Women at the Helm Part 2 Condoleezza Rice.

July 6, 2016

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Molly Solomon.

This is the second in our series of "Women at the Helm." Our first was Molly Solomon, 10-time Emmy Award winner and longtime NBC Olympics producer, who became the first woman to serve as executive producer for a national sports network in 2012.

Condoleezza Rice.

Today Condoleezza Rice is our "Woman at the Helm" for her accomplishments as the first female African-American secretary of state and as President Bush's National Security Advisor during his first term, making her the first woman to serve in that position.

And her achievement of becoming the first female golfer admitted to being a member at Augusta National. Since its inception, this made headline news, as Augusta has fought tooth and nail to stay a male sanctuary. We thank Elizabeth Burmiller of the NY Times for writing this compelling article.

Condoleezza Rice, the former Secretary of State, is also a former competitive ice skater and a serious tennis player. Ms. Rice began golfing seven years ago.

Condoleezza Rice has lived a life of firsts: first black woman to be Secretary of State, first black woman to be national security adviser and the first African-American, first woman and youngest person to be provost of Stanford University.

Augusta National Golf Club Member.

On Monday, she added another first when she became one of the first two female members admitted to Augusta National Golf Club, the home of the Masters tournament, which has excluded women as members throughout its 80-year history. The other new member is Darla Moore, a South Carolina financier and philanthropist who was on the cover of Fortune in 1997 as “The Toughest Babe in Business.”

A professor at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford.

For Rice, now a professor at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford, the membership reflects a competitiveness that she has brought to athletic and academic pursuits throughout her 57 years. A former competitive ice skater and a serious tennis player, Rice began golfing only seven years ago, on a vacation with family members to the Greenbrier, a resort in West Virginia. But she has thrown herself into the sport with her typical drive.

"There is a lot of room for improvement. Really enjoy working on my game. I like practicing and charting my rounds.”

“I don’t like anything that’s ‘just an escape,’ ” Rice told Golf Digest in an interview last year. “To me, the best part of golf is that unlike my tennis game, I can actually get better. I’ve probably reached my plateau in tennis, but in golf, I have a lot of room for improvement. Really enjoy working on my game. I like practicing and charting my rounds.”

Rice declined all interview requests Monday, but family and friends said she had played golf with far greater frequency since she left office as Secretary of State at the end of President George W. Bush’s administration in 2009.

To read the full article on Condoleezza Rice, click here.

Source: Elizabeth Burmiller NY Times Mel Sole Golf School

Pictures: NY Times U.S. Embassy New Delhi

Thanks for reading - Women at the Helm Part 2 Condoleezza Rice. I hope you enjoy our Woman at the Helm Series!