AMBASSADOR MADELEINE KUNIN, FORMER GOVERNOR OF VERMONT,

TO VISIT OU AS PART OF DREAM COURSE PROGRAM

NORMAN — Madeleine Kunin, former governor of Vermont, U.S. ambassador to Switzerland and deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, will visit the University of Oklahoma as part of the Presidential Dream Course “Gender, Power and Leadership,” taught by Cindy Simon Rosenthal and Hannah Brenner.

Kunin will deliver a free, public lecture titled “The 2006 Election: Reading the Tea Leaves,” in which she will analyze the results of the recent midterm elections and discuss gender in the political context of 2006, during a luncheon at noon Wednesday, Nov. 15, in the Molly Shi Boren Ballroom of Oklahoma Memorial Union, 900 Asp Ave. Reservations are required for the luncheon and seating is limited. 

Born in Switzerland, Kunin served as the U.S. ambassador to that country from 1996 to 1999. Prior to her appointment as ambassador, she was deputy secretary of education in the Clinton administration from 1993 to 1996, establishing an Office of Educational Technology and developing a more efficient student loan system. She also served on the President’s Interagency Council on Women and was a delegate to the U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. 

Kunin was the first woman governor of Vermont and the first woman in U.S. history to serve three terms as governor, from 1985 to 1991. 

Her extensive experience with environmental policy includes service on the President’s Council on Sustainable Development and on the board of the National Environmental Education and Training Foundation. She founded the Institute for Sustainable Communities, an international environmental organization. 

Kunin has received numerous awards and honors for her extensive work on the environment, education and women’s issues. She holds more than 20 honorary degrees and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. As a Jewish immigrant who escaped to the United States due to the threat of the Holocaust, Kunin also has been included in the Jewish Women’s Archive.

Her experiences as a female officeholder, detailed in her book Living a Political Life, will be the subject of her discussion with students in the Gender, Power and Leadership Dream Course at OU. 

Kunin currently is a visiting professor at the University of Vermont, where she teaches a seminar on women, politics and leadership.        

Launched in 2004-05, the university’s Dream Course program provides funding to bring in guest speakers of national and international stature and first-rate scholarship.

For reservations or for more information, call (405) 325-6372.