Fran Ulmer
Chair of theUnited States Arctic Research Commission
In office March 10, 2011 – July 28, 2020
President	Barack Obama Donald Trump
Preceded by	Mead Treadwell
Succeeded by	Jon Harrison
7thLieutenant Governor of Alaska
In office December 5, 1994 – December 2, 2002
Governor	Tony Knowles
Preceded by	Jack Coghill
Succeeded by	Loren Leman
Member of theAlaska House of Representatives from the 4-B & 3 district
In office January 19, 1987 – December 5, 1994
Preceded by	Jim Duncan
Succeeded by	Kim Elton
Mayor of Juneau
In office 1983–1985
Preceded by	Bill Overstreet
Succeeded by	Ernest Polley
Personal details
Born	(1947-02-01)February 1, 1947 (age 78) Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Bill Council ​ ​ (m. 1977; died 2013)​
Children	2
Education	University of Wisconsin, Madison (BA,JD)

Frances Ann "Fran" Ulmer (born February 1, 1947) is an American administrator andDemocratic politician from the U.S. state of Alaska. She served as the seventhlieutenant governor of Alaska from 1994 to 2002 underGovernorTony Knowles, becoming the first woman elected to statewide office in Alaska, and lost the2002 gubernatorial election against RepublicanFrank Murkowski. In 2007 she became theChancellor of theUniversity of Alaska Anchorage (UAA), before serving as Chair of theUnited States Arctic Research Commission between 2011 and 2020, appointed by PresidentBarack Obama.

Frances Ann "Fran" Ulmer was born inMadison, Wisconsin, and grew up inHoricon, Wisconsin. Her parents owned a furniture store and afuneral home in the area. Her education included a bachelor's degree with a double major in economics and political science from theUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison and aJuris Doctorcum laude from theUniversity of Wisconsin Law School.^[1] In 2018, Fran was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Alaska Anchorage. In 1977, she married attorney Bill Council. They had two children. They were married until his death in 2013.^[1][2]

Ulmer first began working in Alaska in 1973 as a lawyer at the Legislative Affairs Agency inJuneau, Alaska. Ulmer worked as a legislative assistant forJay Hammond, theRepublican governor of Alaska from 1975 through 1977. He appointed her Director of Policy Development and Planning that year, a role she held until 1981.^[3] She served on Juneau's Planning and Zoning Commission from 1981 to 1983.

She served asmayor ofJuneau from 1983 to 1985 and was in theAlaska House of Representatives from 1987 to 1994 as aDemocrat, where she sponsored and won approval of legislation concerning criminal justice, education, public administration, health, and transportation. From 1993 to 1994 she served as the house minority leader.

In 1994 she won the open primary for the nomination forlieutenant governor. She was elected to two four-year terms on the Democratic ticket, along with GovernorTony Knowles.^[4] In that post, she became a nationally recognized leader in election reform and making government more efficient and accessible through telecommunications. During her tenure, Alaska became the first state to replace the punched card system with a statewide optical scanning ballot counting system.

In 2002, she won the nomination of theDemocratic party for the office of governor. She lostthe election to the Republican candidate, U.S. SenatorFrank Murkowski.^[5]

In 2003, Fran was a fellow at theHarvard Institute of Politics in Cambridge, MA. In 2004, she accepted a teaching job at theUniversity of Alaska, Anchorage. She served as the Director of the Institute of Economic and Social Research (ISER) at UAA. In March 2007,University of Alaska system PresidentMark R. Hamilton appointed Ulmer interim chancellor for theUniversity of Alaska Anchorage. In April 2008, she accepted the position of chancellor on a permanent basis. As chancellor, she was responsible for governing UAA and its eight satellite facilities inSouthcentral Alaska. On January 22, 2010, she announced her intent to resign from the Chancellor's position at UAA, effective 2011.^[6][7]

At the national level, Ulmer served as a member of the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission for ten years, on theFederal Communications Commission’s State and Local Advisory Committee, theFederal Election Commission's State Advisory Committee, and as co-chair of theAspen Institute's Arctic Climate Change Commission.

In June 2010, PresidentBarack Obama appointed Ulmer to the seven-memberNational Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. The commission was charged with investigating the causes of the explosion and oil spill and recommending changes to prevent future disasters.^[8] She served on the boards of The Nature Conservancy, First National Bank Alaska, theCIRI Foundation,Commonwealth North, theNational Parks Conservation Association, theUnion of Concerned Scientists,^[4] and she chaired the global board ofThe Nature Conservancy (2019-2022). She currently serves on the National Parks Conservation Association Board and the Alaska Trustees of The Nature Conservancy.

In 2011, PresidentBarack Obama appointed Ulmer as chair of the US Arctic Research Commission. In July 2014, Ulmer was appointed a special advisor toJohn Kerry, theU.S. Secretary of State, on arctic issues.^[9] She endorsed the building of moreicebreakers to allow theUnited States Coast Guard to better research the arctic.^[10] On July 28, 2020, President Trump appointed Jon Harrison to serve as the Chair of the Arctic Research Commission.^[11] On November 10, 2020, Randy "Church" Kee, a retiredmajor general of theUnited States Air Force, was appointed to the position previously assigned to Ulmer.^[12]

In 2018 she was a Visiting Professor at Stanford University in the Department of Earth System Science in the School of Earth, Energy, and Environmental Sciences and in 2019, she joined Harvard’s Belfer Center Arctic Initiative as a Senior Fellow, serving until 2023.

In 2021 she was appointed as one of the additional campaign co-chairs for former Independent governorBill Walker's gubernatorial campaign.^[13]

• List of female lieutenant governors in the United States

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