Rice, Condoleezza (1954-…), served as United States secretary of state from 2005 to 2009. She was the second woman, after Madeleine K. Albright, to hold the post and the first African American woman to do so. Rice had served as President George W. Bush’s national security adviser since 2001 and was the first woman to hold that post.
Rice was born in Birmingham, Alabama, on Nov. 14, 1954. She graduated from the University of Denver with a bachelor’s degree at the age of 19, in 1974. She earned a master’s degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1975 and a Ph.D. from the University of Denver in 1981. Rice then began teaching political science at Stanford University, where she won a teaching award in 1984.
Rice, who speaks Russian, became known for her knowledge of the Soviet Union. In 1986, she served as an adviser to the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff. In 1989, during George H. W. Bush’s administration, she was appointed director of Soviet and East European affairs on the National Security Council. Rice left the council in 1991 and returned to Stanford to teach. From 1993 to 1999, she served as provost of the university. Rice was the first woman and the first African American named to that post. In 1999 and 2000, she acted as chief foreign policy consultant to George W. Bush during Bush’s presidential campaign.
Rice returned to Stanford after leaving the Cabinet in 2009, becoming a senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace, a center for research in social science. She wrote a memoir about her family, Extraordinary, Ordinary People (2010); and a memoir of her years in government, No Higher Honor (2011). In 2013, Rice, a lifelong football fan, was named to the college football playoff selection committee. She served on the committee for the 2014, 2015, and 2016 football seasons. With scholar and former diplomat Philip Zelikow, Rice co-wrote To Build a Better World: Choices to End the Cold War and Create a Global Commonwealth (2019).
