Madeleine K. Albright

Dr. Madeleine Korbel Albright, former US Secretary of State, will be granted an Honorary Doctor of Laws by The University of Winnipeg at Fall Convocation. Albright, a member of the University’s Global College International Advisory Board and a renowned expert on foreign policy issues and global politics, will address the graduands at Fall Convocation.

Albright served as the 64th secretary of state of the United States. In 1997, she was named the first woman secretary of state and became, to that time, the highest ranking woman in the history of the US government.

Albright is the founder of The Albright Group LLC, a global strategy firm. She is the first Michael and Virginia Mortara Endowed Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at the  Georgetown School of Foreign Service and the first Visiting Saltzman Fellow at Columbia  University’s Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies. She is the chairman of The National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, chair of The Pew Global Attitudes Project, and President of the Truman Scholarship Foundation. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Board of Trustees for the Aspen Institute.

From 1993-1997, Albright served as the United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations and as a member of the President’s Cabinet. In 1995, she led the U.S. delegation to the UN’s Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China.

Albright was the Director of Women in Foreign Service Programs and a Research Professor of International Affairs at Georgetown University during the decade prior to her return to public service. From 1989-1992, she was President of the Center for National Policy, a non-profit public policy organization based in Washington D.C. As a professor, Albright wrote extensively on change in communist systems particularly on the role of the media.

From 1978-1981, Dr. Albright was a member of President Carter’s National Security Council and White House staff. From 1976-1978, she served as Chief Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senator Edmund S. Muskie.

Albright received her BA with Honours from Wellesley College, Masters and Doctorate from Columbia University’s Department of Public Law and Government, as well as a Certificate from the Russian Institute.

Albright was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, and immigrated to America with her family after Communists took control of that country in 1948. She is the mother of three daughters and has six grandchildren. Albright’s autobiography Madam Secretary: A Memoir was published in September, 2003.