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December 11, 2007

Governor-Elect Bobby Jindal to speak at ULM Fall Commencement Dec. 15

The University of Louisiana at Monroe will welcome Governor-Elect Bobby Jindal as its 2007 Fall Commencement speaker Saturday, Dec. 15 at 2 p.m. in Fant-Ewing Coliseum.

Governor-Elect Bobby Jindal was elected governor on Oct. 20 by an overwhelming majority vote, winning 60 out of 64 parishes in the state. In addition to serving as Governor-Elect, he is also currently serving in his second term in the U.S. Congress, representing the First District of Louisiana. Jindal was first elected to Congress in 2004, and re-elected to a second term in November 2006.

He was born in Baton Rouge on June 10, 1971. He graduated from Baton Rouge High School, and later attended Brown University where he graduated with honors in both biology and public policy in 1991. Jindal then attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and received his graduate degree in 1994. He is married and the father of three young children.

Governor-Elect Bobby Jindal's Experience:

Governor-Elect Jindal entered public service in 1996 when he was appointed secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, relinquishing admissions to Harvard and Yale University medical and law schools.

With more than 12,000 employees, a $4 billion budget and hundreds of facilities, DHH is Louisiana’s largest department. Jindal was successful in turning DHH’s $400 million budget deficit that he inherited into a surplus of $220 million.

In 1998, he was appointed executive director of the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare, whose recommendations continue to be the driving force behind much of the ongoing debate on how to strengthen and improve Medicare.

Governor-Elect Jindal returned to Louisiana state government in 1999, when he became president of the University of Louisiana System - the 16th largest higher education system in the country which oversees the education of approximately 80,000 students a year.

In March 2001, Jindal was nominated by President George W. Bush, and later unanimously confirmed by a bipartisan vote of the U.S. Senate, as an Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In that position, he served as the principal policy advisor to the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

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