O’Leary, Hazel Rollins (1937-…), served as the United States secretary of energy under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997. She was the first woman and the first African American to hold that post.
Before O’Leary became secretary, she worked for the U.S. Federal Energy Administration and the Department of Energy under Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. In these positions, she was responsible for federal government programs designed to conserve energy and protect the environment. From 1989 to 1993, O’Leary was an executive of the Northern States Power Company, a utility based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
O’Leary was born Hazel Reid on May 17, 1937, in Newport News, Virginia. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Fisk University in 1959 and a law degree from Rutgers University in 1966. Her first marriage, to Carl G. Rollins, ended in divorce. In 1980, she married John F. O’Leary, a former deputy secretary of energy.
