Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, Arizona State University 111 E. Taylor St. Phoenix, AZ 85004
Speaker Information
Jeffrey L. Flake
United States Senate
Biography
Senator Jeff Flake is a fifth-generation Arizonan who was raised on a cattle ranch in Snowflake, Arizona. Snowflake was named in part for Senator Flake's great-great grandfather.
Prior to his election to the U.S. Senate, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2001-2013 representing the East Valley.
As a member of the U.S. Senate, he sits on the Judiciary Committee where he also serves as chairman of the Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law, the Energy and Natural Resources Committee where he also serves as chairman of the Subcommittee on Water and Power, and the Foreign Relations Committee where he also serves as chairman of Subcommittee on African Affairs.
After serving a Mormon mission in southern Africa, Senator Flake graduated from Brigham Young University, where he received a B.A. in International Relations and an M.A. in Political Science.
In 1987, he started his career at a Washington, D.C. public affairs firm, but soon returned to Africa as Executive Director of the Foundation for Democracy in Namibia. In this role, Senator Flake helped monitor Namibia's independence process and saw that nation usher in freedom and democracy. In 1992, he and his family moved back to Arizona where he was named Executive Director of the Goldwater Institute.
The Senator and his wife, Cheryl, live in Mesa and have five children.
