the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno was an informative and entertaining speaker at the League of Women Voters of Ridgewood annual fall luncheon on September 22nd at the Old Paramus Reformed Church. The League was thrilled that so many members and their guests were able to attend!
Kim Guadagno was elected New Jersey’s first Lieutenant Governor in November 2009 and was sworn into office on January 19, 2010. She was re-elected to a second term on November 5, 2013. In addition to serving as the Lt. Governor, Kim Guadagno serves as the 33rd Secretary of State.
Lt. Governor Guadagno leads the Christie Administration’s efforts to improve New Jersey’s economic vitality, encourage job growth, streamline government, and make businesses feel welcome again in New Jersey. The Lt. Governor oversees the New Jersey Partnership for Action (PFA), the State’s four-pronged comprehensive economic development strategy. Designed to serve businesses of all sizes and development stages, the PFA is a public-private approach to economic development and the starting point for all initiatives, policies, and efforts to grow New Jersey’s economy and create quality, sustainable jobs in our communities. The PFA is comprised of the Business Action Center, which reports directly to the Lt. Governor and provides the business community with a single point of contact; the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, serving as the state’s “bank for business”; Choose New Jersey, an independently funded and operated 501(c)(3) business-attraction and lead-generation organization that markets the state; and the Office of the Secretary of Higher Education, which coordinates with New Jersey’s institutions of higher learning to prepare an educated workforce. The Lt. Governor also chairs the Red Tape Review Commission, which is engaged in an ongoing review and reform of the State’s regulatory process.
Furthermore, Lt. Governor Guadagno chairs the New Jersey Military Installation Growth and Development Task Force. The Task Force, created through Executive Orders Nos. 134 and 154, is charged with forging an effective blueprint for securing the long-term growth and viability of New Jersey’s military bases and U.S. Coast Guard installations.
As the Secretary of State, Lt. Governor Guadagno is New Jersey’s chief election official, oversees promotion of the state’s $40 billion tourism industry, and administers programs related to the arts, culture, and history.
Lt. Governor Guadagno began her public service career as a federal prosecutor with the Organized Crime & Racketeering Strike Force in Brooklyn, New York. She later married and moved to Monmouth County. At that time, Guadagno became an Assistant United States Attorney in Newark. She was awarded the nation’s highest honor for her prosecutions of two separate corrupt public officials. After her federal service, Guadagno served as a ranking member of the State of New Jersey Attorney General’s Office.
In 2001, Kim Guadagno left the public sector to practice law closer to home and became a teacher at Rutgers University School of Law-Newark. She was also appointed to the Monmouth Beach planning board and was elected as a Borough Commissioner in 2005.
In 2007, Kim Guadagno was elected as the first woman sheriff in Monmouth County’s history. As Sheriff, she managed a 650-member law enforcement agency encompassing the county jail, the county 911 communications center, and a law enforcement department of 100 men and women. She left both the Office of Sheriff and her position as a teacher at Rutgers Law School upon becoming Lt. Governor.
Lt. Governor Guadagno was born in Waterloo, Iowa and is a cum laude graduate of Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. She received her juris doctorate degree, cum laude, from the American University Washington College of Law in Washington, DC. Lt. Governor Guadagno and her husband currently reside in Monmouth Beach with their three sons.
