Condoleezza Rice Fast Facts
CNN Editorial Research
Here’s a look at the life of Condoleezza Rice, former US secretary of state.
Personal
Birth date: November 14, 1954
Birth place: Birmingham, Alabama
Birth name: Condoleezza Rice
Father: John Wesley Rice Jr., minister and dean
Mother: Angelena (Ray) Rice, a high school teacher
Education: University of Denver, B. A., 1974; University of Notre Dame, Master’s degree, 1975; University of Denver, Ph.D., 1981
Other Facts
Name is from the Italian “con dolcezza” meaning “with sweetness.”
She enrolled in the University of Denver at the age of 15, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. at the age of 19.
At the University of Denver, she studied under Josef Korbel, the father of Madeleine Albright.
Has served on the boards of Dropbox, Chevron, Charles Schwab, the University of Notre Dame, and the Rand Corporation, among others.
She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
As a professor at Stanford, she won the 1984 Walter J. Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching and the 1993 School of Humanities and Sciences Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching.
Timeline
1981 – Appointed to the faculty of Stanford University as a professor of political science.
1986 – Serves as Special Assistant to the Director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, while also an international affairs fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations.
1989 – Appointed Special Assistant to President George H. W. Bush for National Security Affairs.
March 1991 – Resigns as Senior Director of Soviet and East European Affairs in the National Security Council, and as Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs.
1993 – Becomes the first woman and the first African-American to become provost of Stanford University. She was also the youngest person ever appointed provost.
June 1999 – Resigns as Provost of Stanford University, but remains a faculty member.
January 22, 2001-2005 – National Security Adviser to President George W. Bush. She is the first woman to hold this post.
October 5, 2003 – The White House announces the formation of the Iraqi Stabilization Group, headed by Rice. The group will consist of four coordinating committees: counter-terrorism, economic development, political affairs, and media relations. The committees will be headed by four of Rice’s deputies and will include representatives from the CIA and the under-secretaries from the State, Defense and Treasury Departments.
April 8, 2004 – Rice testifies in public, under oath before the 9-11 Commission after weeks of requests for her to do so. She has previously met with the Commission in private.
November 16, 2004 – President Bush announces his nomination of Rice as secretary of state.
November 20, 2004 – Rice is released from Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, DC., after undergoing a uterine fibroid embolization the day before.
2004-2007 – Time Magazine names Rice as one of the World’s Most Influential People.
January 26, 2005 – Confirmed as US secretary of state by a vote of 85 to 13 in the Senate. She is the first African-American woman to hold this position.
January 28, 2005-January 20, 2009 – Serves as the 66th US Secretary of State.
July 24, 2006 – Arrives in the Middle East to discuss a peace plan between Israel and Lebanon after violence erupts.
August 16, 2008 – Oversees a cease-fire agreement between Russia and Georgia.
September 5, 2008 – Meets with Moammar Gadhafi in Libya, the first visit by a US secretary of state to Libya since 1953.
January 28, 2009 – Stanford University announces that Rice will return “as a political science professor and the Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution.”
February 2009 – Agrees to a three-book deal with Crown Publishers starting with a memoir about her years in the George W. Bush Administration.
November 2009 – Is a founding partner of the RiceHadley Group (now RiceHadleyGates LLC), an advisory firm, along with former George W. Bush Administration National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley.
July 28, 2010 – Plays the piano during a performance with the “Queen of Soul,” Aretha Franklin and the Philadelphia Orchestra for a charity event to raise money for inner city music education.
October 12, 2010 – Rice’s memoir, “Extraordinary, Ordinary People,” is released. The book details Rice’s childhood in segregated Alabama.
November 1, 2011 – Rice’s memoir, “No Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Years in Washington,” is published.
August 20, 2012 – Along with financier Darla Moore, becomes the first woman admitted as a member to Augusta National Golf Club.
October 16, 2013 – Rice is announced as one of 13 members of the College Football Playoff selection committee.
May 3, 2014 – Rice declines to speak at Rutgers University’s May 18th commencement after students and faculty opposed her support of the Iraq war.
May 9, 2017 – Rice’s book, “Democracy: Stories from the Long Road to Freedom,” is published.
October 11, 2017 – It is announced that Rice has agreed to chair the NCAA’s Commission on College Basketball.
May 2018 – Rice and co-author Amy Zegart’s book, “Political Risk: How Businesses and Organizations Can Anticipate Global Insecurity,” is published.
January 28, 2020 – Rice announces she will be the next director of Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, a public policy think tank.
September 1, 2020 – Rice assumes her position as director of the Hoover Institution.
July 11, 2022 – The Denver Broncos announce Rice is joining the NFL team’s new ownership group.
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