Kathleen Sebelius, an Ohio native, was elected the 44th governor in November 2002. The daughter of a former Ohio governor and a Democrat, Sebelius served eight years as a state representative in Kansas and eight years as state insurance commissioner before successfully seeking the state's highest office.

Sebelius is the second woman to hold that office and the first to win a second four-year term. She resigned on April 28, 2009, to accept appointment as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in the Barack Obama administration.

Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.