Governor Jenniffer González-Colón

Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon is the Governor of Puerto Rico. Born in San Juan on August 5, 1976, she attended Puerto Rico’s public schools and earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Puerto Rico, followed by a Juris Doctor and an LL.M., with honors and a concentration in litigation and alternative dispute resolution, from the Inter American University School of Law.

Gonzalez-Colon began her elective career in 2002, when she won a special election to fill a San Juan district seat in the Puerto Rico House of Representatives and, at age 25, became that Legislative Assembly’s youngest elected member. After winning an at-large House seat in 2004, she chaired the Government Committee and in January 2009 was elected president of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives. She was reelected in 2012, later became minority leader, and then won election as Puerto Rico’s resident commissioner, becoming the first woman to hold that office.

In Washington she served on committees including Veterans’ Affairs, Small Business, Natural Resources, Transportation and Infrastructure, and Science and Technology, while also holding leadership roles on insular affairs and women’s policy caucuses. She is married to Jose Yovin Vargas.