Rice, Condoleezza (1954–)

Condoleezza Rice was born in Birmingham, Alabama. From her childhood in the most segregated cities in the South in the 1950s and 1960s, Rice became one of the most influential women in the history of the U.S. government. She received her bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Denver in 1974; her master's degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1975; and her Ph.D. from the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver in 1981. In that same year, Rice joined the Stanford faculty as a professor of political science and won two of the highest teaching honors: the Walter K. Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1984 and the School of Humanities and Sciences Dean's Award for Distinguished Teaching in 1993.

From 1989 to 1991, Rice served as an advisor on Soviet and European affairs to President George H. W. Bush's National Security Council and a Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. She was the only Soviet adviser at the National Security Council and helped write the U.S. policy [Page 720]through the unification of Germany and the end of the Cold War. Returning to Stanford in 1991 as a member of the faculty, Rice became the provost in 1993: the youngest, the first non-white, and the first female provost at Stanford. In 2000, Rice became George W. Bush's foreign policy advisor and in 2001 she was named the National Security Advisor: the first woman and the second African American, after Colin Powell, to hold the post. In 2005, Rice succeeded Colin Powell as the U.S. secretary of state.

Rice is the most distinctive member of the Bush foreign affairs team because of her gender, age, and academic achievement. Her publications include Germany Unified and Europe Transformed (1995) with Philip Zelikow, The Era (1986) with Alexander Dallin, and Uncertain Allegiance: The Soviet Union and the Czechoslovak Army (1984) in addition to numerous articles. Rice's popularity surfaced in September of 2001 when she was appointed as one of the primary White House spokespersons on the war on terrorism. Since then, her visibility has been enhanced by profiles in magazines such as Vogue and O: The Oprah Magazine. Rice was also ranked as the second most powerful woman by Forbes magazine in 2006.