US National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice speaks to reporters at the White House, Washington, DC., November 2001. (AFP/Getty Images)
President George W. Bush and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, c. 2006.
Condoleezza Rice, a diplomat, scholar and author spent much of her childhood in Birmingham’s Titusville neighborhood. Her father was pastor of Wesminster Presbyterian Church. Today, Rice is the Denning Professor in Global Business and the Economy at the Stanford Graduate School of Business; the Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution; and a professor of Political Science at Stanford University. She is also a founding partner of RiceHadleyGates, LLC.
From January 2005-2009, Rice served as the 66th Secretary of State of the United States, the second woman and first African-American woman to hold the post. Rice also served as President George W. Bush’s National Security Advisor from January 2001-2005, the first woman to hold the position.
Rice served as Stanford University’s Provost from 1993-1999, during which she was the institution’s chief budget and academic officer. As Provost, she was responsible for a $1.5 billion annual budget and the academic program involving 1,400 faculty members and 14,000 students. In 1997, she also served on the Federal Advisory Committee on Gender — Integrated Training in the Military.
From 1989 through March 1991, Rice served on President George H.W. Bush’s National Security Council staff. She had several responsibilities over the years, including director and then senior director of Soviet and East European Affairs. In 1986, while an international affairs fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, Rice also served as special assistant to the Director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Rice, age five, sits atop her uncle’s car, Birmingham, Ala.
Rice stands in front of the White House during a family trip to Washington, D.C. (Random House)
Rice and high school friends at all-girls St. Mary’s Academy, Cherry Hills Village, Colorado, c. 1970 (Random House)
Undergrad years, University of Denver.
Cover of Rice’s memoir, Extraordinary Ordinary People.
As professor of Political Science, Rice has been on the Stanford faculty since 1981 and has won two of the highest teaching honors – the 1984 Walter J. Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching and the 1993 School of Humanities and Sciences Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching.
She has authored and co-authored numerous books, including two bestsellers, No Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Years in Washington (2011) and Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir of Family (2010); Germany Unified and Europe Transformed: A Study in Statecraft (1995) with Philip Zelikow; The Gorbachev Era (1986) with Alexander Dallin; and Uncertain Allegiance: The Soviet Union and the Czechoslovak Army (1984). Her most recent book,”Democracy: Stories from the Long Road to Freedom,” was released in 2017.
In 1991, Rice cofounded the Center for a New Generation (CNG), an innovative, after-school academic enrichment program for students in East Palo Alto and East Menlo Park, California. In 1996, CNG merged with the Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula (an affiliate club of the Boys and Girls Clubs of America). CNG has since expanded to local BGCA chapters in Birmingham, Atlanta, and Dallas. She remains an active proponent of an extended learning day through after school programs.
Since 2009, Rice has served as a founding partner at RiceHadleyGates, LLC, an international strategic consulting firm based in Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C. The firm works with senior executives of major companies to implement strategic plans and expand in emerging markets. Other partners include former National Security Advisor Stephen J. Hadley and former Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates.
Condoleezza and her mother Angelena, c. late-1950s.
Rice has been affiliated with several boards and agencies including Dropbox, an online-storage technology company; C3, an energy software company; and Makena Capital, a private endowment firm. In addition, she is a member of the boards of the George W. Bush Institute, the Commonwealth Club, the Aspen Institute, and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America.
In 2013, Rice was appointed to the College Football Playoff Committee (CFPC), formerly the Bowl Championship Series (BCS).
Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Rice earned her bachelor’s degree in political science, cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Denver; her master’s from the University of Notre Dame; and her Ph.D. from the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver.
Rice is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has been awarded 11 honorary doctorates.
Professor Condoleezza Rice, Stanford University, November 1985. David Madison / Getty Images
Rice, the former music major, accompanies world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma, May 6, 2017. (Paul Morigi / Getty Images)
Birmingham native Condoleezza Rice invested time and shared her experience and insight with a group of city high schoolers taking part in Persuasive Points of View, a discussion organized by the Birmingham Education Foundation and Regions Bank at Regions’ headquarters in Birmingham, March 2020. (Courtesy Regions Bank)