Saturday, January 08, 2011

Gabrielle Giffords Biography

Gabrielle Giffords Post Recovery

Photo released by Giffords' congressional office, that was taken on May 17, 2011, showing her recovery.

Gabrielle Giffords Post Recovery. Source: Office of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Author: P.K. Weiss / Released by United States Congress. Permission. (Reusing this file). Official Congressional photo		Gabrielle Giffords underwent surgery on May 18, 2011 to replace part of her skull that had been removed in January to permit her brain to swell after the gunshot to her head. During Wednesday's surgery, the missing bone was replaced with a piece of molded hard plastic with tiny screws. Doctors said that her skull will eventually fuse with the plastic's porous material.

Giffords' chief of staff Pia Carusone said "5/17/11" was scrawled on the helmet as a reminder of the last day she would have to don the headgear.

On June 9, 2011 Carusone, told the press that the Congresswoman continues to make progress in her therapy. As of that date, while Giffords' comprehension appeared to be "close to normal, if not normal", she is not yet using complete sentences. "She is borrowing upon other ways of communicating. Her words are back more and more now, but she's still using facial expressions as a way to express. Pointing. Gesturing. Add it all together, and she's able to express the basics of what she wants or needs. But, when it comes to a bigger and more complex thought that requires words, that's where she's had the trouble."

"When she is trying to come up with a word or a sentence and she's clearly struggling, putting everything she's got into it, and sometimes she's not successful. When she is, there's a relief that comes across her face that she has found the word. But when she can't come up with that, it is absolute frustration."

Gabrielle Giffords

Gabrielle Giffords meeting a constituent during a Congress On Your Corner event		Gabrielle Giffords born June 8, 1970 in Tucson, Arizona is the U.S. Representative for Arizona's 8th congressional district that covers 9,000 square miles including a 114 mile border with Mexico. The district encompasses the southeastern part of the state. It includes Cochise County and parts of Pima, Pinal, and Santa Cruz counties.

She is a member of the Democratic Party and is a member of the Blue Dog Coalition. She was the third woman in Arizona's history to be elected to serve in the U.S. Congress.

Gabrielle with her parents, Spencer and Gloria Giffords.

Gabrielle with her parents, Spencer and Gloria Giffords. IMAGE CREDIT		Giffords' a third generation Tucsonan, parents are Spencer J. Giffords and Gloria Kay Fraser Giffords. Her father served on the board of the Tanque Verde Unified School District and her mother is an art conservator. Her grandparents lived in Southeastern Arizona and are buried at Fort Huachuca.

She graduated from Tucson's University High School holds a Master’s Degree in Regional Planning from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York 1996. and a B.A. from Scripps College. Between her undergraduate and graduate programs, she studied for a year in Chihuahua, Mexico on a Fulbright Scholarship and worked as a researcher in San Diego studying the effects of Operation Gatekeeper II on the San Ysidro Port of Entry. She is a fellow at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Gabrielle Giffords

Gabrielle Giffords		She married Captain Mark Kelly who was Born February 21, 1964 in Orange, New Jersey and has two daughters from an earlier marriage, on November 10, 2007, a Navy Pilot veteran of Desert Storm who flew 39 combat missions. and NASA astronaut. He was the space shuttle's pilot on STS-108 and STS-121, and commander of STS-124 and future flight STS-134 (scheduled for April 2011), her wedding ring is inscribed: "You're the closest to heaven that I've ever been." She is the only U.S. Representative with an active duty military spouse.

The wedding was officiated by Rabbi Stephanie Aaron at an organic produce farm in Amado, Ariz., called Agua Linda.

They met for the first time in Hangzhou, China in 2003 both had been selected to be on the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations.

Giffords is Arizona's first Jewish Congresswoman. Giffords, was raised “mixed” by a Christian Scientist mother and Jewish father, but said that after a visit to Israel sponsored by the American Jewish Committee in 2001, she had decided she was Jewish only. “It was one of the most memorable experiences of my life,” she said.

“I got to see firsthand the sacrifices that Israelis make in the name of security because of the dangerous state of affairs there. I will always be a strong supporter of Israel.”

During her years in the statehouse, Rep. Giffords served on the The Anti-Defamation League Arizona Regional Board. In an op-ed piece for the Arizona Jewish Post she said she is the grandchild of Akiba Hornstein, who was “the son of a Lithuanian rabbi.” Her grandfather changed his name, she said to Giffords “for reasons of anti-Semitism.” “like my grandmother, I am a lifetime member of Hadassah and am now a member of Congregation Chaverim a Reform synagogue in Tucson, where she said Rabbi Stephanie Aaron is her spiritual mentor.

Prior to serving in the United States House of Representatives, Giffords served in the Arizona House of Representatives from 2001 until 2003, and the Arizona State Senate from 2003 until 2005, when she resigned to run for the seat held by then-Congressman Jim Kolbe.



FOXNEWS January 7, 2011 Members of Congress Must Lead by Example		She also worked as an associate for regional economic development at Price Waterhouse in New York City, and as President and Chief Executive Officer of local automotive chain, El Campo Tire Warehouses, her family’s tire and automotive business founded by her grandfather after he moved to Southern Arizona from New York. In 2000, she oversaw the sale of the company to Goodyear Tire.

Giffords began her political career as a legislator in the Arizona House of Representatives, where she served from 2001 to 2003.

Giffords was elected to the Arizona Senate in the fall of 2002 and is the youngest woman ever elected to this body. She took office in January 2003 and was re-elected in 2004. She resigned from the Arizona Senate on December 1, 2005, in preparation for her congressional campaign.

After Hurricane Katrina struck in the late summer of 2005, Giffords spent time as a volunteer in Houston, Texas,

Giffords launched her first candidacy for the U.S. Congress on January 24, 2006, The Sierra Club and Arizona Education Association were among her backers. Giffords won the race on November 7, 2006, with 54 percent of the vote. In 2008 Giffords was elected to a second term, Giffords was reelected with 56.20 percent of the vote. On November 5, 2010, the Associated Press declared Giffords the victor for a third term after a close race.

Giffords serves on the House Armed Services Committee and the Subcommittees on Air and Land Forces and Military Readiness, on the House Science and Technology Committee, the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere. In January of 2009, Congresswoman Giffords was selected to serve as Chair of the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee. She is also Vice Chair of the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition and as Vice Chair of the U.S.-Mexico Interparliamentary Group. She is also among five members of Congress to serve on United States Holocaust Memorial Council.

Find the complete record of Rep Gabrielle Giffords 60 Sponsored Bills Summary & Status:
In 2009, the National Guard Association of the United States awarded her the Charles Dick Medal of Merit, presented to elected representatives in state and federal government who have demonstrated positive and lasting support for the National Guard over an extended period of time.She has been named Woman of the Year by Tucson Business Edge, Woman on the Move by the YWCA and one of America’s Eight Young Leaders Worth Watching by Gannett News Service.

Gabrielle and Mark enjoy hiking and spending time with their family in the canyons and deserts of Arizona.

Gabrielle also is an avid motorcycle rider and a member of the Congressional Motorcycle Caucus. She hopes to ride her bike to Argentina one day, but for now she opts for Highway 83 between Tucson and Patagonia.



Mark E. Kelly at the side of wife Gabrielle Giffords in the University Medical Center, recovering from injuries sustained during the 2011 Tucson shooting.

Author: U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords' office		On Saturday January 8, 2011 At 10 a.m. MST, Giffords was shot in the head outside a Safeway grocery store parking lot in Casas Adobes, near Tucson, Arizona, during her first "Congress on Your Corner" gathering of the year. At least nine others were injured including a congressional aide and Federal Judge John McCarthy Roll, when a man ran up to the crowd and began firing. She was taken to the University Medical Center in Tucson for emergency surgery.

She has since been reported to be responding to doctors' commands. According to Dr. Peter Rhee from University Medical Center in Tucson, the bullet went through Giffords' brain, exiting from the other side of her head. The suspect, identified as Jared Lee Loughner age 22, was caught by a bystander and was taken into police custody.

TEXT RESOURCES: IMAGE CREDIT: These United States Congress images are in the public domain. This may be because it is an official Congressional portrait, because it was taken by an official employee of the Congress, or because it has been released into the public domain and posted on the official websites of a member of Congress. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the images are in the public domain.

VIDEO CREDIT: giffords2

Posted by sookietex at 4:29 PM || ||

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hardly the sort of Democrat to be the focus of right wing anger. Perhaps Palin was wrong to put her in the gunsight, but it would seem she was selected only because, as a democrat representing a conservative district, she was vulnerable. Now we see thee media makng all the hay they can out of that error in judgement. But there is no logic to tying this madman's action to the cause for a smaller, more responsible government.

January 9, 2011 at 7:15:00 PM EST

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