Condoleezza Rice

Guide Note: Condoleezza Rice is the current Secretary of State under President George W. Bush. She is the first African-American woman to hold the position, and only the second woman, after Madeleine Albright. She served as President Bush's National Security Adviser during his first term, before replacing former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Fast Facts:

1. Born November 14, 1954 in Birmingham, Alabama
2. Chevron once used her name for an oil tanker
3. Secretary of State: 2005 to present
4. Speaks English, Russian, German, French, and Spanish
5. Name derived from the Italian musical phrase "Con dolcezza," meaning "with sweetness"
6. Studied under Josef Korbel, the father of former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
7. As Secretary of State, has visited 72 countries

An early enthusiast in music and dance, Rice had one dreamed of pursuing a career as a classical pianist before entering government. She received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver, with an emphasis on Cold War diplomacy in Czechoslovakia in 1981, after having spent a few years working in the State Department under President Jimmy Carter. Thereafter, she continued her academic career as an Associated Professor at Stanford University while also working as Special Assistant to the Director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Rice took a sabbatical from Stanford to advise George W. Bush during his 2000 presidential campaign, and was subsequently chosen to serve as his National Security Advisor, becoming the first woman to ever hold the position. She was an early proponent of the administration's plans to invade Iraq, arguing in an influential editorial that the Iraqi government was lying about having Weapons of Mass Destruction. In an interview on CNN in early 2003, weeks before the invasion that would start the Iraq War, she told Wolf Blitzer that the U.S. could not risk "the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud."

On January 26, 2005, Rice was confirmed by Congress as the 66th United States Secretary of State. She has described her agenda as pursuing "Transformational Diplomacy" that will work around the world to build and foster well-run, democratic states.