Former Colorado Senator Ken Salazar is President Obama's man on the inside. As the Secretary of the Interior, Salazar is expected to help preserve the country's natural resources while steering the U.S to energy independence.

Born in small-town Alamosa, Colorado, the 53-year-old Salazar was raised in a family with deep roots in the Southwest. A fifth generation Coloradan, Salazar's ancestors came from Spain and helped found the city of Santa Fe, New Mexico before the U.S. or México became countries. Despite his Spanish roots, Salazar sometimes refers to himself as Mexican-American, perhaps in part because his last name has made him a target for discrimination: "I've been taunted, called names – from 'dirty Mexican' to lots of other names – as I was growing up, and even now as a United States senator."

Salazar grew up in a modest ranch without electricity or telephones. He and his seven siblings learned to farm on the family ranch while attending school. After graduating from Centauri High School in 1973, Salazar went on to earn a bachelor's in political science from Colorado College and then a law degree from the University of Michigan in 1981.

The Stetson hat-wearing Salazar worked as a water rights and environmental lawyer before accepting a position as chief legal counsel to then-Colorado Governor Roy Romer in 1986. He later served as both the executive director of Colorado's Department of Natural Resources and as the state's attorney general. In 2004, Salazar announced his bid for the U.S. Senate, promising he would "[fight] for Colorado's land, water, and people." Despite mixed support from the Democratic party, Salazar scored a narrow victory over Republican Pete Coors, the chairman of the Coors Brewing Company who spent over one million dollars of his own money to run.

Over the years, Salazar has built a reputation as a centrist who doesn't lean too closely towards either party. He has championed the rights of ranchers and farms, supported renewable energy efforts and has openly criticized President Bush's plan to drill for oil in the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. As the head of the Department of the Interior, Salazar will oversee America's national parks, water, fish, wildlife and other natural resources as well as the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

But before Salazar can turn to the nation's outdoors, he's got some housekeeping to do, conducting an internal investigation of a department he says has been "tarnished by ethical lapses and criminal behavior that has extended to the very highest levels of government."