December 17

Condoleezza Rice

On December 17, 2000, Condoleeza Rice became the first woman to serve as the United States National Security Advisor.  Rice was born on November 14, 1954 in Birmingham, Alabama.

President George W. Bush appointed Rice to serve as National Security Adviser. She was later elevated to the position of Secretary of State. Rice was also the first African American female Secretary of State.  She was an integral part of the Bush Campaign inner circle during the turbulent times of the September 11, 2001 attacks and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Rice served as Secretary of State from 2005 to 2009. Her family moved from Alabama to Denver, Colorado where she graduated from high school at the age of 15. She went on to attend and graduate from the University of Denver with a B.A. in Political Science when she was only 19 years old. Rice later received her Masters Degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1975 and her Ph.D., from the University of Denver in 1981. Prior to accepting the position of National Security Adviser, Rice had served as the Provost of the University of Denver.   She returned to the University of Denver in 2009 after leaving the White House as a political science professor and Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution.