Dallas South News Wire
Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will speak at the all-University commencement ceremony at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, May 12, in Moody Coliseum and will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University. SMU expects to award approximately 2,100 undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees.
Rice has achieved prominence in both government service and higher education. She currently holds three positions at Stanford University: professor of political economy in the Graduate School of Business, Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution and professor of political science.
Rice earned her Bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Denver, a Master’s from the University of Notre Dame and a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver.
Her academic career began in 1981 when she joined the Stanford faculty. A dedicated teacher, she has received two of the university’s highest teaching awards. She rose through the faculty ranks to serve as Stanford provost from 1993-99, the first woman and first African American to hold that position.
Rice served for two years on the National Security Council staff under President George H.W. Bush. She was the president’s special assistant for national security affairs during the dissolution of the Soviet Union and reunification of Germany. She served on the staff of President George W. Bush as national security adviser from 2001-05.
She then served from 2005-09 as the nation’s 66th secretary of state, the second woman and the first African American woman to hold the post. Rice currently serves as chair of the Board of Advisers of the Bush Institute, part of the George W. Bush Presidential Center on the SMU campus.
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