Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright passed away on March 23.

Madeleine Albright served as Secretary of State under former President Bill Clinton. Albright, a Czech-born American, was also a U.S Ambassador for the United Nations during the early 90s.

Madeleine Albright came to the United States at 11 and was gifted a scholarship from a private women’s university called Wellesley in Massachusetts. This was the first school she attended, until she attended Georgetown and Columbia in New York after graduating in 1959. She completed her PHD in 1975 while getting her first government related job for Zbigniew Brzezinski, a national security advisor for Former President Jimmy Carter. 

After the beginning of the new millennium, she began to finally step away from politics. She opened her own consulting firm within the New York stock exchange. She also made several television appearances as time went on.

Albright made a lasting impression within the United States government. She was a key promoter of NATO’s eastward push into Soviet influenced countries. As the first female Secretary of State and the highest-ranking female to ever be in office at the time she served, she ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention. 

President Joe Biden said in his statement regarding her death, “Madeleine was always a force for goodness, grace, and decency—and for freedom.”