture in its entirety.
Granholm is credited with leading Michigan through a period of unprecedented economic challenge and change, and is an authority on leadership, politics, economic diversification, clean energy policy, advanced manufacturing and industrial clusters. She became the first woman to be elected governor of Michigan in 2002 and in 2006, Granholm was re-elected with the largest number of votes ever cast for governor in the state. Due to the meltdown in the auto industry and the global shift in manufacturing jobs, Michigan had the toughest economy in the nation and Granholm worked to diversify, add new jobs and add emerging sectors, such as clean energy, to Michigan’s economic portfolio. As a result of her leadership, Michigan led the country in the improvement of job market conditions between 2009 and 2010, according to the Gallup Job Creation Index.
As governor, Granholm pioneered clean energy policies, working with business and labor, Republicans and Democrats to create new economic opportunities and jobs in Michigan. She led an aggressive strategy to make Michigan the hub of clean-energy development in North America by developing entire supply chains in Michigan, fostering critical partnerships between industry, government and researchers, and by creating economic incentives that made Michigan the place to locate. Granholm’s plan included specific clustering strategies targeted at battery manufacturing, bio-energy, solar and wind power.
In addition to diversifying Michigan’s economy, Granholm focused on creating jobs, attracting international investment, improving education and training Michigan’s workers to promote the state’s long-term economic health. She pushed Michigan to double the number of college graduates and signed into law a college prep curriculum for every high school student in Michigan, in addition to some of the toughest turnaround requirements for low-performing schools in the nation. In 2007, she launched the No Worker Left Behind program, which gave unemployed and under-employed citizens the opportunity to attend community colleges or technical schools and receive training for high-demand jobs by offering state-paid tuition to Michigan’s displaced adults.
Prior to her tenure as governor, Granholm served as Michigan’s attorney general, from 1998-2002. After her last term as Governor, granholm began teaching courses in law and public policy at University of California at Berkeley, where she continues to serve as a faculty member. In addition, Granholm is a senior research fellow at the Berkeley Energy and Climate Institute, a project scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a senior advisor to Correct the Record, and an ABC News contributor. She is also co-author of the political bestseller A Governor’s Story: The Fight for Jobs and America’s Economic Future.
Granholm is an honors graduate of University of California at Berkeley and Harvard Law School.
For more information, contact the Office of Public Relations at 716-888-2790.
Canisius University is one of 28 Jesuit universities in the nation and the premier private university in Western New York.
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