Jane Swift

Jane Maria Swift (born February 24, 1965) 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. She 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 U.S. history. Early life and education 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. Career 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.