Rice, Condoleezza

Impact on the world

Became the first woman to serve as U.S. National Security Advisor in 2001, then in 2005 succeeded Colin Powell as Secretary of State, becoming the first African American woman to hold that office and, at the time, the highest-ranking woman ever in the U.S. presidential line of succession; she later returned to Stanford University, where she had earlier become the first woman and first Black person to serve as the institution's provost.

Life & background

Born in segregated Birmingham, Alabama, Rice earned her doctorate in international relations from the University of Denver and built an academic career at Stanford University, where she became the first woman and first African American to serve as the university's provost. She served on the National Security Council as a Soviet affairs advisor to President George H.W. Bush during German reunification and the Soviet Union's collapse, then became the first woman to serve as National Security Advisor in 2001 under President George W. Bush. In 2005 she succeeded Colin Powell as Secretary of State, becoming the first African American woman to hold the position and, at the time, the highest-ranking woman in the U.S. presidential line of succession; during her tenure she helped negotiate a landmark civilian nuclear cooperation agreement between the United States and India. After leaving office in 2009 she returned to Stanford, where she now directs the Hoover Institution.

Sources

1. U.S. Dept. of State, Office of the Historian (Biographies of the Secretaries of State); Encyclopædia Britannica; National Women's History Museum