Biography gabrielle giffords

Gabrielle Giffords worked as an urban planner before winning election to the Arizona State House of Representatives in She was elected to U. Congress in —only the third Arizona woman to do so. Giffords was the victim of an assassination attempt in She recovered in time to see her husband command the last flight of the space shuttle Endeavor and to vote on the debt-ceiling bill, before resigning from Congress in Giffords went on to co-found the advocacy group Americans for Responsible Solutions.

Her father, Spencer, worked as a businessman who ran the family's tire company, and her mother Gloria Kay devoted her time to the arts as a painter and art restorer. Giffords had some interesting adventures growing up. She and her older sister Melissa spent some of their summers going across the border to go to camp in Mexico. Giffords also developed a passion for horses, and she worked in a stable to earn the money to cover riding lessons.

According to her memoir, Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope , she later told voters that "I learned a lot cleaning out those stalls. It was good training, all of that manure-shoveling, for when I entered politics. There she earned her bachelor degree in Latin American history and sociology.

Is gabby giffords still alive

Her hard work was rewarded with a coveted William Fulbright Scholarship, which she used to study in Chihuahua, Mexico, for a year. Giffords then pursued a master's degree in regional planning at Cornell University. After completing her studies, she landed a job with Price Waterhouse in New York in Giffords gave up her corporate career to return to Tucson to help with the family business.