MOSCOW, November 14 (Sputnik) —The only child of a teacher and a Presbyterian minister, she studied piano from the time she was three until developing an interest in international politics at the age of 16 in Denver, Colorado, where the family had moved in 1967.
In 1974, she received a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Denver, and in 1975, received a Master's degree in political science from the University of Notre Dame. In 1981, she earned a doctorate in political science from the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver.
Attending a course taught by Joseph Korbel (father of Madeleine Albright, US Secretary of State for the Clinton administration) her interest was sparked in Russian history. In the late 1970s, she studied at Moscow State University. Rice specialized in Soviet armed forces and military doctrine, and security issues in Western Europe.
In 1981, she became an assistant professor at Stanford University's Department of Political Science, promoted to professor in 1986. During this period, she was part of an advisory group at the Joint Chiefs of Staff for Nuclear Strategic Planning, as a fellow on the Council on Foreign Relations.
Rice worked at the National Security Council in the administration of the 41st US President George H.W. Bush between 1989-1991, as a special assistant to the President and Senior Director of the Department for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
She returned to teaching at Stanford University in 1991, serving as provost from 1993-1999. In 1999, Rice joined presidential candidate George W. Bush’s campaign staff as senior foreign policy adviser.
On January 20, 2001, she became National Security Adviser to the US President, making her the first woman in United States history to hold that position. Four years later, on January 26, 2005, the re-elected President appointed her Secretary of State. On January 20, 2009, Rice left the position of Secretary of State, the first African-American woman to serve in that capacity.
Forbes magazine called Rice the world’s most influential women in 2005.
In March 2009, she returned to Stanford University as a political science professor, a political economy professor at the university’s Graduate School of Business and a senior fellow on public policy at the Hoover Institution, a think tank located on the campus.
She has occupied positions on many corporate boards such as Chevron Corporation, Charles Schwab Corporation and Transamerica Corporation and is a co-founder of RiceHadleyGates, a consulting firm.
Rice has authored or co-authored several books, including “The Soviet Union and the Czechoslovak Army 1948-1983: Uncertain Allegiance” (1984), “The Gorbachev Era” (1986, with Alexander Dallin) and “Germany Unified and Europe Transformed: A Study in Statecraft” (1995, with Philip Zelikow). She has written two memoirs: “Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir of Family” (2010) and “No Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Years in Washington” (2011).
Rice has never married, and has no children. She speaks Russian, French and Spanish, and retains her interest in music, playing and occasionally performing on the piano. She is a fan of American football.
