Jean Carnahan

A former U.S. Senator from Missouri (2000-2002), Jean Carnahan is also a published author and community activist from a family of political activists. Her father-in-law, A.S.J. Carnahan was a U.S. Representative (MO); her late husband, Mel Carnahan, was Governor of Missouri; her son Russ Carnahan is a member of the Missouri State House of Representatives.

While in Congress, Carnahan was a member of the Commerce, Governmental Affairs, Armed Service, Small Business Committees, and the Committee on Aging, where she chaired a field hearing on prescription drug needs of the elderly. As a member of the first Congressional delegation to Afghanistan post September 11, Carnahan held a key role while conferring with the heads of state in Turkey, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Oman. During her term in the Senate, the "Quality Class Rooms Act," "Informed Investor's Act," and the extension of health care benefits for returning reservists and National Guard personnel were passed into law.

As Missouri's First Lady, she designed a program to help increase immunization rates of pre-school children from 44% to 85%. In a project that raised nearly $2 million for improvements to the 1871 Victorian Governor's Mansion , Carnahan managed a staff of approximately fifty that included a security detail, maintenance workers, docents, Missouri Mansion preservation staff, and kitchen staff. She has also created and secured funding for three years for the Walt Disney Children's Arts Festival, a three day hands-on event for urban and rural children, co-organized "Children in the Workplace" to create more on-site daycare facilities in the state, raised funds for the local Rape and Abuse Center, worked on three Habitat for Humanity constructions with the First Lady's Build project, and sponsored and helped establish the Missouri State Library's Center for the Book in conjunction with the Library of Congress.

An acclaimed author, Carnahan has written three books: If Walls Could Talk, a 440-page, four-color history of Missouri's fifty governors, Christmas at the Mansion, and Will You Say a Few Words, a paperback collection of her own remarks and speeches made as First Lady. Her speech on women of achievement "Born To Make Barrels," was published in Vital Speeches of the Day. Currently she is writing a book, Don't Let the Fire Go Out, scheduled for publication by the end of 2003.

Numerous awards and recognitions have come her way from several colleges, mental health, law enforcement, Hispanic, African-American, political, civic, religious, and women's organizations. She was the recipient of the 1997 March of Dimes Citizen of the Year award; in 1999 she received the St. Louis Zonta International Woman of the Year award; in 1995 the Missouri Boys and Girls Town recognized her as the Child Advocate of the Year; and the Missouri Martin Luther King Special Achievement award.

Carnahan holds a B.A. in Business and Administration from George Washington University in Washington, D.C.