Chris Gregoire

Chris Gregoire is a member of BPC’s Governors’ Council. She served as the governor of Washington from 2005 to 2013.

During her two terms as governor, Gregoire proposed significant reforms to the state’s education system, including the funding for all-day kindergarten and the creation of the Department of Early Learning, which went on to receive national recognition. She was also known for health care reforms that resulted in coverage for all low-income children, reforms to streamline government, and environmental efforts to protect and restore Puget Sound and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In 2013, Bloomberg Business ranked the state of Washington as the nation’s most innovative state.

Prior to the governorship, Gregoire served three terms as attorney general, from 1993 to 2005, where she focused on children’s issues, reforming the state’s juvenile system, efforts to strengthen identity theft victims’ rights, passage of a new ethics law for state government, and alternatives to litigation in resolving legal disputes. Before that, during four years as director of the Department of Ecology from 1989 to 1993, Gregoire negotiated the safe cleanup and permanent storage of radioactive waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

Gregoire is a graduate of the University of Washington and of the Gonzaga University School of Law.