Gale Ann Norton, born on March 11, 1954, in Wichita, Kansas, is a former U.S. Secretary of the Interior. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Denver with a bachelor's degree in 1975 and earned her law degree with honors from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law in 1978. Her early career included clerking for the Colorado Court of Appeals (1978-1979), serving as a senior attorney at the conservative Mountain States Legal Foundation (1979-1983), a National Fellowship at the Hoover Institution (1983-1984), working as an assistant to the Deputy Secretary at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (1984-1985), and as Associate Solicitor at the U.S. Department of the Interior (1985-1987). She then practiced law privately (1987-1990) and served as Colorado's 35th Attorney General (1991-1999), the first woman in that role. Prior to her federal appointment, she was senior counsel at the lobbying firm Brownstein, Hyatt & Farber, P.C., where she lobbied for a Superfund target company. Married to John Hughes, with whom she enjoys hiking, Norton has centered her career on energy, natural resources, and environmental issues from a free-market perspective. After her government service, she has advised on national energy policies, leveraging over three decades of experience.