Christine Todd Whitman | |
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9th Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency | |
In office January 31, 2001 – June 27, 2003 |
|
President | George W. Bush |
Preceded by | Carol Browner |
Succeeded by | Marianne Horinko (Acting) |
50th Governor of New Jersey | |
In office January 18, 1994 – January 31, 2001 |
|
Preceded by | James Florio |
Succeeded by | Donald DiFrancesco |
Personal details | |
Born |
Christine Todd September 26, 1946 New York City, New York, U.S. |
Political party | Republican |
Spouse(s) | John Whitman (deceased 2015) |
Education | Wheaton College, Massachusetts (BA) |
Christine Todd Whitman: Battle for the GOP Core, Fresh Air, January 27, 2005 |
Christine "Christie" Todd Whitman (born September 26, 1946) is an American Republican politician and author who served as the 50th Governor of New Jersey from 1994 to 2001, and was the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency in the administration of President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2003. She was New Jersey's first and, to date, only female governor. She was the second woman and first Republican woman to defeat an incumbent governor in a general election in the United States. She was also the first Republican woman to be reelected governor.
Whitman was born Christine Todd in New York City, and grew up in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, the daughter of Eleanor Prentice Todd (née Schley) and businessman Webster B. Todd, both interested in New Jersey Republican politics. She attended Far Hills Country Day School and the Chapin School in Manhattan. After graduating from Wheaton College in 1968, earning a bachelor of arts degree in government, she worked for Nelson Rockefeller's presidential campaign.
Whitman is a descendant of two New Jersey political families, the Todds and the Schleys, and is related by marriage to New York's politically prestigious Whitman family. Her husband, who died in July 2015, was private equity investor John R. Whitman, a grandson of early 20th-century Governor of New York Charles S. Whitman. Her maternal grandfather, Reeve Schley, was a member of Wolf's Head Society at Yale and the vice president of Chase Bank. He was also a longtime president of the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce.