Sarah Palin, 44, is the youngest and first female governor of Alaska and the first female republican vice presidential candidate. She grew up in a town north of Anchorage, Alaska called Wasilla where she was crowned Miss Wasilla. Palin graduated from the University of Idaho in 1987 with a Bachelor of Science degree in communications-journalism. After her marriage to her husband Todd in 1988, she worked for his family’s commercial fishing business.
In 1992, she served the first of two terms on the Wasilla City Counsel and then became the city’s mayor in 1996. Palin was appointed in 2003 as the Ethics Commissioner on Alaska’s Oil and Gas Conservation Commission but resigned a year later due to disagreements with Alaskan Republican leaders whom she perceived as unethical.
Palin and her husband have five children together and one grandchild.