On September 14, 2007, Dana Marie Perino was sworn in as the 26th White House press secretary, becoming only the second woman to hold that office in American history.

Born on May 9, 1972, in Evanston, Perino attended Ponderosa High School before pursuing higher education at Colorado State University Pueblo and later at the University of Illinois Springfield. Her professional life has spanned the intersecting fields of politics and journalism, and she has worked as a journalist, political commentator, and author, as well as in the capacity of politician.

The appointment under President George W. Bush placed her at the center of White House communications during the final stretch of that administration. She held the position from September 14, 2007, through January 20, 2009, when the administration concluded. Her distinction as the second woman ever appointed to the role gave the moment a particular place in the formal record of the presidency, independent of the daily demands the post carried with it.

That historical marker — the second female White House press secretary in the nation's history — remains the most precisely documented fact of her public career, a concrete designation recorded in the official succession of those who have served in that capacity under American presidents.