Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has passed away at the age of 84 from cancer. She was the first woman U.S. Secretary of State, under former President Bill Clinton. Prior to that, she was the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. According to reports her family said she died surrounded by family and friends.
A native of Czechoslovakia Albright immigrated with her family to the United States in 1948 and she became a U.S. citizen in 1957. By 1976, she had received a Ph.D. from Columbia University and was working for former President Jimmy Carter’s national security adviser.
Albright worked for several nonprofit organizations during the terms of former President’s Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush in the 1980s and early ’90s. She also served on the National Security Council then joined the academic faculty of Georgetown University in the 1980s.
