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Madeleine Korbel Albright (born May 15 , 1937 ) served as the 64th United States Secretary Of State . She currently serves as the Mortara Distinguished Professor of Diplomacy at the Edmund A. Walsh School Of Foreign Service at Georgetown University . Madeleine Albright was nominated by President Bill Clinton on December 5 , 1996 , as Secretary of State. After being unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate , she was sworn in as the 64th Secretary of State on January 23 , 1997 . Albright was the first female Secretary of State. PERSONAL INFORMATION Madeleine Albright was born Marie Jana Korbelová in Prague , Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic ), and raised Roman Catholic by her parents, who had converted to Catholicism from Judaism in order to escape persecution. She has a brother, John, who later became an economist. ''Madeleine'' was the French version of "Madlenka", a Czech nickname given by her grandmother. Albright adopted the new name when she attended a Swiss boarding school. Albright is the daughter of a diplomat-- her father Josef served in the Czech diplomatic service. Her brother said, "Madeleine had a special relationship with our father, partly because she followed so closely in his footsteps." In 1939, the Korbel family fled to London after Bohemia and Moravia were annexed by Germany in 1939 . That may have saved her life, as many of her Jew ish relatives in Czechoslovakia were killed in the Holocaust . After World War II , the Korbel family moved back to Belgrade , where her father Josef Korbel served as Czechoslovakia 's ambassador to Yugoslavia . She and her parents fled again when the Communists assumed power over Czechoslovakia, moving to the United States in 1948 . Once settled there, Josef became the founding dean of the Graduate School of International Studies at the University Of Denver . Korbel later taught future Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. Albright attended school in Switzerland , and later majored in Political Science on a Scholarship at Wellesley College in Massachusetts . She became a U.S. citizen in 1957 . After Wellesley graduation in May 1959 she married Chicago newspaper journalist Joseph Medill Patterson Albright , whom she had met working a summer job with the Denver Post . They had three daughters, Twins , Anne and Alice, and Katie. When the twins were born six weeks prematurely, Albright took a course in Russian as a distraction. By the end of their hospital stay, she was fluent in the language. While raising her family, she earned a Ph.D in international relations from Columbia University . The couple divorced in 1982 , when Joseph announced that he was in love with someone else. In 1996 , Albright discovered that her grandparents had been murdered at Auschwitz and Terezin . Albright has stated that she did not know she was Jewish until she was an adult. Albright is Multilingual , being fluent in English , French , and Czech in addition to Russian , with good speaking and reading abilities in German , Polish and Serbian . After her retirement, Albright published her memoir, ''Madam Secretary'' () ISBN 0060892579. ACADEMIC AND PUBLIC CAREER Madeleine Albright graduated from Kent Denver high school in 1955. Awarded a B.A. 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. She was also awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws from the University Of Winnipeg in 2005. From 1978 to 1981 , as both a staff member of the White House and the National Security Council, Albright was an important Carter Administration official responsible for the formulation of foreign policy legislation. From 1976 to 1978 , she served as Chief Legislative Assistant to Senator Edmund Muskie . From 1981 to 1982 , Secretary Albright was awarded a fellowship at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars at the Smithsonian Institution following an international competition in which she wrote about the role of the press in political changes in Poland during the early 1980s . From 1981 to 1982 she also served as a Senior Fellow in Soviet and Eastern Europe an Affairs at the Center For Strategic And International Studies , conducting research in developments and trends in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. In 1981 she co-founded the Center For National Policy . She also served as President of the organization. In 1982, Albright was appointed 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 , Russia n foreign policy, and Central and Eastern Europe an politics, and was responsible for developing and implementing programs designed to enhance women's professional opportunities in international affairs. She was voted "best teacher" four times. Before becoming Secretary of State, Albright served as a member of President Clinton's Cabinet. Today, Secretary Albright is once again a professor at Georgetown. Ambassador to the UN Albright gained recognition as a foreign policy adviser to vice-presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 and to presidential candidate Michael Dukakis in 1988 . Though both failed to be elected, she emerged as a key adviser to Democrats on foreign policy. Albright was appointed ambassador to the UN, her first diplomatic post, shortly after Clinton was inaugurated, presenting her credentials on February 9 , 1993 . During her tenure at the UN, she had a rocky relationship with the United Nations Secretary-General , Boutros Boutros-Ghali . She did not take action against the Genocide in Rwanda . ''"It was a very very very difficult time, the situation was so unclear. You know in retrospect it all looks very clear"'' - Madeleine Albright in the PBS Documentary "Ghosts of Rwanda" {Link without Title} In 1996, she made highly controversial remarks in an interview with she said "I never should have made it, it was stupid", but she still supported the concept of tailored sanctions {Link without Title} . Also in 1996, after Cuban pilots shot down a small civilian aircraft flown by Cuban-exile protesters in international airspace, she announced, "This is not cojones. This is cowardice." The line endeared her to President Clinton, among others. Boutros Boutros-Ghali 's spokesperson Sylvana Foa said of Albright, "She's no shrinking violet. She can be biting." Secretary of State When Madeleine Albright was confirmed as the 64th Secretary of State of the United States, she became the first female Secretary of State and the highest-ranking woman in the history of the United States government. As Secretary, Dr. Albright reinforced America’s alliances, advocated democracy and human rights, and promoted American trade and business, labor and environmental standards abroad. During her tenure, Albright considerably influenced American policy in Bosnia and the Middle East. She incurred the wrath of number of Serbs in the former Yugoslavia for her perceived personal anti-Serb position and her role in participating in the formulation of U.S. policy during the Kosovo War and Bosnian War as well as the rest of the Balkans. In 1998, at the 50th anniversary NATO summit, Albright articulated what would become known as the "three Ds" of NATO weapons policy: that there must be no ''decoupling'' of the United States from NATO, ''duplication'' of effort or resources, or ''discrimination'' against NATO allies. with Madeleine Albright in 2000]] In 2000 , Secretary Albright became one of the highest level Western diplomats to ever meet Kim Jong-il , the isolationist leader of North Korea . {Link without Title} Also in 2000, as part of her efforts to advocate democracy, Albright also spearheaded the effort to create a Community Of Democracies . Post-2001 career Following Albright's term as U.S. Secretary of State, many speculated that she might pursue a career in Czech Politics . Czech President Vaclav Havel openly talked about the possibility of Albright succeeding him after he retired in 2002 . Albright is currently the Mortara Distinguished Professor of Diplomacy at the Georgetown University Walsh School of Foreign Service in Washington, DC. On October 25 , 2005 , Albright guest starred on the TV drama '' Gilmore Girls '' as herself. She appeared in a Dream with Rory ( Alexis Bledel ) as Rory's mother. In 2003, she accepted a position on the Board of Directors of the New York Stock Exchange , and resigned the position in 2005. On January 5 2006 , she participated in a meeting at the White House of former Secretaries of Defense and State to discuss United States foreign policy with Bush administration officals. Albright currently serves as chairperson of National Democratic Institute for International Affairs and as president of the Truman Scholarship Foundation . EXTERNAL LINKS
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