Condoleezza Rice

Rice became President George W. Bush's second Secretary of State in January 2005, despite opposition from a small band of Democrats who objected to her role in the war in Iraq. She became National Security Advisor to the Bush presidency in 2001. Rice received a BA in political science from the University of Denver at age 19, followed by an MA in political science from the University of Notre Dame in 1975, and a PhD from the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver in 1981. An expert on Russia and Eastern Europe, she began teaching political science at Stanford University in 1981. From 1989 to 1991 she advised the George H. W. Bush administration on foreign policy and military issues, including the unification of Germany and the breakup of the Soviet Union. Rice later returned to Stanford, and was named provost, the university's budget and academic official, in 1993. In 1999 she took a leave of absence to advise the George W. Bush campaign. Author of several books on foreign policy, Rice is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and holds honorary doctorates from Morehouse College, the University of Alabama, and the University of Notre Dame.