Condoleezza Rice Keynote Speaker at GCAA and WGCA Conventions

NORMAN, Okla. – Condoleezza Rice - former Secretary of State of the United States - will be the keynote speaker at the GCAA and WGCA national conventions held Dec. 9-11 in Las Vegas. Dr. Rice will focus on leadership, teamwork, organizational management and life lessons learned from the game of golf.

“We are very excited and honored to have Dr. Rice as our keynote speaker for the convention,” said GCAA President Todd Satterfield. “It’s a tremendous opportunity for the members of the GCAA and the WGCA to be inspired by her leadership and experiences. We are grateful that Dr. Rice’s love of golf allowed her to be with us in December.”

“The WGCA is both honored and excited for the opportunity to have such a distinguished keynote speaker at our annual convention,” stated WGCA President Janet Carl. “This is a groundbreaking year, for both organizations, as we combine our efforts and resources for the common goals of providing our members with unsurpassed educational opportunities and unequaled leadership skills, which Ms. Rice has shown throughout her career. For our coaches to have the opportunity to learn from someone who has shattered several barriers and is a mentor to all of us, is an unbelievable opportunity.”

Condoleezza Rice is currently a professor of Political Economy in the Graduate School of Business; the Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution; and a professor of Political Science at Stanford University.  She is also a founding partner of RiceHadleyGates, LLC.

From January 2005-2009, Rice served as the 66th Secretary of State of the United States, the second woman and first African American woman to hold the post. Rice also served as President George W. Bush’s Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (National Security Advisor) from January 2001-2005, the first woman to hold the position.

Rice served as Stanford University’s Provost from 1993-1999, during which she was the institution’s chief budget and academic officer. As Provost, she was responsible for a $1.5 billion annual budget and the academic program involving 1,400 faculty members and 14,000 students. In 1997, she also served on the Federal Advisory Committee on Gender -- Integrated Training in the Military.

From 1989 through March 1991, Rice served on President George H.W. Bush’s National Security Council staff.  She served as Director; Senior Director of Soviet and East European Affairs; and, Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. In 1986, while an international affairs fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, Rice also served as Special Assistant to the Director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

As professor of Political Science, Rice has been on the Stanford faculty since 1981 and has won two of the highest teaching honors – the 1984 Walter J. Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching and the 1993 School of Humanities and Sciences Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching.

She has authored and co-authored numerous books, including two bestsellers, No Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Years in Washington (2011) and Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir of Family (2010); Germany Unified and Europe Transformed: A Study in Statecraft (1995) with Philip Zelikow; The Gorbachev Era (1986) with Alexander Dallin; and Uncertain Allegiance: The Soviet Union and the Czechoslovak Army (1984).

In 1991, Rice co-founded the Center for a New Generation, an innovative, after-school academic enrichment program for students in East Palo Alto and East Menlo Park, California. In 1996, CNG merged with the Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula (an affiliate club of the Boys and Girls Club of America) of which she remains actively involved in today.

Rice currently serves on the board of KiOR, a renewable fuels company, C3, an energy software company, and Makena Capital, a private endowment firm. In addition, she is a member of the boards of the George W. Bush Institute, the Commonwealth Club, the Aspen Institute, and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. Previously, Rice has also served on various additional boards, for example: the Chevron Corporation; the Charles Schwab Corporation; the Transamerica Corporation; the University of Notre Dame; and, the San Francisco Symphony Board of Governors.

Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Rice earned her bachelor’s degree in political science, cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Denver; her master’s from the University of Notre Dame; and her Ph.D. from the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver.

Rice is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has been awarded ten honorary doctorates.  She currently resides in Stanford, California.