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Dana Perino
Perino in a daily press briefing, September 17, 2007
2Template:7th White House Press Secretary
Incumbent
Assumed office September 14, 2007
Preceded by	Tony Snow
Personal details
Born	(1972-05-09) May 9, 1972 (age 52) Evanston, WY
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Peter McMahon
Children	None
Alma mater	Colorado State University-Pueblo
Profession	White House Press Secretary
Website	White House Press Briefings

Dana Marie Perino (born May 9 1972) is the current White House Press Secretary for President George W. Bush, having taken over the position on September 14, 2007. From March 27 to April 30 2007 she was the Acting White House Press Secretary while her predecessor Tony Snow underwent treatment for a recurrence of colon cancer. On August 31, 2007, President Bush announced that Snow would be resigning his post and that Perino would become his replacement. She is the second woman to serve as White House Press Secretary, Dee Dee Myers being the first woman to serve as press secretary in the Clinton Administration.

Early life and career

Perino was born in Evanston, Wyoming, and grew up in Denver, Colorado. She attended Ponderosa High School in Parker, Colorado, a suburb of Denver.^[1] Perino graduated from the University of Southern Colorado (now known as Colorado State University-Pueblo) in 1994 with a bachelor's degree in mass communications and minors in both political science and Spanish. While attending the university, Perino was active on the debate team and with KTSC-TV, the campus-based PBS affiliate where she served as host of Capitol Journal, a weekly summary of Colorado politics, and producer of Standoff, a weekly public affairs program. From there, Perino attended graduate school at the University of Illinois at Springfield (UIS). Perino obtained her masters at UIS in Public Affairs Reporting while also working as a daily reporter covering the Illinois Capitol for WCIA-TV, a CBS affiliate.

Perino then went on to work in Washington, D.C., for Representative Scott McInnis (R, retired) of Colorado as a staff assistant before serving nearly four years as the press secretary for Rep. Dan Schaefer (R-CO-Retired), who then chaired a House Commerce subcommittee on Energy and Power.

After Representative Schaefer announced his retirement, Perino moved to England to marry businessman Peter McMahon ^[1]. After a year in England, Perino and McMahon moved back to the United States and resided in San Diego, California, for three years. During that time, Perino worked in the field of high-tech public affairs.

In November 2001, Perino returned to Washington, D.C. to serve as a spokesperson for the Department of Justice. Several months later, she was asked to join the White House where she served as the Director of Communications for the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). By statute, the CEQ oversees the implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act, where all federal agencies must complete environmental assessments on their activities before they take action.

Deputy Press Secretary and Acting Press Secretary

On March 31, 2006, President George W. Bush named Perino as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Press Secretary. In the role, Perino communicated many times a day with the President's director of communications, his press secretary and his director of media affairs, handling all environment-related media calls for the White House, as well as serving as the spokesperson for the White House on environmental issues. In addition, she served as the coordinator for all agencies on environment, energy and natural resource issues, as well as reviewing and approving the agencies' major announcements, while keeping the other White House offices apprised of CEQ actions.

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On December 8, 2007, Perino who had minored in political science, appeared as a guest on the NPR program 'Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" after a week in which she chastised veteran reporter Helen Thomas. On that program, Perino admitted that, when she was asked a question by a reporter about the Cuban Missile Crisis, she was unable to answer because she did not know what the Cuban Missile Crisis was about. She later went home and asked her husband what it entailed.^[2]

Personal life

Perino met her English husband Peter McMahon, 18years her senior and a sales and marketing director for medical products, whom Bush calls "The Englishman;" on a flight from Denver - they were the last two people to get on board the aeroplane. After marrying, his job moved to England so they moved to Lytham St Annes, Lancashire where they lived in an flat overlooking the Irish Sea for a year. She didn't work in England, but bought a Vizsla puppy sired by a Crufts champion, and called him Henry after Henry VIII, from her love of reading tudor fiction. She also enjoyed taking part in local pub quizes.^[3] McMahon has two adult children from his previous marriage, making Perino a grandmother of twins.

References