Jacki Granet was born and raised in beautiful Santa Barbara, California. After what she describes as a “very stereotypical” and “really nice” childhood including frequent visits to the beach, youth soccer, football games on Friday night, a stint as captain of the high school basketball team (“We were terrible,” she says), she decided to attend college at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. “Most people who I meet constantly ask, ‘You’re from Santa Barbara, why did you ever leave?’” she says. “I just loved the Midwest, the big school. My dad’s college roommate went to Wisconsin Law School, and he always raved about it. It was the first school I got into. I applied and got in a week. The application was just a front and back piece of paper. I remember getting the acceptance and saying, ‘Like I would ever go to Wisconsin.’ But we went to visit in April, and I just loved it. It was beautiful. And it snowed and I still liked it.”