Kathleen Sebelius was born into a political family on May 15, 1948, in Cincinnati, Ohio. Her father, John Gilligan, was governor of Ohio from 1971 to 1975. She attended Trinity Washington University in Washington, D.C., and then married Gary Sebelius and moved with him to his home state of Kansas. Her father-in-law, Keith Sebelius, was a U.S. Representative from Kansas from 1969 to 1981. 

Kathleen Sebelius earned a master's in public administration from the University of Kansas in 1977. She began her career as a lobbyist for the Kansas Trial Lawyer Association and then served in the Kansas state legislature from 1987 to 1994. She left elected office to become the Kansas' insurance commissioner. 

In 2002, she was elected governor of Kansas and won reelection in 2006. Being a Democratic governor in a Republican-leaning state, Sebelius gained a reputation of working across the partisan divide and reaching compromises with Republicans. She focused on improving education in Kansas, reducing the state's budget deficit, and expanding health care coverage, especially for children. She was chosen to give the Democratic response to President George W. Bush's State of the Union Address in 2008, an honor usually given to politicians who are considered rising stars in the Democratic Party. 

Sebelius was an early supporter of Barack Obama as he began his run for the presidency. Obama chose her as secretary of Health and Human Services after his first choice, Thomas Daschle, stepped down because of unpaid taxes. Sebelius was sworn in on April 29, 2009. At HHS, Sebelius managed 11 operating agencies, 90,000 employees in 50 countries around the world, and a $1 trillion budget. She played a crucial role in the passage and implementation of President Obama's signature legislation, the Affordable Care Act. 

After leaving the Obama administration in 2014, she became CEO of Sebelius Resources LLC, where she provided strategic advice to companies, investors, and non-profit organizations.