Elizabeth Warren

Once dubbed by Time Magazine as the "New Sheriff of Wall Street," Elizabeth Warren rose from humble lower-middle-class beginnings all the way to U.S. Senator. Born Elizabeth Ann Herring on June 22, 1949, Warren took her first job (waiting tables) at age 13 to help her family make ends meet following her father's heart attack that led to a drastic pay cut and the eventual loss of the family vehicle.

After graduating high school at only 16 years of age - and marrying at 19 - she then began teaching elementary school following her college graduation. Three years later, her daughter Amelia was born. After a two-year stint as a stay-at-home mom, Warren was off to law school. Following graduation and the birth of her son, Alexander she then began practicing law out of her home.

In 1978, she divorced her first husband, Jim Warren, while retaining his surname (under which she was professionally established), even after remarrying in 1980 to Bruce Mann. It was during this time that Warren began researching issues related to middle-class personal finance and bankruptcy, all the while teaching at several different U.S. universities, including Rutgers School of Law-Newark (1977-78); University of Houston Law Center (1978-1983); University of Texas School of Law (1981-87); University of Michigan (1985) and the University of Texas at Austin (1983-87); University of Pennsylvania Law School (1987) before beginning at Harvard University in 1992.

Her record standing up for common consumers included her 1995 advisory role on the National Bankruptcy Review Commission; a 2006-2010 membership on the FDIC Advisory Committee on Economic Inclusion; membership on the National Bankruptcy Conference; vice-presidency of the American Law Institute and membership in the American Academy of Arts and Science. She also served as Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) following the 2008 financial crisis, where her dogged determination to monitor both the Bush and Obama administrations earned kudos from both Republicans and Democrats alike.

Warren was also credited with the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a new consumer financial protection agency. Her high public profile stances eventually led to her inclusion in documentary films such as Michael Moore's "Capitalism: A Love Story" (2009) as well as being named as one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World in both 2009 and 2010. After serving as a special assistant to President Obama in 2011, she was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat from Massachusetts in 2012, defeating sitting Senator Scott Brown in a sometimes ugly race that saw Brown and his supporters repeatedly belittle Warren's partial Native American heritage.

In 2014, she published the best-selling memoir A Fighting Chance, detailing her view of a vanished American dream. Despite her increasingly high media profile, Warren shunned talk that she might run for President in 2016, arguing that she would be more effective on her key issues by remaining in the Senate.