Inside Iowa State

April 18, 2008

Smith chair lecture is April 24

by Mike Ferlazzo, News Service

Madeleine Kunin, the first and only woman to serve as governor of Vermont and former ambassador to Switzerland, will visit Iowa State on Thursday, April 24, as the Spring 2008 Mary Louise Smith Chair in Women and Politics.

The nation's only three-term woman governor (1985-91), Kunin will discuss her new book, Pearls, Politics, and Power: How Women Can Win and Lead, in a presentation at 7:30 p.m. in the Great Hall, Memorial Union. The event is free and open to the public.

Kunin was lieutenant governor of Vermont (1979-83). She also served as U.S. deputy secretary of education (1993-96) and as ambassador to her native Switzerland (1996-99). She currently is the Marsh Scholar Professor-at-Large at the University of Vermont, where she lectures on history and women's studies. She is board president of the Institute for Sustainable Communities, a nongovernmental organization she founded in 1991.

The Mary Louise Smith Chair in Women and Politics was established in 1995 to honor the Iowa native and longtime political leader. Smith was the only woman to chair the Republican National Party (1974-77).

Madeleine Kunin, ISU's Mary Louise Smith Chair in Women and Politics this spring, will deliver her lecture at 7:30 p.m. April 24 in the Memorial Union Great Hall. Kunin is a former three-term governor and U.S. ambassador.