Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano to Lead UC System

By City News Service

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano will be the next president of the University of California system, it was reported Friday.

The impending appointment will mean that the system, consisting of UCLA and nine other campuses, will be headed by a woman for the first time in its 145-year history.

Napolitano's nomination by a committee of UC regents came after a secretive process that insiders say focused on her early as a high-profile though untraditional candidate who has led large public agencies and who has shown a strong interest in improving education, the Los Angeles Times reported in an article on its website.

UC officials believe her cabinet experiences -- which include helping to lead responses to hurricanes and tornadoes and overseeing some anti-terrorism measures -- will help UC administer its federal energy and nuclear weapons labs and aid its federally funded research in medicine and other areas, The Times reported.

"While some may consider her to be an unconventional choice, Secretary Napolitano is without a doubt the right person at the right time to lead this incredible university,"  Sherry Lansing, the regent and former film industry executive who headed the search committee, said in a statement obtained by The Times prior to its formal release. "She will bring fresh eyes and a new sensibility -- not only to UC, but to all of California."

Napolitano, a 55-year-old Democrat, was appointed by former President Bill Clinton to serve as U.S. attorney in Arizona and then won elections as state attorney general and twice as Arizona's governor, a position she held from 2003 to 2009. President Obama then named her to lead Homeland Security, an agency with an annual $60 billion budget and 240,000 employees.

A source close to Napolitano told The Times that Napolitano deliberated for a long time after the executive search firm hired by UC quietly contacted her.

"I think she loves working for President Obama and serving the American people, but at the same time, this is a unique opportunity," he said. Napolitano knows "UC is probably the premier institution in the country. She is motivated by the fact that being a part of UC, she will be a part of educating future leaders of tomorrow and be part of a state that sets so much of the agenda nationally."