2016 Undergraduate Commencement

Madeleine Korbel Albright, 64th secretary of state of the United States, was nominated as the first female secretary of state by President Bill Clinton on Dec. 5, 1996, confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Jan. 22, 1997, and sworn in the next day. She served in the position for four years. As secretary of state, Albright promoted the expansion of NATO eastward into the former Soviet bloc nations; successfully pressed for military intervention under NATO auspices during the 1999 humanitarian crisis in Kosovo; favored the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol on Global Climate Change; and furthered the normalization of relations with Vietnam. Albright's other federal government positions included a White House staff member under Jimmy Carter, a National Security Council member, and ambassador to the United Nations from 1993 to 1996. She also served as Research Professor of International Affairs at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and Director of its Women in Foreign Service Program Albright is the daughter of Josef Korbel, the former DU international studies professor for whom the international studies school was renamed in 2008.