DENTON (UNT), Texas--Condoleezza Rice, Stanford University professor of political science and 66th U.S. Secretary of State, will speak April 16 as part of the University of North Texas Distinguished Lecture Series.

Rice will speak at 8 p.m. April 16 in the UNT Coliseum, located at 600 Avenue D, at the southeast corner of North Texas Boulevard and Highland Street. The event includes remarks from Rice as well as a Q&A session.

Student leaders participate in private Q&A sessions with Distinguished Lecture Series guests each year. The program introduces the UNT community to the excellence of world-class speakers whose messages enhance student learning outside the classroom. Previous speakers include President George W. Bush, Robert M. Gates, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., John Legend, Bill Nye, Mythbusters Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, Suze Orman and Vicente Fox.

From January 2005–2009 Rice served as 66th Secretary of State of the U.S., and was the second woman and the first African American woman to hold the post. Rice also served as national security advisor to George W. Bush from January 2001-2005, and was the first woman to hold the position.

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 a 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.

Born in Birmingham, Ala., 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.

The Distinguished Lecture Series is sponsored by UNT's Division of Student Affairs. This year’s program is a collaboration among several UNT departments. 

For more information contact Assistant Director of Student Affairs Administration Blake Rexroat at 940-565-2617.

Student tickets will be available Feb. 5 (Tuesday) at noon, and tickets for faculty, staff, alumni and the general public will be available Feb. 9 (Saturday). Tickets can be purchased online or in person at the UNT Union Information Desk or by calling 940-565-3805. Students receive one free ticket with Student I.D. and can purchase up to three guest tickets for $20 each. Faculty, staff and alumni tickets are $25, and general public tickets are $30. Floor seating for faculty, staff and alumni is $45 and $50 for the general public. Groups of 10+ can receive tickets at a discounted rate of $20 each.

Download a high resolution photo of Rice: https://news.unt.edu/image-galleries/image/condoleezza-rice.