Madeleine Korbel Albright
U.S. Secretary of State
President Clinton nominated Madeleine Korbel Albright on December 5, 1996 as Secretary of State. After being unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate, she was sworn in as the 64th Secretary of State on January 23, 1997. Secretary Albright is the first female secretary of state and the highest-ranking woman in the history of the U.S. government. These facts are a clear indication of why people would see Ms. Albright as a successful woman. Long ago she might have been higher on the survey. I do not believe that many people today know about Ms. Albright's powerful position. I believe that people need to know about her and recognize her success.
In politics, due to the media's attention, people see Hilary Clinton as powerful. Most do not know how wrong they are. Madeline Albright has done so much in her four years of service to this country and she should be recognized for her success. Prior to her appointment, Secretary Albright served as the United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations (presenting her credentials at the UN on February 6, 1993) and as a member of President Clinton's Cabinet and National Security Council.
Secretary Albright formerly was the President of the Center for National Policy. The Center is a non-profit research organization formed in 1981 by representatives from government, industry, labor and education. Its mandate is to promote the study and discussion of domestic and international issues.
As a Research Professor of International Affairs and Director of Women in Foreign Service Program at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, she taught undergraduate and graduate courses in international affairs, U.S. foreign policy, Russian foreign policy, and Central and Eastern European politics, and was responsible for developing and implementing programs designed to enhance women's professional opportunities in international affairs.
From 1981 to 1982, Secretary Albright was awarded a fellowship at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars at the Smithsonian following an international competition in which she wrote about the role of the press in political changes in Poland during the early 1980's. She also served as a Senior Fellow in Soviet and Eastern European Affairs at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, conducting research in developments and trends in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
From 1978-1981, Secretary Albright was a staff member on the National Security Council, as well as a White House staff member, where she was responsible for foreign policy legislation. From 1976-1978, she served as Chief Legislative Assistant to Senator Edmund S. Muskie.
Awarded a BA from Wellesley College with honors in Political Science, she studied at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, received a Certificate from the Russian Institute at Columbia University, and her Masters and Doctorate from Columbia University's Department of Public Law and Government.
Secretary Albright is fluent in French and Czech, with good speaking and reading abilities in Russian and Polish. \par She has done a lot for this country, some more of her unrecognized accomplishments include visiting over 40 countries and many of them more than once. Some of the places that the secretary of state has visited include: Italy, Germany, France, Belgium, united Kingdom, Russia, Korea, Japan, China, Finland, Guatemala, Mexico, Costa Rica, Barbados, Korea, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Vietnam, United Kingdom, Spain, Slovenia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Malaysia, Singapore, Israel, Palestinian Authority, Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Cyprus, Lebanon, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Haiti, Switzerland, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, Congo, Angola, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Bosnia-Herzegovina, , Ukraine, Vatican City, Canada, Chile, Trinidad and Tobago, Mongolia, Luxembourg, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, Tanzania, Kenya, Austria, Thailand, Norway, Macedonia and all these in a matter of two years. These were not c!\par asual vacation visits, because i\par n most of them, she was visiting with the Prime ministers of the countries.
Madeline Albright was voted over Hillary Clinton as the strongest 1997 female communicator. The results of the Women Executives in Public Relations (WEPR) annual Status of Women in Communications survey has bestowed top honors on Madeline Albright, U.S. Secretary of State, as the most effective female communications role model of 1997. Fifty percent of survey respondents cited Albright as a top communicator - a strong, powerful woman who has had great success negotiating with officials of many nations, "always sensitive to the cultural, social and political differences between people," noted one respondent.
Albright was also nominated as the woman who has made the most lasting impact on the status of women by becoming the first female Secretary of State and thus the highest-ranking female US politician, the closest elected woman ever to the presidency. (New York, March 25, 1998)
by
Dan Quinones
