cc Office of Communications/The Hoya Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright will rejoin the faculty next fall.

Former Secretary of State Madeline K. Albright will return to the School of Foreign Service’s faculty in fall 2001, and will begin teaching at least one class the following year.

Albright, who taught at Georgetown from 1982 through 1993, will become the first Michael and Virginia Mortara Distinguished Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy.

“It’s hard to imagine a more positive development for the school,” Dean of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service Robert L. Gallucci said. “This is an extraordinary appointment.”

Gallucci said it has not been decided whether Albright will teach graduate or undergraduate classes after her initial year, and that next year she will be “intimately involved” in a variety of capacities, including speaking to students and research.

“This has been a gleam in my eye for a number of years,” Gallucci said.

In a statement released Tuesday, Albright said she was excited about returning to Georgetown.

“Georgetown has been an important part of my life because it respects education and public service,” she said. “I am very pleased to become the first Michael and Virginia Mortara Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy and to have the opportunity to teach, and be inspired by, inquiring students.”

Albright was unavailable for comment.

During her previous years at Georgetown, she was voted Best Teacher by students for four consecutive years and was director of the Women in the Foreign Service program in the SFS.

In 1993, Albright left the university to become the American permanent representative to the United Nations, a position she held until 1997, when she was nominated to become the first female secretary of state in U.S. history by President Bill Clinton (SFS ’68). The job also made her the highest-ranking woman in the history of the U.S. federal government.

During her term as secretary of state, Albright was heavily involved in negotiations in Bosnia, Kosovo, Northern Ireland and the Middle East, as well as numerous other international situations. She worked with Clinton to expand NATO to include former Soviet-bloc countries and also as an international advocate for women’s issues including domestic violence and mutilation.

However, during her term Albright incurred criticism over such topics as continuing sanctions against Iraq and what critics called an over-extension of the United States military.

Albright holds degrees from Wellesley University, Johns Hopkins University and Columbia University.

The chair was founded through a $5 million donation from Michael ortara (SFS ’71) and his wife Virginia as a part of the university’s $1 billion Third Century Campaign. Mortara was President and Chief Executive Officer of GS Ventures, a division of Goldman-Sachs. He died in November after suffering a brain aneurysm.

The Third Century Campaign is a multi-year campaign slated to last until May 2003 with a goal of raising $1 billion to augment the university’s endowment and fund several new initiatives.