Jill Derby

Jill Talbot Derby served from 1988 to 2006 as an elected Regent for the Nevada System of Higher Education, serving three terms as Board Chair. She ran as the Democratic candidate for the open seat of Nevada's 2nd congressional district in the 2006 election, losing but gaining national attention by making this heavily Republican district competitive for the first time. Following that, she served as the chairwoman of the Nevada Democratic Party from March, 2007 until February, 2008 overseeing Nevada's first ever early presidential caucus. She ran for Congress again in 2008, but lost.

Derby is a fourth generation Nevadan. Her great-grandfather, Thomas Derby II, acquired land along the now I-80 corridor through Lovelock, the current home to both the Derby Airport and the Derby Dam. Her grandfather, Charles Derby, worked as a mining engineer in the Virginia City mines, and her father attended Fourth Ward School in Virginia City, later moving to Lovelock to develop the Flying Flapjack Ranch, where Derby spent the first years of her life.

Derby attended the University of California, Berkeley and then the University of California, San Francisco, where she obtained a bachelor's degree. After residing in the Bay Area, teaching, and traveling, she took a job with a company in Saudi Arabia in 1966 and lived there for three years. Upon returning to the United States, she earned a second bachelor's degree in anthropology from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, followed by a master's degree and a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology with a specialization in Middle Eastern cultures from the University of California, Davis.

...
Wikipedia