SUSAN RICE
Susan Rice is an American diplomat, policy advisor, and public official who has built a distinguished career in foreign policy and national security.
A graduate of Stanford University with a bachelor's degree in history, she received a Rhodes Scholarship to attend Oxford University, where she earned her master's and doctoral degrees in international relations.
Her government service began during the Clinton administration, where she served on the National Security Council and later became Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs from 1997 to 2001. Appointed at just 32 years old, she was at the time the youngest person ever to serve as a regional assistant secretary of state. In this role, she dealt with major conflicts and crises across the African continent.
Under President Barack Obama, Rice served as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations from 2009 to 2013. She later became National Security Advisor from 2013 to 2017, making her one of the president's closest advisors on matters of foreign policy and national security. During her tenure in this role, she was instrumental in supporting the Iran nuclear deal of 2015, coordinating the U.S. response to the Ebola epidemic, overseeing the reopening of diplomatic relations with Cuba, and advancing the Paris Agreement on climate change.
During the Biden administration, Rice served as Director of the Domestic Policy Council from 2021 to 2023, shifting her focus to domestic policy issues — including healthcare access, student loan reform, and immigration policy — after years of working primarily in foreign affairs. This made her the only person in U.S. history to have served in the White House as both National Security Advisor and Domestic Policy Advisor.
Throughout her career, Susan Rice has been involved in addressing complex global challenges, including genocide prevention, counterterrorism efforts, and international peacekeeping operations. She has written extensively on foreign policy, including her memoir Tough Love: My Story of the Things Worth Fighting For, published in 2019, which became a New York Times bestseller. Recognized for breaking barriers as an African American woman in foreign policy leadership positions, she has earned a reputation as a tough, direct, and knowledgeable policy expert throughout her career.
Since leaving government, Rice has remained an active and influential voice in public affairs. In 2024, she served as the Bernard and Susan Liautaud Visiting Fellow at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute and as a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Stanford's Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, where she focused on the geopolitical implications of AI.
She also continued her academic engagement as a visiting fellow at Harvard's Institute of Politics and as a non-resident senior fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School.
Beyond academia, Rice has maintained a prominent public platform as a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times and as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Aspen Strategy Group. She sits on the board of directors of Netflix and remains a sought-after speaker on issues ranging from national security to domestic policy reform.
Through her writing, speaking, and scholarly work, she continues to shape national conversations on American leadership, global security, and the future of U.S. foreign policy.
