Hufstedler, Shirley Mount (1925-2016), served from 1979 to 1981 as the first United States secretary of education. President Jimmy Carter appointed her to head the United States Department of Education, which develops and coordinates national educational policies and programs. Congress had established the Department of Education in 1979. The department began operating in 1980.
Hufstedler was born on Aug. 24, 1925, in Denver, Colorado. She graduated from the University of New Mexico and earned a law degree from the Stanford University School of Law. Hufstedler practiced law in Los Angeles until 1961, when she was appointed to the Superior Court of Los Angeles County. From 1966 to 1968, Hufstedler served as a justice of the California Court of Appeals. In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Hufstedler to the United States Court of Appeals in San Francisco. At that time, Hufstedler was the highest-ranking woman judge in the United States.
In 1981, after her service as secretary of education, Hufstedler returned to the practice of law. From 1996 to 1997, she chaired the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform. Hufstedler died on March 30, 2016.
