Wikipedia (en)
Elisabeth Dee DeVos (; née Prince; born January 8, 1958) is an American businesswoman, philanthropist, politician, and the United States Secretary of Education.
DeVos is a Republican known for her support for school choice, school voucher programs, and charter schools. She was Republican National Committeewoman for Michigan from 1992 to 1997 and served as chair of the Michigan Republican Party from 1996 to 2000, with reelection to the post in 2003. DeVos has been an advocate of the Detroit charter school system and she is a member of the board of the Foundation for Excellence in Education. She has served as chair of the board of the Alliance for School Choice and the Acton Institute and headed the All Children Matter PAC, which has received wide criticism for meddling in elections at the state level.
DeVos is married to Dick DeVos, the former CEO of the multi-level marketing company Amway, and is the daughter-in-law of Amway's billionaire co-founder, Richard DeVos. Her brother, Erik Prince, a former U.S. Navy SEAL officer, is the founder of Blackwater USA. Their father is Edgar Prince, founder of the Prince Corporation. In 2016, the DeVos family was listed by Forbes as the 88th richest family in America, with an estimated net worth of $5.4 billion.
On November 23, 2016 then-President-elect Donald Trump announced that he would nominate DeVos to serve as Secretary of Education in his administration, after his initial pick, Jerry Falwell Jr., rejected the offer. On January 31, following strong opposition to the nomination from Democrats, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions approved her nomination on a party-line vote, sending her nomination to the Senate floor. On February 7, 2017, DeVos was confirmed by the Senate by a 51–50 margin, with Vice President Mike Pence breaking the tie in favor of DeVos's nomination. This was the first time in U.S. history that a Cabinet nominee's confirmation was decided by a vice president's tiebreaking vote.
