She has been the first woman to serve in several offices, including attorney general of Arizona, secretary of homeland security, and president of the University of California.

[15][19] Hill testified in the U.S. Senate that then U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas had sexually harassed her ten years earlier when she was his subordinate at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

"[21] As attorney general she also defended Arizona's death penalty statute before the United States Supreme Court when she argued Ring v.

[31] She spearheaded significant investments in higher education, including funding a Phoenix campus for the University of Arizona College of Medicine.

[33] She played a leading role in the successful bid to host Super Bowl XLII in Glendale, Arizona, expanded the number of teams in the Cactus league and invested heavily in tourism and economic development initiatives.

In March 2009, Napolitano told the German news site Der Spiegel that while there is always a threat from terrorism, she preferred to talk about "man-caused' disasters" as a way "to move away from the politics of fear toward a policy of being prepared for all risks that can occur.

"[42] In April 2009, in an interview defending her plans to tighten the Canada–US border, Napolitano incorrectly implied that the September 11 attack perpetrators entered the United States from Canada.

Napolitano explained that she misunderstood the question and was referring to other individuals who had planned attacks and entered through Canada, but Canadian diplomats rebuked her for helping perpetuate a myth.

[47] Napolitano was the subject of controversy after the release of a Department of Homeland Security threat assessment report that was seen as derogatory towards armed forces veterans.

[49] Rightwing [sic] Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment[50] was made public in April 2009.

The report suggested several factors, including the election of the first black or mixed race president in Barack Obama, concerns regarding future gun control measures, illegal immigration, the economic downturn beginning in 2008, abortion controversy, and disgruntled military veterans' possible vulnerability to recruitment efforts by extremist groups as potential risk factors regarding right-wing extremism recruitment.

[52] While the American Legion reportedly criticized the assessment, Glen M. Gardner Jr., the national commander of the 2.2 million-member Veterans of Foreign Wars, generally defended it, saying it "should have been worded differently" but served a vital purpose.

[49] Napolitano was criticized[53] for stating in an interview with CNN's Candy Crowley that "the system worked" with regard to an attempted terrorist attack on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 approaching Detroit on Christmas Day 2009.

[55] She said that her earlier statement was "taken out of context" and maintained "air travel is safe", but admitted, "our system did not work in this instance" and no one "is happy or satisfied with that".

"[55] In response to the NW253 bomb attempt, Napolitano instituted emergency enhanced pat-down screening until airport security technology could be deployed that could detect non-metallic explosives.

After full body scanners were deployed, the enhanced pat-downs were used selectively on passengers who triggered an alarm when passing through the detection equipment.

However, in October 2010 a Washington Post article quoted an anonymous senior ICE official saying: "Secure Communities is not based on state or local cooperation in federal law enforcement ... State and local law enforcement agencies are going to continue to fingerprint people and those fingerprints are forwarded to FBI for criminal checks.

[72] The suit alleged that managers Dora Schriro and Suzanne Barr mistreated male staffers, and that promotions were given to women who were friends of Napolitano.

[76] Napolitano was also sued by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who claims he was pulled from his post at JFK Airport after making a series of employment-discrimination complaints.

[78] In 2012, in an effort to provide relief for the so-called DREAM Act population, or DREAMers, Napolitano used prosecutorial discretion to create the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA).

[citation needed] The program deferred removal proceedings against DREAMers, providing them with the legal status to remain in the United States without fear of deportation.

[80]  Napolitano's successor, Jeh Johnson, later attempted to expand the program to include parents of DREAMers, but that expansion was subsequently overturned in courts.

[82] In July 2013, Napolitano announced she would leave her post as Secretary of Homeland Security to become president of the University of California (UC).

[88] She also initiated an ambitious ongoing plan for the ten-campus system to achieve carbon neutrality by 2025, saying that it was a 'moral imperative' for UC to find solutions to global climate change.

In seeking to reduce UC's carbon footprint to zero, Napolitano authorized the university to register as an Electric Service Provider, allowing it to supply energy directly to some of its campuses and medical centers from an 80-MW solar farm in Fresno.

She created a fund for fellowships for undergraduate students to offset costs related to public service internships in Sacramento and Washington D.C. She also created the President's Public Service Law Fellowship program, which awards $4.5 million annually to law students at UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Irvine and UCLA to make postgraduate work and summer positions more accessible for students who wish to pursue public interest legal careers but might be forced to seek private sector jobs out of financial need.

[92] Napolitano led efforts to combat sexual violence and harassment at the University of California through improvements to the system's policies and procedures.

On March 7, 2014 Napolitano wrote a letter to the UC community announcing a new presidential policy prohibiting sexual harassment and violence and providing support for victims and training for faculty, staff and students.

[99][100][101] On September 8, 2017 the University of California and Janet Napolitano filed a lawsuit against the United States Federal Government in response to President Donald Trump's decision to ultimately end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA,[102] making her the first former secretary of homeland security to sue the agency she once led over a policy that she created.

[110] After stepping down as president of the University of California, Napolitano continued to be a UC Berkeley faculty member within the Goldman School of Public Policy.