Rice, Condoleezza (1954–)
Rice, Condoleezza (1954–)
African-American politician and Cabinet official. Born Nov 14, 1954, in Birmingham, Alabama; dau. of Rev. John Rice (pastor, university professor) and Angelena Rice (music teacher, university professor); University of Denver, BA, 1974; University of Notre Dame, MA, 1975; Graduate School of International Studies at University of Denver, PhD, 1981; never married.
Joined faculty at Stanford University (1981), serving initially as fellow in arms control and disarmament program and going on to become tenured professor of political science; served as provost of Stanford (1993–99); was member of Center for International Security and Arms Control and fellow of both Institute for International Studies and Hoover Institution; specializing in Communism and Cold War policies, wrote (with Philip Zelikow) Germany Unified and Europe Transformed (1995), (with Alexander Dallin) The Gorbachev Era (1986), and Uncertain Allegiance: The Soviet Union and the Czechoslovak Army (1984); served in the 1st Bush Administration as director, then senior director, of Soviet and East European Affairs in the National Security Council, and special assistant to the president for National Security Affairs (1989–91); served as national security advisor to President George W. Bush (2001–05); became secretary of state (2005), the most powerful woman in Washington.