Raised and educated in Wisconsin, where she earned her law degree, Fran Ulmer came to Alaska in 1973. She started her 35-year career in public service working for the Alaska Legislature and then for Governor Jay Hammond for 6 years. She served in elected office for 18 years, as the Mayor of Juneau and in the Alaska House of Representatives, and then eight years as the Lieutenant Governor. She was the Democratic nominee for Governor in 2002. In 2003, she shifted her focus to higher education as a fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University and then served as the Director of the University of Alaska Anchorage Institute of Social and Economic Research. She was appointed Chancellor of the University of Alaska Anchorage in 2007.

Fran has mentored and inspired generations of young women to a life of public service, and with her husband, Bill Council, has raised two successful children to be life-long learners.