Politics -- The Administration, Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright

(By Bill O'Leary for The Washington Post)

Contact Information
Background from The Post

The first woman secretary of State and the highest-ranking woman in the federal government to date, Madeleine Albright brought a fresh, outspoken approach to foreign policy in the second Clinton Cabinet. Albright has been the administration's bridge-builder with the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, conservative North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms. Personally, Albright's appointment led to discoveries about her family's heritage and to revelations about the deaths of more than a dozen Jewish relatives in the Holocaust.

Sworn in: Jan. 23, 1997 (nominated Dec. 5, 1996)

Succeeded: Warren Christopher (1993-1996)

Previous occupation: U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations, 1993-96; president of the Center for National Policy, a nonprofit research organization; research professor of international affairs and director of Women in Foreign Service Program at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service; fellow, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars at the Smithsonian, 1981-82; senior fellow in Soviet and Eastern European affairs, Center for Strategic and International Studies; staff member on the National Security Council and the White House, where she was responsible for foreign policy legislation, 1978-81; chief legislative assistant to former senator Edmund S. Muskie, 1976-78.

Education: Wellesley College (B.A., political science); School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University; certificate from the Russian Institute at Columbia University; Columbia University (M.A. and Ph.D., Department of Public Law and Government)

Hometown: born in Prague, Czechoslovakia

Children: Three daughters

Religion: raised Roman Catholic, now Episcopalian

Of note: Fluent in French and Czech, with good speaking and reading abilities in Russian and Polish.

Department of State
2201 C St. NW
Washington, D.C. 20520
(202) 647-4000
FAX: (202) 647-5939
E-mail: secretary@state.gov
http://www.state.gov

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