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Leanne Wood
Leanne Wood, born in the Rhondda, Wales, in 1971, is a member of the National Assembly for Wales, representing the South Wales Central region for Plaid Cymru since 2003. She is a socialist and a republican. She has been the Welsh Shadow Minister for Social Justice and Regeneration since 2003.

Background
She was a university lecturer in social work at Cardiff University prior to being elected to the Assembly in 2003. She has also worked as a support worker for Women's Aid and as a probation officer.

Political career
Leanne Wood is a former councillor and Chair of Cwm Cynon Women's Aid. Her particular areas of interest are poverty, women's issues, social services and criminal justice[citation.

In December 2004 she was the first assembly member to be ordered out of the chamber for referring to the Queen as "Mrs Windsor" during a debate. She later said: "I don't recognise the Queen, I called her that because that's her name."

Protest against Trident nuclear deterrent
Wood was arrested on 8 January 2007 for protesting against Britain's Trident nuclear deterrent at Faslane, Scotland.  On the 23rd January 2006 Leanne was the first Welsh politician to start weekly podcasts from her website.