Please join us for a conversation with Dr. Condoleezza Rice in celebration of Women’s History Month — moderated by Kristin Graham Koehler (Sidley Management Committee member and office managing partner of the Washington, D.C. office), with introductions by Heidi Levine (Sidley Executive Committee member and firmwide co-chair of SidleyWomen).
Condoleezza Rice is a diplomat, academic, and author who made history by becoming the first Black woman, and the second woman overall, to serve as the Secretary of State of the United States. She is currently Director of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and a global business and economy professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She is also a founding partner of Rice, Hadley, Gates & Manuel LLC, an international strategic consulting firm.
In addition to her post as Secretary of State under George W. Bush, Rice also served as his Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, the first woman to hold the position. She previously held a number of national security positions, including serving on President George H.W. Bush’s National Security Council staff and as a Special Assistant to the Director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Rice served for several years as Stanford University’s provost and, as a professor of political science, has won two of the university’s highest teaching honors.
She has authored numerous books, most recently To Build a Better World: Choices to End the Cold War and Create a Global Commonwealth (2019), co-authored with Philip Zelikow. Rice currently serves on multiple corporate boards and has served on numerous others during her career. A proponent of after-school enrichment programs, she is Vice Chair of the Board of Governors of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. She is also a trustee of the Aspen Institute.
Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Rice holds political science degrees from the University of Denver (bachelor’s and Ph.D.) and the University of Notre Dame (master’s). She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has been awarded over fifteen honorary doctorates.